KEY POINTS:
Victorian golfer Aaron Baddeley won the Australian Masters after beating Sweden's Daniel Chopra at the fourth playoff hole at Huntingdale in Melbourne yesterday.
The pair were tied at 13-under 275 at the end of 72 holes, then each parred the 18th hole three more times in sudden death playoff, before the tournament was settled on the fourth.
Fellow Victorian Stuart Appleby finished in outright third on 11-under.
Michael Long was the best of three New Zealanders who made the second-round cut, finishing in a share of 24th place on 284 after shooting 73 yesterday.
Josh Carmichael posted 72 to be 49th equal on 288, and Mahal Pearce was another two shots back in a tie for 56th after also managing a 72.
The playoff ended when Chopra missed a putt of just under 2m to bogey the deciding hole, after Baddeley had holed a par putt of about three metres.
That came after Baddeley had found trouble when his tee shot went well right of the fairway and he had to hit his second from under a tree, before chipping his third on to the green.
Chopra had a more straightforward route to the green, before three-putting.
It was something of a reversal of roles, as the Swede had been the one to find trouble off the tee, before holding his nerve to recover, on their previous trips down the 18th.
On the first playoff hole, Chopra hooked his tee shot into a grove of trees, but somehow found a gap to find the green with his second shot.
Baddeley, on the other hand, played solid golf and had easy par putts on each of the first three playoff holes, while Chopra had to make clutch putts on each occasion to keep the event alive.
Earlier, Chopra had led the tournament on 14-under with two holes to play, with Appleby in second spot on 13-under and Baddeley on 12-under.
But Appleby, two groups ahead of Chopra, double bogeyed the 18th to blow his chance.
Baddeley made an excellent birdie on the difficult par-four 17th, before Chopra made a bogey on the same hole.
Both players then made par on the last to ensure the tournament went into the playoff, the fifth playoff in six years at the Masters.
Peter O'Malley with a final round 67 finished fourth, one shot behind Appleby and Dave Horsey, Peter Lonard and Rod Pampling were a further shot adrift.
- AAP
