Off the tee: Playoff tension adds to drama

It seems to be playoff season in the United States. Both the men's and women's tour events at the weekend were decided by a string of extra holes.

Stewart Cink sank a birdie on the fifth extra hole to beat Ted Purdy and win the MCI Heritage title.

Cristie Kerr and Seol An Jeon halved six holes in par at Las Vegas before Kerr won with a par on the seventh extra hole.

One of the most famous playoffs in New Zealand golf history also went to seven holes.

Irishman Ronan Rafferty and American Larry Nelson were level after 72 holes of the NZ Open at Wellington in 1987. They were keen to catch flights out of the country and talked of sharing the title.

But the rules specified a playoff and it took seven holes before the Irishman won and they were free to head for the airport.

Only the Masters of the modern Majors is still decided by a sudden-death playoff. Last year a bogey was good enough for Mike Weir to beat Len Mattiace at the first extra hole.

Englishman Nick Faldo is the master of the Masters playoff.

In 1989 he beat Scott Hoch at the second extra hole and he repeated the exercise in the following year against Raymond Floyd.

At Taupo this week, New Zealand Golf's operations manager Phil Aickin recalled vividly the longest playoff in the New Zealand amateur championship at Timaru in 1981.

He was three up with five to play against Terry Cochrane, who played in Taupo this week.

Aickin could recall every painful hole as he surrendered his lead and then lost the playoff with a double-bogey on the seventh extra hole.

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Gulf Harbour on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula is apparently in the frame to stage the NZ Open next year.

The course was the first choice of NZ Golf last year but negotiations broke down during a change of ownership and The Grange stepped into the breach.

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It's only April but New Zealand pair Grant Waite and Craig Perks look like having another long, hard slog to retain their US PGA Tour cards.

The top 125 players get a card for next year. Waite is sitting in 131st spot on the money list, with US$131,670 ($210,000) from eight events. Perks is 170th, with US$54,750 from nine events.

The man on the cusp this week is American Jim Furyk, last year's US Open winner, who is 125th, albeit from only two events, and has US$140,000.

American Phil Mickelson heads the list with US$3.48 million from Fiji's Vijay Singh (US$2.44 million) and Australian Stuart Appleby (US$2 million).

Chap called Woods? Seventh with winnings of US$1.9 million.