HAMPSHIRE'S Justin Rose can put the five shots he finished behind Open winner Padraig Harrington down to his first round 75.

In-form Rose shot rounds of 70 and 67, followed by yesterday's 70 on the Open's final three days.

It left him in joint 12th place with a cheque for 86,421 euros, while Harrington took the title after a dramatic final day in a four-hole play-off against Sergio Garcia.

Aussie Richard Green carded a last day 64 but it was only good enough for joint fourth place with Ernie Els, two shots behind the top two and one behind Argentinian Andres Romero.

Carnoustie served up yet another amazing, unpredictable Open Championship climax - and at the end of it Padraig Harrington had become Europe's first winner of a major since Paul Lawrie on the same course in 1999.

The 35-year-old Dubliner, first Republic of Ireland golfer ever to hold the Claret Jug and only the second Irishman, beat Ryder Cup team-mate Sergio Garcia by one shot in a four-hole play-off.

Harrington said: ''If I had lost I don't know what I would think about playing again.

''I'm sure there is a helluva party going on in Ireland. It's hard to take in. I've come a long way - I would have settled for being a journeyman pro.

''It's great to be named as someone who could win, but that brings its own pressure and yes I've had doubts about whether I would ever do it.'' Harrington and Garcia had had 20 top 10 finishes in majors between them without a win, so the joy for Harrington when it was over was inevitably mixed with incredible relief.

For Garcia, meanwhile, the waiting goes on.

Yet just over an hour earlier Harrington had looked crushed when, one ahead with one to play, he twice went in the Barry Burn for a double bogey six on the 18th - the hole, of course, Jean Van de Velde had triple-bogeyed eight years ago when three clear.

Harrington, cheered up by his son Patrick running onto the green, was in mighty danger at that point of registering the 31st runners-up finish of his career.

But hope remained. Garcia had still to play the 18th himself.

The 27-year-old Spaniard, dead last on his last visit to Carnoustie in 1999 after nightmare rounds of 89 and 83, needed a four to make perfect amends. But there are few holes in the world he would less like to have been faced with.

Garcia, leader all week until a sloppy run of holes on the front nine, avoided the burn safely enough, but pulled his second into a greenside bunker, splashed out to eight feet and lipped out.

They tied on the seven under par total of 277, Harrington having come from six back with a 67 and Garcia, three clear of the field at the start of the day, managing only a 73.

Reprieved, Harrington immediately went two strokes ahead in the play-off, holing an eight-foot birdie putt on the first hole after his opponent had failed to get up and down from sand again.

Incredibly, Garcia then hit the flagstick on the 248-yard 16th, their second, but they both came off with par threes.

Crossing to the 461-yard 17th, where third-placed Argentinian Andres Romero had earlier double-bogeyed when two clear, they both parred again, although Harrington missed a six-foot chance to increase his lead to three.

Back it was then to the dreaded 18th, where first time round in the day Harrington's driver took one bounce onto a bridge crossing the burn, two more bounces on it, hit the far wall and fell into the water.

He chose another of his woods on his return and he then decided to lay up short of the burn with his second.

Garcia was on in two, 25 feet from the flag, and there was a chance for him again when Harrington pulled his third 10 feet further away.

The Irishman's par putt ran almost four feet past and Garcia, for the second time on the green, was inches away from making his. But Harrington holed and, with a massive sigh of relief after all that had happened, the title was his.

Earlier in the day Garcia, three clear after 54 holes, had been four ahead, but he was in tatters at the end of the outward half and had to dig deep into his reserves just to keep in contention.

Having fought back to level with four to play a bogey on the 15th looked certain to cost him dear, but there were more twists to come.

Romero had 10 birdies in his closing 67, but he will remember the week for the double bogey, bogey finish that left him one shot out of the play-off.

Tiger Woods' bid for a hat-trick of Open titles ended with him 12th, level with Rose.

With heavy morning rain giving way to better weather after lunch there were inevitable surges through the field.

The best early move came from left-hander Green, who climbed into a tie for third when he turned in 32 and then followed a birdie on the short 13th with a 60-foot putt for eagle at the next.

When an 18-footer on the 17th - after a lucky kick off a bank - also went in Green, called into the field at 10 days' notice when American Woody Austin withdrew, needed a par on the last to become the 21st player to to score 63 in a major.

But after driving into rough he could not save his four and so set the clubhouse target of five under with a 64, which matched Steve Stricker's lowest-ever round in an Open at Carnoustie and equalled the course record previously held only by Colin Montgomerie and Alan Tait.

With Garcia nine under at the time Green's title hopes looked slim, but then the collapse that the chasing pack were silently praying for began.

Things started well enough Garcia when he pitched to within five feet and birdied the third and Stricker, having played an even better approach, missed from under three.

The gap was four, but five holes later it was none. A leaked drive onto the edge of a bunker on the fifth was followed by a poor chip from over the seventh green and then another bogey at the short eighth when he went right off the tee and left his chip nine feet short.

Stricker could not take advantage, turning in 37 to Garcia's 38, but Romero was out in 33 and when he started for home with back-to-back birdies he was suddenly joint leader.

Attention then turned to Harrington, who with a birdie on the ninth and then a brilliant pitch to two feet at the 11th brought him alongside Garcia.

Romero came straight back with two more birdies to make it a three-way tie, a situation that was kept the same when Harrington's 18-footer on the 12th looked for all the world as if it would curl in, but lipped out.

Romero became the one to lead on his own when an 18-footer found the target on the 15th and two clear with a 20-foot putt for his 10th birdie of the day at the next.

But on the 461-yard 17th Romero went into rough on the right off the tee and smothered his second. The ball hit the wall of the Barry Burn in front of him and shot more than 50 yards right - out of bounds.

The inexperienced 26-year-old ranked 114th in the world did wonderfully well to make the green after dropping another ball down in the rough, but a double bogey six was the result.

Harrington produced the biggest roar of the week when he holed a 15-footer for eagle on the 14th and leapt into the outright lead.

Garcia had come through his sticky patch to hole from nine feet at the 13th and then, his belly putter coming good again, two-putted the next from 80 feet.

He and Harrington were now level at nine under and once Romero had bogeyed the last to it was between the two of them.

And it was the Irishman who celebrated while Garcia was left to ponder what might have been.

Don't miss James Rose's golf spotlight, every Tuesday in the Daily Echo.