Spain reigns as Jimenez follows Garcia's lead to win at Wentworth

The colourful veteran from Malaga completed a memorable double for Spanish golf with a victory on the second hole of a sudden-death play-off for the BMW PGA Championship against Englishman Oliver Wilson.   

Neither Garcia nor Jimenez had shown much form before their surprising triumphs. But, such are the rewards for winning these two events - Jimenez's prize, for example, was £600,000 - Europe's Ryder Cup team suddenly has a decidedly red and yellow tint. 

Jimenez has spent 24 years on tour but surely never had a day like this. The 44-year-old holed in one from 212 yards on the 5th but missed from 14 inches at the 15th; he had two chances to win on the 18th but made a mess of both, before finally making it third time lucky.

"This is the biggest of my 15 wins on tour," he said. "After all, the only tournament bigger in Europe is The Open." 

A victory for the two-time Ryder Cup man is always a popular one, and no doubt the party went on long into the night thanks to copious amounts of Rioja and trademark fat cigars. 

But it was hard not to have sympathy for Wilson, who now shares an unfortunate record with Australian Nick O'Hern of having the most runner's-up finishes on tour - seven - without a win. The 27-year-old played beautifully for the first two-thirds of his round, and was five under par standing on the 13th tee.  

His troubles began on the par-five 17th when he thrashed a wild drive, had to drop under penalty, and ran up a bogey six.  

The brutal facts thereafter are that he played the two par-fives to finish four times, including the play-off, and never birdied any of them. Still, he did enough in his closing 68 to suggest he won't be sharing that record with O'Hern for long.    

"I'm disappointed, obviously, because you don't get many chances to win an event like this one," he said. 

Oliver Wilson narrowly misses a putt as his hopes of avoiding yet another second place finish on tour go up in smoke

It was the second year running that an Englishman lost a play-off for this title, following Justin Rose's near miss last year. Joint third place went to Luke Donald, who free-wheeled his way into the big prizes with a final round 65, and Robert Karlsson, who did the opposite, collapsing under the weight of leading Europe's flagship event every bit as comprehensively as halfway leader Paul McGinley had done the day before. The latter, incidentally, scraped into the top ten with a last round 72.    

The final round took place against the backdrop of an acrimonious row between BBC commentator Peter Alliss and some of the players led by Nick Dougherty.   

The young Englishman, one of the early starters in Saturday's third round, tuned in to the broadcast to watch the leaders battle difficult conditions, and was incensed at some of Alliss's remarks.  

"I thought it was disgusting," Dougherty said. "He was talking about us being bad putters. I don't know whether it's because he has been out of the game for so long, but I didn't think it was right and he ought to show us more respect. In World Match Play week the greens here are stunning but the seeding at this time of year makes the putts wobble about."  

Alliss didn't take the criticism lying down. "I know the game is hard, I won 21 tournaments and played in eight Ryder Cups," he said. "But the players are so thin-skinned nowadays it is quite extraordinary. If it is not all perfect now, they complain. There is too much sand in the bunkers, there is not enough sand, the greens are not right. They nearly had a walkout on Friday because the ninth green was flooded overnight.  

"I am not here to do anything but to say what is going on, and the fact is there was some poor golf played. Some misdirected shots were played because they couldn't adapt to the breezy conditions, because they all play the same way, hitting it high." 

The row certainly provoked some vintage lines from Alliss yesterday. When Jyoti Randhawa from India hit a second shot 'fat' to the par five 12th, he remarked: "Are we allowed to say that is a mishit - or is that too cruel?"  

At the risk of a deputation of players stampeding to complain, let's take a chance and call Karlsson's errors on the 18th calamitous. The tall Swede, four shots clear overnight, needed to hole from 4ft at the last to make the play-off. He missed, and then missed again. In 30 seconds he had gone from the chance of a cheque for £600,000 to an actual one for £200,000.  

Then there was 25 year old Englishman Robert Dinwiddie, who had one of the most volatile weeks this tournament has seen, scoring 78, 63, 79, 79.

In player-speak: one phenomenal day - and three rounds when he wasn't at his best.