European golf has a brand new star - smiling Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal, who completed a dream victory at the French Open in Paris.
Even with former number ones Colin Montgomerie and Lee Westwood chasing him, the 25-year-old who five years ago was caddying for his brother in the event stormed to a four-shot win.
Larrazabal, who came through 36 holes of qualifying to make it to Le Golf National, entered the tournament 481st in the world and even described himself as "the 150th best player here".
But, leader from the moment he opened with a 65, he clinched the massive Ј527,800 first prize with a dramatic and inspired closing 67.
As a result the European Tour rookie will play his first major at next month's Open Championship, has secured a place on the circuit for the next two years and is even in the top 20 of the Ryder Cup race.
Until his win he was not even in the top 100.
Larrazabal, rated a 200-1 shot before the start, finished on 15 under par with Montgomerie, in easily his best display of the year, runner-up and Westwood, third in the US Open two weeks ago, dropping to joint fifth after going in the lake on the last.
The young Barcelona golfer joined Westwood's ball when he was thrown in by some of his compatriots - then threw his shoes in as the celebrations continued.
"I don't know how it feels - it's fantastic," he said. "I really played great golf and my putter was great all week."
It was only the 17th Tour event Larrazabal had played in his life, although his past experiences do include The Masters at Augusta - again as a caddie for his brother Alejandro, British amateur champion in 2002.
Until this achievement he was only the fourth best-known golfer in his family as both parents were internationals.
Father Gustavo made him work on a fish farm before turning professional to get an idea of what hard work is and learn the value of money. He should never have to go back to it.
His previous best finish was 15th and he had never previously come within eight strokes of the winner, but now he charges from 128th on the Order of Merit into the leading 10 and up more than 300 places on the world rankings.
Larrazabal, who played all week without a driver in his bag on the firm and bouncy course, started the final day three ahead and remained firmly in the driving seat with three birdies in his first five.
A double-bogey seven on the ninth cut his advantage from five to two, but he promptly birdied the next two and after taking six down the long 14th ignored the dangers of the water to birdie the next two again.
"I lost my concentration a little bit on nine, but I told myself 'You're still leading, try to concentrate again'. That I did," he said.
Ignacio Garrido, who lent the new champion a pair of shoes after he emerged from the lake, commented: "I didn't know he was that good - I don't think anybody knew he was that good.
"It's unbelievable, amazing."
Montgomerie, giving his bid to secure his Ryder Cup place a huge boost with a Ј351,867 cheque, took second from Dane Soren Hansen with a 40-foot closing birdie putt.
"That's a big step in the right direction," said the Scot, 45 last Monday.
"Forgive me for not knowing the winner's name, but he has a great future ahead of him.
"Good luck to him. The flags were no gimmees on the last four and he played them in two under. It's difficult to win out here and he has done it very well."
Westwood missed a succession of crucial putts and commented: "After the first five holes just about everything I tried turned to rubbish.
"What can you do? It was one of those weeks where nothing went right."
Two Open spots were up for grabs off a mini-money list running for the past eight weeks and Larrazabal joins Australian Scott Strange, winner of the Wales Open, in claiming those.
Larrazabal continues a sequence of shock winners of the event started by Malcolm Mackenzie in 2002. Since then Phil Golding, Jean-Francois Remesy (twice), John Bickerton and Graeme Storm have put their names on the trophy, but none was as big a surprise as this.
The Spaniard is the first qualifier to win a European Tour event since Michael Campbell at the 2005 US Open.
Collated final round scores & totals in the European Tour Open de France ALSTOM, Le Golf National, Paris, France
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 71):
269 Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 65 70 67 67
273 Colin Montgomerie 69 68 68 68
274 Soren Hansen (Den) 69 69 67 69
276 Richard Green (Aus) 73 71 65 67
277 Markus Brier (Aut) 70 71 66 70, Lee Westwood 69 68 69 71
279 Hennie Otto (Rsa) 70 69 75 65, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 73 70 66 70, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 72 71 66 70, John Bickerton 72 69 68 70, Paul McGinley 71 73 70 65, Oliver Fisher 66 73 69 71
280 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 72 71 68 69, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 68 75 69 68, Graeme McDowell 69 73 67 71, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 69 71 69 71, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 68 69 73 70, Danny Willett 74 70 67 69, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 67 70 74 69, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 71 72 67 70
281 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 68 74 70 69, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 75 63 76 67, Jamie Donaldson 68 73 72 68, Miles Tunnicliff 68 71 71 71, Graeme Storm 68 70 72 71
282 Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 68 73 71 70, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 70 73 67 72, David Lynn 70 65 71 76, Peter Lawrie 66 71 74 71
283 Scott Barr (Aus) 75 69 68 71, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 71 69 70 73, Ian Poulter 72 72 71 68, David Frost (Rsa) 69 74 70 70, Paul Broadhurst 69 69 72 73, Thomas Levet (Fra) 75 69 69 70
284 Carl Suneson (Spa) 72 67 76 69, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 68 72 73 71, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 70 73 72 69
285 Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 74 70 73 68, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 70 72 71 72, Simon Dyson 70 70 72 73
286 Peter Hanson (Swe) 71 73 74 68, Tom Whitehouse 71 70 69 76, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 73 67 73 73
287 Martin Wiegele (Aut) 68 76 69 74, Steve Webster 73 68 69 77, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 68 73 72 74
288 Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 71 71 75 71, Paul Lawrie 73 71 70 74, Phillip Archer 69 74 74 71, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa) 74 69 77 68, Barry Lane 68 76 71 73
289 Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 71 71 74 73, Rick Kulacz (Aus) 72 71 70 76, Jean Van de velde (Fra) 71 72 70 76, Nick Dougherty 71 71 74 73, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 72 72 70 75, Gregory Havret (Fra) 73 70 70 76, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 71 73 70 75
290 Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 74 69 74 73, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 72 71 72 75
291 Andrew Coltart 68 76 73 74
292 Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 69 75 75 73
293 Ross Fisher 73 71 73 76, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 70 74 70 79
294 Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 72 71 75 76, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 70 74 81 69
296 Sebastien Delagrange (Fra) 72 72 77 75
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