Sabbatini Wins 3-Man Playoff At Colonial

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) _ Rory Sabbatini has a new plaid jacket to help him forget about all his recent near-misses. <br/><br/>Sabbatini won the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial on Sunday, beating

Sunday, May 27th 2007, 2:53 pm

By: News On 6

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) _ Rory Sabbatini has a new plaid jacket to help him forget about all his recent near-misses.

Sabbatini won the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial on Sunday, beating Jim Furyk and Bernhard Langer with a 15-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a playoff.

It is the fourth career PGA Tour victory for Sabbatini, the South African who won the Nissan Open last year and earlier this season had consecutive top-three finishes at the Masters, the EDS Byron Nelson Championship and Wachovia.

After beginning the final round tied at 11 under, Sabbatini, Furyk and the 49-year-old Langer closed with matching 3-under 67s to finish at 14 under.

All three hit their playoff drives into the fairway on the 433-yard 18th. Their approach shots all landed safely on the green.

Furyk, No. 3 in the world ranking and the only one of the top 12 players at Colonial, missed his 34-foot putt. Sabbatini then made his putt before Langer, with the shortest putt and a chance to force another hole, missed an 8-footer to the right.

It was the first three-man playoff ever at the Colonial, which hadn't needed extra holes since 1994 before Tim Herron won a two-hole playoff last year with Richard S. Johnson.

Tiger Woods had won the last three-man playoff on the PGA Tour, beating Nathan Green and Jose Maria Olazabal at the Buick Invitational in January 2006.

Sabbatini finished the rain-delayed third round early Sunday with a 62, missing the tournament record by a stroke when his 8-foot birdie attempt scooted just left on No. 9, the last hole he played in the third round.

Pat Perez (66) finished fourth at 12-under 268, and Nathan Green (66) and Tom Lehman (68) were another stroke back.

Scott Verplank also was tied for the lead going into the final round in his attempt to become the only player other than Ben Hogan to win Colonial and the Byron Nelson Championship in the same year. He closed with a 71 to tie for seventh.