Golf: As a young golfer, they used to kid Padraig Harrington that he would require mountaineering boots for the foothills he'd encounter when playing Stackstown's severely undulating course, but - all jokes aside - it has turned out to be a training ground of some repute.

In fact, it has nurtured Europe's top golfer.

Yesterday, on a day that demanded fortitude and self-belief, Harrington's stubbornly executed play-off win in the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open TPC of Europe at Gut Kaden - ironically enough on a course as flat as a pancake - elevated him to top spot on the Volvo Order of Merit and copper-fastened his ranking as the top European golfer in the world. It seems he has climbed to dizzier heights than anyone could have anticipated.

Harrington, though, had to secure his seventh European Tour win the hard way, just as he had secured his fifth, in a play-off. Ironically, prior to beating Eduardo Romero in sudden-death in the Dunhill Links at St Andrews last October, Harrington's record in head-to-heads was dismal: played three, lost three.

That sad statistic has disappeared, however, and yesterday he showed his mettle in no uncertain fashion to beat Thomas Bjorn at the first tie hole.

"As regards Thomas, we've been nip and tuck for some years. I was probably due one against him," said Harrington, who was pipped for "rookie of the year" for the Henry Cotton trophy by the Dane in 1996.

"I suppose this gets a bit of a monkey off my back, as regards Thomas and me. I maybe wanted it a bit more."

For much of a day that intertwined sunshine with showers and blue skies with grey, the unpredictability of the weather was matched by the antics on the course. Rain before the start of play made the greens highly receptive, and the soft conditions, with just a gentle breeze, led to a feast of birdies. And none more so than the round put together by Bjorn, a player who arrived here with little or no game.

Bjorn, who had taken a six-week break since the Dubai Desert Classic after his wife gave birth to twins, returned to the circuit at the Belfry last week and missed the cut. Yesterday, he started the final round five shots adrift of Harrington, but quickly made inroads into the deficit. He could do no wrong, including holing birdie putts from 25 feet at the seventh, eight feet at the eighth and 20 feet on the ninth to turn in five-under 31. He made it four birdies in succession by holing from three feet on the 10th.

He added further birdies on the 13th, 14th - where he holed from 25 feet - and the 17th to move to 19 under par, and assume the tournament lead. On the 18th he had an eight-footer for birdie. As it turned out, if he had holed that putt he would have won. He didn't, and instead signed for a 63.

While others threatened and faded away, including Niclas Fasth - who started birdie-birdie-eagle-par-birdie-birdie, only to run out of steam - and Retief Goosen - who included two chip-in birdies - Harrington refused to capitulate, even when the three-shot lead he had carried into the final round was reduced to a one stroke deficit by Bjorn.

Harrington's round started with a three-putt bogey - only the second bogey of his tournament - but he steadied the ship with a birdie at the third, and added further birdies on the fifth and sixth.

"I was playing very well and sticking to my guns," claimed Harrington. Indeed, he was so composed throughout that the only adrenalin surge he felt was on the 15th hole, and that had nothing to do with his golf.

"I was actually recalling a story about Royal Portrush to Graeme (McDowell) and I was talking at a hundred miles an hour. When I was finished, I had to tell myself to calm down . . . my heart was racing," recounted Harrington.

In fact, he calmed down sufficiently to secure a crucial birdie there on the par five, which brought him to 19 under and level - although he didn't know it at the time - with Bjorn.

On the 17th, another par five, and a genuine birdie opportunity, Harrington's only poor drive of the day arrived. He pulled it slightly, but the ball finished in heavy rough close to a tree and he had no option other than to lay-up. His approach finished 15 feet from the hole, but he missed the birdie putt.

Going down the 18th, Harrington turned to his caddie, Dave McNeilly, and asked how he stood. "You need a birdie to win," replied McNeilly. Harrington's drive had landed in the middle of the fairway and he had 193 yards to the pin, but he pulled his five-iron approach some 40 feet left of the flag. His first putt was underhit and, to make matters worse, bounced on the fusarium patch and finished 12 feet from the hole.

In such moments a man's true fortitude is discovered, and Harrington wasn't found wanting.

"It was a hell of a gutsy putt," insisted McDowell, "the kind that you can always look back on in your career. He'll feed off that putt for the rest of his life, there is no doubt about it."

By holing the putt, the Dubliner forced a play-off . . . and so Harrington and Bjorn trooped back down the 18th.

Both found the fairway, with Harrington forced into playing his approach shot first. This time, he had 195 yards to the flag and went with a four-iron.

Again, though, he pulled it slightly left, some 30 feet from the pin. Bjorn, however, pushed his approach into a greenside bunker and, after playing out to eight feet, missed the par putt, which left Harrington's two-putt par sufficient to give him his second title of the season.