Delighted Garcia able to hold his nerve and lift Qatar Masters title

Garcia defeated Finland’s Mikko Ilonen on the third hole of a sudden-death play-off to make up for missing out 12 months ago, when England’s Chris Wood made an eagle on the 72nd hole to beat Garcia and George Coetzee by a shot.

A closing 65 saw Garcia set the clubhouse target of 16 under, but the 33-year-old crucially missed from eight feet for a birdie on the last and then looked on as Ilonen birdied the 16th and 18th to complete a 66 and force extra holes.

The players returned to the 18th for the play-off and both found the green on the par five in two, Ilonen missing his eagle attempt from 25ft before Garcia did likewise from half the distance.

A second visit to the 18th failed to identify a winner, Ilonen missing an eagle attempt from 25ft after Garcia had got up and down from a greenside bunker.

However, the third extra hole proved decisive as Ilonen found the same bunker and was unable to rescue a birdie, leaving Garcia a tap-in to secure an 11th European Tour title after his long eagle putt had narrowly missed.

Thorbjorn Olesen had a great chance to join the play-off, but missed from 12ft for an eagle on the 18th, the Dane sharing third place with joint overnight leader Rafael Cabrera-Bello.

Cabrera-Bello also needed an eagle on the 72nd hole to catch Garcia and Ilonen, but saw his chip from over the green pull up three feet short of the hole.

“It feels good,” said Garcia, who will move from 11th to inside the world’s top 10 when the rankings are updated today.

“It’s funny because I started the day thinking ‘if I can shoot six or seven under maybe I can have a chance’, and it turns out I had a very similar putt that I had last year to get it to 17 under on 18; I hit a good putt and unfortunately it didn’t break. The up and down from the bunker in the play-off was key and I’m very happy to be able to win it.”

Garcia had not finished outside the top 25 on his previous seven visits to Qatar and added: “I have always said it’s a golf course I enjoy and I’m very pleased to finally be able to get my hands on the trophy. We’ve been coming here for eight years and have been quite close to winning.”

Yorkshire’s Simon Dyson finished the event strongly, continuing his consistent form throughout the four days with a final round of 70 to leave him six shots off the lead.

Sheffield’s Danny Willett carded 70 on Saturday to finish five shots back from Dyson.