Damien McGrane admits he has fulfilled a childhood dream after securing his first European Tour title with an impressive nine-stroke victory at the Volvo China Open today.
The 37-year-old Irishman seemed to thrive in the wet and windy conditions at the Beijing CBD International Golf Club as he carded a one-over-par 73 in the final round to ease to an emphatic win.
The leaderboard was littered with bogeys as McGrane's competitors struggled to adapt to the conditions and by the turn he already held a commanding four-shot lead.
"Every player that plays on the European Tour wants to win a tournament and now I have won the world is my oyster," he said.
"It is what I have grown up for since I was a little boy and hopefully I can go on and win more tournaments."
McGrane had a steady run on the front nine, managing to drop just two shots on the second and eighth, while playing partner Oliver Wilson, who had started the day three strokes off the lead, saw his challenge fade with five bogeys in his first six holes.
But the turning point for McGrane was on the par-five ninth when, with his third shot, he hit a seven iron just short of the green.
He then chipped on nicely and the ball rolled towards the hole, struck the pin and went in for a birdie.
That gave McGrane a four-stroke lead at the turn and he never looked back, carding a birdie on the 11th and a bogey on the last.
"It was possibly the defining moment for me," he added. "The ball rolled straight down the green, hit the flag and went into the hole.
"To win golf tournaments you need a defining moment and possibly that was mine.
"It is an amazing feeling to win my first tournament, I have been talking about winning for a long time and this week everything went my way.
"I had good fortune and I loved the course, the bad weather didn't affect my game in any way today.
"Now I have my first win on Tour which is very big for me."
England's Simon Griffiths also adapted well with the conditions to climb the leaderboard and finish in a share of second place with Wilson and Frenchman Michael Lorenzo-Vera.
The Asian Tour regular carded just two bogeys on the front nine and then made two birdies against two bogeys coming home to finish with a two-over-par 74.
"I knew the scores would be high out there," said Griffiths. "I woke up in the morning and saw the grey skies and it was going to be difficult for everyone.
"You just have to try your best and luckily I hit the ball good off the tee and I got half decent scores."
Mark Brown carded a costly triple bogey on the 18th to throw away a potential second place finish and returned to the clubhouse tied for third.
The New Zealander had been steady throughout his round, dropping just two shots but that all went to waste on the last hole as he finished alongside last year's champion Markus Brier and Graeme McDowell.
David Howell was unable to follow up his impressive second-place finish at the Portuguese Open two weeks ago as he carded a seven-over-par 79 to finished tied for 28th overall.
Colalted final round scores & totals in the European Tour Volvo China Open, Beijing CBD International GC, Beijing, China
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):
278 Damien McGrane 68 69 68 73
287 Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 67 69 72 79, Oliver Wilson 72 66 70 79, Simon Griffiths 68 72 73 74
288 Graeme McDowell 73 72 68 75, Markus Brier (Aut) 71 69 72 76, Mark Brown (Nzl) 71 71 69 77
289 Seung-yul Noh (Kor) 71 71 74 73, Peter Whiteford 73 72 71 73, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 73 68 73 75, Jason Knutzon (USA) 68 72 72 77
290 Richard Finch 68 69 76 77, John Bickerton 70 76 72 72
291 Joost Luiten (Ned) 68 73 74 76, Scott Strange (Aus) 73 71 66 81, David Bransdon (Aus) 73 72 68 78, Wen Teh Lu (Tpe) 73 71 71 76
292 Christian Cevaer (Fra) 73 74 72 73, Adam Groom (Aus) 73 70 72 77
293 Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 73 74 69 77, Paul Lawrie 71 75 72 75, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 74 72 72 75, Miles Tunnicliff 70 74 74 75
294 Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 75 71 70 78, Marcus Both (Aus) 73 73 73 75, Simon Yates 72 72 75 75, Stuart Manley 72 74 74 74
295 Zane Scotland (Gbr) 68 72 74 81, Gaurav Ghei (Ind) 76 69 75 75, David Howell 72 73 71 79, Li Chao (Chn) 68 74 76 77, Phillip Price 74 71 74 76, Ross Bain 73 73 76 73, Rhys Davies 71 74 71 79, Scott Barr (Aus) 73 74 74 74, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 71 71 70 83, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 72 72 72 79, Sam Little 74 73 71 77
296 Antonio Lascuna (Phi) 72 71 72 81, Sam Walker 71 71 73 81, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 72 74 72 78
297 Wei Chih Lu (Tha) 75 73 72 77, Airil Rizman (Mal) 69 72 72 84
298 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 75 72 73 78, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 69 75 73 81, Marcel Siem (Ger) 76 71 73 78, David Frost (Rsa) 76 72 74 76, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 71 76 73 78
299 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 70 71 75 83, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 72 74 72 81, Todd Vernon (Swi) 71 72 74 82, Mardan Mamat (Sin) 72 74 74 79
300 Gavin Flint (Aus) 73 74 76 77, Barry Lane 78 70 71 81, Paul Broadhurst 76 72 73 79
301 Ross Fisher 74 72 74 81, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 75 72 76 78, Keng-chi Lin (Tai) 75 73 77 76
302 Sung Lee (Kor) 73 75 73 81, Simon Wakefield 72 71 78 81
303 Prom Meesawat (Tha) 71 76 74 82, Kangchun Wu (Chn) 70 73 80 80
304 Frankie Minoza (Phi) 73 72 77 82, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 74 73 76 81
309 Rafael Echenique (Arg) 69 76 82 82, Mu Hu (Chn) 74 74 77 84, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 75 71 79 84
311 Wei-Huang Wu (Tpe) 73 75 77 86
312 Julio Zapata (Arg) 70 78 80 84
