Nathan Green, left, of Newcastle, Australia, chats with Peter Tomasulo of Long Beach, Calif., during play at the Canadian Open on Monday. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

Some might say the Canadian Open is becoming the home of first victories for professional golfers.

Nathan Green of Australia became the second consecutive golfer to post his first PGA win at the national golf championship, defeating South African Retief Goosen on the second playoff hole in the first Monday finish at the tournament since 1988.

"It's a huge surprise to finally win," said Green, who entered the week 27 worldwide victories and 269 places in the world rankings behind his opponent.

Green's triumph at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ont., came a year to the day of Chez Reavie's three-shot decision at the Canadian Open.

A par at the par-4 17th in the playoff gave Green the victory at golf's third-oldest national championship after Goosen missed the green long and couldn't get up-and-down.

A former member of the Canadian Tour, Green spent the week talking about how much he loves playing golf in this country.

"I was getting frustrated the last three or four weeks because I felt like I played well and the putting wasn't quite there," Green, who finished at 18-under-par 270 in regulation, told the Golf Channel. "It's a huge surprise to finally win. I'm over the moon.

"This is where I started my pro career, and I always love coming up here. It's great people and a great course. It's a shame about the weather they've had this week, but we managed to get it done."

Rain battered the Glen Abbey course for four days before giving way to sunshine Monday morning, when Green returned to finish up a third-round 69 before playing bogey-free over his final 20 holes in the afternoon.

Anthony Kim (73) and Jason Dufner (73) finished four shots out of the playoff while Lee Janzen (67), Brandt Snedeker (68) and Jerry Kelly (71) were another stroke back.

Calgary's Stephen Ames and Chris Baryla of Vernon, B.C., were the top Canadians at eight-under. Ames tried to mount a charge early on Friday after he birdied the first four holes of his final round.

Green got some validation of his own after spending three full seasons on the PGA Tour without registering a victory.

The 34-year-old moved to the top of the leaderboard as Goosen and Anthony Kim — two of the top-ranked players in the field — each made mistakes on the final nine but failed to birdie the easy par-5 18th at Glen Abbey to win in regulation.

While Green didn't end up making a bogey over his final 21 holes, he did fail to birdie the easy par-5 18th twice within an hour first, failing to wrap up the tournament in regulation before "dodging a bullet" on the first playoff hole when Goosen missed a six-footer for birdie that would have beaten him.

Fortune seemed to be on his side.

"This is pretty much the last thing I was expecting to do," said Green. "I came here this week hitting it not too bad; my Achilles heel has always been my driving, and I drove the ball pretty well all week, and probably the last nine holes today I started to get a bit tired.

"That's where the trouble started."

Goosen wasn't too upset with the loss.

He's been enjoying something of a renaissance since turning 40 earlier this year, registering a win at the PGA Tour's Transitions Championship in March. He's now on a run of four straight top-10 finishes worldwide.

"I've been leading or within one or two shots of the lead in the last four events and haven't been able to pull it off," said Goosen. "I need to just pray a little bit harder on Sundays — or Monday."

With files from The Canadian Press