Perry downs Langer in AT&T playoff

San Antonio, TX (SportsNetwork.com) - Kenny Perry rolled in a 9-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole Sunday to defeat Bernhard Langer and win the AT&T Championship.

Perry and Langer both closed with 5-under 67s after being among five co- leaders entering the final round. They ended at 13-under-par 203

The pair returned to the 18th hole and both found the fairway off the tee. Langer missed the green right with his approach and chipped to about eight feet.

Perry dropped his second shot nine feet from the hole, on nearly the same line as his par putt on the 18th green in regulation. The two-time major winner this year poured in the birdie effort to beat Langer and earn his third title of the season.

"It was deja vu. I had almost the identical putt I had in regulation. They were on identical lines, I knew they were both right edge putts and all I had to do was put the right speed on it," Perry said of his two putts on 18 in regulation, then in the playoff.

"You know, my hands weren't nervous. I wasn't nervous. I was just very fortunate to beat Bernhard. I always see him working hard, and that makes me work harder."

Colin Montgomerie, who along with Anders Forsbrand and Mike Goodes shared the second-round lead with Perry and Langer, birdied five of the first six holes. However, the Scotsman mixed four bogeys and two birdies over the final nine holes for a 3-under 69. That left him tied for third with Kirk Triplett (68) and Fred Funk (67) at minus-11.

Forsbrand managed a 1-under 71 to slip into a share of sixth at 9-under 207. He was joined there by Russ Cochran (69) and John Riegger (67).

Goodes struggled to a 3-over 75 on the AT&T Canyons Course at TPC San Antonio and finished in a tie for 18th a minus-5.

Early on, Scott Dunlap birdied the second to become the sixth co-leader. Montgomerie broke through that log jam with birdies on the first four holes, a run which he capped with an 8-footer on No. 4.

That spurt gave Montgomerie the lead at 12-under, where he was two clear of Langer, who birdied the second and fourth. The duo matched birdies on the sixth as well.

Perry, who was in the penultimate group, traded a birdie for a bogey from the third. He then birdied the fifth and seventh to get within three of Montgomerie at minus-10.

Langer and Perry exchanged spots on the leaderboard as the German bogeyed the ninth after the American birdied the same hole. Montgomerie's lead dipped to one over Perry as he bogeyed the 10th after his drive landed in a fairway bunker.

Perry knocked in a short birdie effort at the 11th to join Montgomerie at 12- under. Perry made it two in a row as he poured in a 20-footer on the 13th to grab the lead at 13-under.

Langer matched those two birdies as he climbed to 12-under and within one of the lead, while Montgomerie tumbled to 10-under with bogeys at 13 and 14.

Perry closed with six straight pars, including a 20-foot par-saving putt at the last to get in at minus-13.

"I knew had to make it. It's a 20-footer, it is a right edge putt and it has got to be the right speed," Perry said on TV before the playoff of his par putt at 18. "If I lay it on the right edge and hit it too hard, it's not going to break. That was probably the biggest putt I made on the last hole to win anything."

Langer carded four straight pars from the 13th to remain one behind, but Montgomerie was making a charge. He dropped in back-to-back birdies at 16 and 17 to get within one of the leaders.

Langer also birdied the short par-4 17th to join Perry in the lead. Langer parred the last to force the extra session, while Montgomerie tripped to a bogey to end two back.

NOTES: Perry earned $285,000 for the win ... Montgomerie has now gone 147 starts on the PGA and Champions Tours without winning in the United States ... For the fourth straight year, there was no change to the top 30 on the Charles Schwab Cup Points list after the completion of this event ... Next week is the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship, where Tom Lehman cruised to a 6-stroke win over Jay Haas last year.