Golf/British OpenSo, a golf links is a playground, a place for fun? Yesterday, in the 133rd British Open, it was more like a torture chamber as nerve ends were jangled and minds tormented until, at the very death, deliverance was granted to Todd Hamilton, a 38-year-old American who defiantly fended off the world's number two, Ernie Els, in a four-hole play-off amid the sand hills of Troon.

If ever a new major champion has served his time, it is Hamilton. When he didn't have a card to play on the US Tour, he packed his passport and his clubs and headed off firstly to Canada, then to the Far East to play the Asian Tour and, after that, cut his teeth on the more lucrative Japan Tour.

Yet, his desire was always to play on the US Tour and, finally, last year, at the eighth time of asking, he came through the tour school. He hasn't looked back. "Not to be conceited or anything, but I see this as a real fairytale," he said.

Yesterday, as a testing wind blew across the links, Hamilton, ranked as the world number 56 before the championship, finally found his destiny. But he had to do it the hard way. On a day when many of the game's heavyweights lurked behind, Hamilton - who had started the day with a one-stroke lead over his playing partner, Els - shot a final-round 69 for a 10-under-par total of 274, a score equalled by Els, who shot a 68.

Those bare statistics don't tell the full story of an absorbing championship, one to compare with the majesty and thrills of the season's previous two majors, the US Masters and US Open. The winners of those events entered the final day here well in the hunt, but failed to stalk their prey.

Phil Mickelson, the winner at Augusta and runner-up to Retief Goosen at Shinnecock Hills, eventually finished third, a shot outside a play-off place. Incredibly, Mickelson had only one bogey in the final 54 holes - at the 13th yesterday, where he missed the green and chipped to five feet before missing the par putt - but it was to prove very costly. Goosen, though, never threatened and finished tied-seventh, six shots behind.

For much of the final afternoon, it was a three-way battle. But then Mickelson suffered his bogey and failed to gatecrash his way back into the fray. Instead, it became a duel between Hamilton and Els that was to extend past the regulation 72 holes.

The story of the back nine, as the players negotiated a difficult cross- wind that came in off their left shoulders, is one of true drama. On the 10th, Els stumbled to a double bogey after his tee-shot finished in rough on a bank. He was forced to play the ball waist-high, but could only hack it some 40 yards into yet more rough.

Then, at the next, his drive finished in a bush, the ball perched precariously on leaves some two feet above the ground. Instead of taking relief under penalty, Els played a high-risk recovery shot which moved the ball 20 yards. Then, he hit an approach to 12 feet and sank the par putt.

On the 13th, he holed a raking putt to rejuvenate his ambitions, moving to within a shot of Hamilton.

But not all the inspiration was his. Hamilton chipped in for a birdie on the 14th - to go two clear of Els and Mickelson - and, then, in a tit-for-tat move, also birdied the 16th along with Els. Now, Hamilton was 11 under, Els nine under.

But when the South African rolled in a 12-footer for birdie on the 17th, it meant they marched to the 457-yard par-four finishing hole with just a shot separating them.

Here, the drama continued. Hamilton, creaking for the first time, pushed his tee-shot into rough on the right, then pulled his approach into thick rough on the left. Meanwhile, Els, from the middle of the fairway, played his approach to 10 feet. When Hamilton failed to get up and down, it meant Els had that tricky right-to-left birdie putt for the title.

He missed.

And so it was that Hamilton and Els were forced into a surreal sudden-death shoot-out over four holes, the US tour rookie - albeit one who had shown his mettle to win the Honda Classic earlier in the season - and the world's number two. In the end, it mostly came down to their playing of the 222-yard 17th, where Els missed the green left and failed to get up and down for his par.

That bogey was to prove the difference in the end, although Hamilton - again - had to show his steel under pressure on the 18th, the fourth play-off hole.

There, he used a five-iron for an approach of 223 yards from the crosswalk on the fairway. The shot came up 15 yards short of the green. It was then he got unconventional and used a hybrid club - similar to a one-iron - and putted up the slope to within two feet of the hole. When Els missed his 12-footer for birdie, finishing one over par for the four play-off holes, all that was required was for Hamilton to roll in his putt and become the seventh first-time winner of a major in the last eight.

For Els, who missed out narrowly to Mickelson at Augusta, the putt on the 72nd hole will haunt him for a while. "I've to give a lot of credit to Todd, he hung in there and played really awesome golf . . . I just came up short."

For Hamilton, it was confirmation of what he always believed, that he was good enough to be a major champion. He's from the town of Oquawka - population 1,500, in Illinois - which previously had been more famous for the fact that a circus had come to town and the elephant, by the name of Norma Jean, was struck by lightning, died and was buried in the town square.

"I hope I'm more famous than the elephant now," he quipped. He is.

274 (10 under)

Ernie Els (Rsa) 69 69 68 68

Todd Hamilton (US) 71 67 67 69

Hamilton won four-hole play-off

275 (9 under)

Phil Mickelson (US) 73 66 68 68

278 (6 under)

Lee Westwood 72 71 68 67

279 (5 under)

Davis Love (US) 72 69 71 67

Thomas Levet (Fra) 66 70 71 72