Garcia Sharp in Playoff Victory

Sergio Garcia made a good argument Sunday that he’s the best player never to win a major championship, a backhanded compliment that he might not have to worry about for long.

The 24-year-old Spanish star warmed up for the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills with a playoff victory in the Buick Classic, his second extra-hole win in five weeks.

“I’m really looking forward to next week,” Garcia said. “I just hope to ride that momentum to next week and hopefully get it going there and give myself a chance on the back nine on Sunday. That’s all you can ask for.

“I’ve just got to keep doing the things I’ve been doing and hopefully I will win one soon. I think it’s just a matter of time.”

Garcia won the fifth playoff in the last seven years on the Westchester Country Club course at Harrison, N.Y., beating Rory Sabbatini with a seven-foot birdie putt on the third hole. Padraig Harrington was eliminated on the second extra hole.

Garcia, who beat Dudley Hart and Robert Damron last month on the first playoff hole in the Byron Nelson Championship, earned $945,000 for his fifth PGA Tour victory and second in four years on the Westchester course. He improved to 3-1 in playoffs.

He set up his winning putt on the par-five 18th with a 90-yard wedge shot, after Sabbatini’s 70-yard third shot failed to reach the upper level of the green and rolled 21 feet below the hole.

Sabbatini’s birdie putt finished three feet from the hole.

All three players birdied the 18th in regulation to finish at 12-under 272.

Garcia was the first to finish, making a 4 1/2-footer for his second consecutive 67. Harrington, playing in the second-to-last group, holed a 16-foot chip for his fourth 68, and Sabbatini, in the final threesome, followed with a seven-foot putt for his second consecutive 70.

Those watching the tournament on television got only a few glimpses of the final two holes of the playoff. ABC ended its coverage to show “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”

Garcia, Sabbatini and Harrington were on the tee of the second playoff hole when the network cut away at 7 p.m. EDT.

ABC’s sister network, ESPN, showed only a few shots on its “Baseball Tonight” program.

“Their agreement with the tour does give them the right to leave the telecast at 7 p.m. Eastern,” said Bob Combs, the PGA Tour’s senior vice president of public relations and communications. “We’re disappointed with the amount of coverage once they switched over. We expected them to show more shots.... The balance wasn’t what we expected.”

Fred Couples (68), Vijay Singh (70) and Tom Byrum (71) tied for fourth, two strokes back. Luke Donald (72) was another stroke back, and Fredrik Jacobson (69) followed at eight under. Kenny Perry had the best round of the day, a 66, to top a five-player group at seven under.

Harrington scored well despite weeklong swing problems.

“I haven’t got the ball under any control,” he said. “It was one of those weeks you knuckle down.... The last thing you want to do before a U.S. Open is try to find a golf swing, and I seem to have lost mine.”

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Allen Doyle was declared the winner of the rain-shortened Bayer Advantage Celebrity Pro-Am after thunderstorms swept through the Kansas City, Mo., area the night before, making the course unplayable.

Doyle shot a six-under 66 on Saturday to reach 13-under 131, beating Jerry Pate by one stroke.

“I’m not the first guy to win a rain-shortened event, and I won’t be the last,” Doyle said. “Although I would have liked to have played the final round, no one controls the weather.”

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Michelle Wie helped the United States win its fourth consecutive Curtis Cup with a 10-8 victory over Britain-Ireland at Formby, England. The Americans have won the biennial amateur competition 24 of the 33 times it has been played.

The 14-year-old Wie defeated Nicola Timmins, 6 and 5, to give the United States a 7-6 lead. Wie, the youngest player in Curtis Cup history, is part of a U.S. team that doesn’t have a player over 22.

“I played lights out,” Wie said. “I hit the fairways, didn’t miss the greens much. I played really well.”