Simon Dyson received another pay-out after a respectable showing in the British Masters at Woburn.

The Malton and Norton professional finished well down the field but picked up around £4,500 for his efforts.

After making the cut, 23-year-old Dyson carded a 71 and 74 in the final two rounds over the weekend to finish with a one over par total of 289.

Frenchman Thomas Levet won the title after a four-man, three-hole play-off last night to boost his hopes of earning a Ryder Cup place.

Levet tied with Mathias Gronberg by holing a seven-foot par putt on the final green and after Robert Karlsson and Swindon's David Howell had joined them on the 14-under-par total of 274 back they all went to the 18th tee.

Levet missed a five-foot birdie to win on the first extra hole, but with Howell and Karlsson falling out with bogey fives it became a duel and an eight-foot birdie putt two holes later decided the £208,330 first prize.

That is more than four times the previous biggest cheque of Levet's career and it moved him up from 63rd to 13th in the Ryder Cup race.

When Henrik Stenson won the Benson & Hedges International Open three weeks ago the Swedish rookie leapt from 129th to 16th and Andrew Oldcorn's victory in the Volvo PGA championship last Monday swept the Scot from 98th to seventh.

A more careful analysis of Levet's season made his the most remarkable win of all three, however.

Prior to Woburn he was the 166th most accurate driver on the circuit, the 115th longest driver, the 151st best putter and the 165th best bunker player.

In the overall rankings on the performance statistics Levet stood 175th out of 185. Yet he took his chance and turned his 125/1 odds at the start of the week into one of the best bets on the market.

"Unreal, unbelievable," he said. "I've never won outside France before, but my plan was to go to the United States at the end of the year and now I'm exempt in Europe for two years I can probably double up and play both Tours."

There was one extra ingredient to his victory which he will always remember. After signing his card after a closing 69 he found what looked like a coin on the ground, picked it up and saw it was a ball-marker with the words "bringing you the luck of the Irish" on it.

"I saw it as a sign and put it in my pocket," he said. And there it stayed as he went on to win the play-off.

Updated: 12:34 Monday, June 04, 2001