Paul Casey has won the European Tour's flagship BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth - and with it goes to world number three.
It needed three birdies in the last four holes, however, for the 31-year-old Ryder Cup star to hold off the challenge of fellow Englishman Ross Fisher, whose best-of-the-week 64 was only one outside the West Course record.
The outcome was far from certain when Casey, 41st in the world at the start of 2009 and seventh entering the tournament, found a greenside bunker with his approach to the par five last.
But he splashed out to five feet and made no mistake to claim the massive Ј667,093 first prize at the European Tour's flagship event.
"It was not an easy putt, but any putt to win is something I would like to have," said Casey.
"There are great names on this trophy and it feels great. A lot of people have put in a lot of work, but I have to thank Peter Kostis, my coach in the States.
"He's more than a coach and we set some lofty goals at the start of the year."
Casey has not disclosed what they were, but world number three would certainly have been stretching things. Certainly before the end of May.
The last time Britain had a player in the world's top three was Colin Montgomerie nine years ago - and since the rankings began in 1986 Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam are the only others to make it as high.
As a youngster growing up in Surrey Casey used to "sneak in" to watch the action on the famous West Course.
But now he has won the venue's two biggest titles. Three years ago he won the Ј1million first prize at the World Match Play.
Two years ago Fisher was the one who led with a round to play and on that occasion he crashed to 39th spot with an horrendous 84.
This time the final day saw something very different from him.
Five behind at the start of the day, he actually led on his own when he notched his sixth birdie of the day on the long 12th.
He also picked up shots on the 17th and 18th, but it was not enough and by just missing an 18-foot eagle chance at the last he had to settle for the Ј444,729 runners-up cheque.
This coming week, however, sees him back at the London Club in Kent where he won the European Open by seven strokes last year.
Casey had not looked at leaderboards on the front nine, but when he did glance up and see that Fisher was on a charge he reacted brilliantly.
After drawing level by matching Fisher's two-putt birdie at the 531-yard 12th he converted a 15-foot chance three holes later - Fisher had missed from half that distance.
He then scrambled a par on the 16th after pulling his tee shot into sand, made a nine-footer at the next and after "only" parring the 538-yard 18th in the first three rounds made it fourth time lucky.
The birdie was for a 68 and, with four sub-70 rounds, he finished with a 17 under par aggregate of 271.
Dane Soren Kjeldsen was third and Welshman Stephen Dodd fourth in a welcome return to form from the former World Cup winner now ranked 477th in the world.
Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy was probably expected to mount the stiffest challenge after a Saturday 65 put him third, but he slipped to fifth with a 71.
The most amazing finish came from former Open champion Ben Curtis, who birdied the 15th and 16th and then eagled the two closing par fives for a 67 and joint sixth place.
Defending champion Miguel Angel Jimenez had a moment to remember. A year after he aced the fifth en route to victory the 45-year-old Spaniard made only the third albatross of the European season by sinking a 206-yard six-iron to the fourth.
His day also included a triple bogey seven on the 13th, however, as he finished down on level par.
Colin Montgomerie, joint 10th with a round to go, also had a seven and since it came on the 473-yard first that was that for his hopes of getting into contention.
The three-time winner's approach flew through the crowd into the bushes and two shots later he was still not on the green.
He took six on the 18th as well and with a 76 for 35th spot Montgomerie, who then pulled out of tomorrow's US Open qualifier at Walton Heath along with a host of others, has still not had a top 10 finish since he was runner-up in the French Open last June.
He was tied seventh with a round to go in the Irish Open a week ago, but slumped to 41st with an 80 then.
Collated final round scores & totals in the European Tour BMW PGA Championship, Wentworth GC, Surrey, England
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):
271 Paul Casey 69 67 67 68
272 Ross Fisher 68 73 67 64
275 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 69 69 68 69
276 Stephen Dodd 71 68 70 67
278 Rory McIlroy 72 70 65 71
279 Anthony Wall 67 71 72 69, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 68 72 68 71, Ben Curtis (USA) 69 70 73 67
280 Thomas Levet (Fra) 70 71 68 71
281 Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 72 67 74 68
282 Martin Kaymer (Ger) 72 70 70 70, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa) 67 77 70 68
283 Graeme McDowell 75 71 68 69, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 74 71 69 69, Nick Dougherty 73 71 67 72
284 Robert Rock 71 74 69 70, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 73 73 70 68, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 70 72 72 70, Simon Dyson 74 69 68 73, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 69 71 73 71
285 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 71 74 69 71, Anders Hansen (Den) 72 70 71 72, Soren Hansen (Den) 73 70 71 71, Paul Waring 75 71 70 69, Paul Broadhurst 73 72 68 72, Marc Warren 72 66 71 76, Alexander Noren (Swe) 69 71 72 73, Ernie Els (Rsa) 73 73 70 69, Markus Brier (Aut) 70 74 72 69, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 70 75 71 69, Richard Green (Aus) 72 74 68 71
286 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 69 74 72 71, Paul Lawrie 72 71 70 73, Jamie Donaldson 70 71 73 72
287 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 77 68 70 72, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 73 72 70 72, Colin Montgomerie 69 73 69 76, Benn Barham 72 73 72 70, Lee Slattery 70 72 74 71, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 68 74 73 72, Alastair Forsyth 70 75 75 67, Luke Donald 74 72 71 70
288 Brett Rumford (Aus) 71 73 72 72, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 68 70 74 76, David Horsey 67 71 74 76, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 71 73 70 74, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 71 74 70 73
289 Robert Dinwiddie 73 73 74 69, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 72 69 77 71, Mark Foster 72 70 73 74, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 73 67 73 76
290 Pablo Martin (Spa) 72 73 72 73, Darren Clarke 74 71 74 71
291 Peter Hanson (Swe) 71 74 74 72, Andres Romero (Arg) 71 72 76 72, Tano Goya (Arg) 74 71 70 76, Scott Drummond 69 74 74 74, Seve Benson 73 72 77 69
292 Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa) 74 70 74 74, Anton Haig (Rsa) 72 69 81 70, Marcel Siem (Ger) 71 75 75 71, Miles Tunnicliff 73 70 73 76, Sam Little 71 73 74 74
293 Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 71 73 77 72, Phillip Archer 72 74 76 71, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 73 70 75 75, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 73 73 78 69
294 Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 74 71 71 78, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 73 73 78 70, Simon Wakefield 75 69 74 76
295 Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 70 76 76 73
296 Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 70 76 75 75, John Daly (USA) 73 71 77 75, David Howell 76 69 73 78, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 74 72 73 77
297 Johan Edfors (Swe) 74 72 75 76
299 Barry Lane 68 78 83 70
301 Anthony Kang (USA) 69 76 76 80
CASEY CLIMBS TO SIXTH
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