AN erratic finish from Bassaleg's Ryder Cup hero Phillip Price left him down the leaderboard at the Qatar Masters in Doha.

The Welshman finished a respectable one under but paid the price for a disappointing three over par last round of 75.

Price had pulled himself up the leaderboard with a spectacular four under third round but, in the end, was left 12 shots behind South African winner Darren Fichardt who was persuaded by his wife to compete and ended up banking the £156,054 winners' cheque.

Fichardt beat fellow South African James Kingston at the first hole of a sudden death play-off after they had tied on the 13 under par mark of 275, two ahead of Irish Ryder Cup hero Paul McGinley.

The 27-year-old from Pretoria was thinking of joining the 50 players who pulled out as war with Iraq looms, but wife Natasha, a trained psychologist who acts as his mental coach, told him: "Don't be lazy and don't be a wimp."

After a gruelling 30-hole final day - Thursday's play was hit by a sandstorm - Fichardt said: "We didn't know quite what was going on here and were quite iffy about it but I'm really happy we came now."

Kingston was favourite entering the closing stretch, but failed to pick up a shot at either the driveable 306-yard 16th or downwind par five last after Fichardt, playing three groups ahead of him, had set the target with birdies at both.

When they returned to the same hole, Kingston found sand with his second and could only par again whereas Fichardt birdied it for the second time in the space of an hour, just carrying the water and two-putting from 45 feet.

It was Fichardt's second European tour win although both have been far from Europe. The first was in Brazil two years ago.

His most worrying moment came as he approached the 14th green and suddenly saw three names at 11 under rather than the two he expected.

"But as I got closer, I realised that the third name was mine as well except for the first letter. I was up there twice."

Luton's Phil Golding will not forget the day in a hurry, although he will wish he could. Golding, the man who has made a record 16 trips to the tour qualifying school, was lying joint sixth when he was penalised four strokes for having an extra club in his bag on resuming his third round at 6.30am.

It was the same blunder that Ian Woosnam discovered when leading The Open two years ago, but the difference this time was that Golding knew he had the 15th club.

The 40-year-old had thought of changing a two-iron to a four-iron overnight, but although he decided against it he had the club in his bag upside down and that was not within the rules.

As he had played the ninth and 10th holes, he was penalised two strokes at each and eventually finished joint 14th.