Nick Dougherty

The ever-smiling 22-year-old Liverpool young gun, a Nick Faldo protege, closed with a bogey-free 5-under 67 for an 18-under 270 that brought him a magnificently composed, 5-shot victory over luckless Scot Colin Montgomerie and Dutchman Maartin Lafeber with Dane Thomas Bjorn a further shot back on 11-under.

Montgomerie, the defending champion who played in the final group with overnight leader Dougherty and Bjorn, was right up there and still in with a strong chance of winning at the 15th when he trailed his young English rival by just one shot.

Up till then he had done everything you could expect of one of the all-time greats of Ryder Cup golf, but an incident at the 16th seemed to upset him and cause him to lose some vital focus.

This was where Dougherty got a somewhat lucky free drop out of a bunker - it was ruled that the sleeper-bolstered area of the bunker in which he had landed was 'ground under construction' - and then, as if that wasn't enough, he reinforced his luck with a magnificent approach from the rough above the bunker that rolled to within three or four feet of the hole for a certain birdie.

Monty, who had hit a superb drive, made it clear by his body language that he couldn't believe what was happening and after a shaky approach, went on to three-putt the hole for a bogey and a two-shot swing that put him three down with two to play.

And that wasn't the end of it. The former European No 1 bogeyed the 18th as well to slip back from sole second place into a tie for the No 2 spot with Lafeber who, in direct contrast, had shrugged away a 9th-hole double bogey and closed strongly with back-to-back birdies on the last two holes for a 69.

This while Bjorn was marring his five birdies with a bogie and two doubles for a level-par 72 and sole possession of 4th place, a further one shot clear of a group of six that included Lee Westwood and the tournaments leading Asian Tour player Lian Weng-Chong of China.

Dougherty, who moves to second on the European Tour's Volvo Order of Merit with 163,148 Euros, said he was stunned but delighted with his maiden victory - especially as he had achieved it in the company of two of Europe's finest golfers.

"I am still a little shellshocked but it was picture perfect I suppose," he told reporters..

"To beat Monty and Thomas on a tough course with a fantastic crowd there and to win by five shots, that is really something special.

Asked about his big smile during the week, Dougherty said the entire tournament had been "great fun", this especially so in the final two rounds when he had played with Montgomerie and Bjorn.

"Monty is always competitive, but I enjoy playing with him just as I do with Thomas, who said some nice things today that I'll never forget."

The exciting English prospect came into professional golf with a fanfare two years ago, but until this year had not really fulfilled expectations until this year when he started looking consistently solid.

Last week he was joint-4th place in the SA Open.

"With the help of people like my swing coach David Leadbetter and others in my team, it is something I have worked hard for.

"We've talked before about things I've done wrong; well here's one I've done right.

"I feel like I've earned this and hopefully it is a sign of many greater things to come."

Montgomerie rued his day, despite his praise for Dougherty.

"The ruling was the turning point," Montgomerie said of the free drop given Dougherty at the 16th,

"I was one behind and in the middle of the fairway and he is in the bunker left, up the face of it. Next minute you know he's three feet away (from the pin).

"Then I catch a horrendous lie on the 17th where if you hit a thousand balls from that tee you are never going to get in that position and then on the 18th I'm in the middle of a divot and I duff it.

"I mean it is almost unbelievable.

"When you have a day, you have a day and it was Nick's day today.

He played well. He attacked the pins when he had to attack the pins and did very well to play like that to win his first tournament, so good luck to him."

ALL THE FINAL SCORES

(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):

-18 Nick Dougherty 68 67 68 67 - 270

-13 Maarten Lafeber (Neth) 69 70 67 69; Colin Mongomerie 65 71 69 70 - 275

-11 Thomas Bjorn (Den) 72 66 67 72 - 277

280 Marcus Fraser (Aus) 71 70 70 69, Gregory Havret (Fra) 70 70 69 71; Peter Lawrie 74 72 68 66, Robert Coles 72 69 71 68; Liang Wen-Chong (Chi) 70 68 71 71; Lee Westwood 70 73 70 67 - 280

-7 Peter Hedblom (Swe) 71 69 66 75 281

-6 Joong Kyung Mo (Kor) 72 72 68 70, Peter Senior (Aus) 72 71 70 69 - 282

-5 James Kingston (RSA) 73 73 68 69, Paul Marantz (Aus) 73 68 71 71, Kim Felton (Aus) 70 73 69 71 - 283

-4 Graeme McDowell 74 69 69 72 - 284

-3 Phillipe Lima (Fra) 76 68 70 71, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 69 74 69 73, Anders Hansen (Dk) 72 73 70 70, Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn) 72 72 70 71, Barry Lane 73 73 71 68 - 285

-2 Boonchu Ruangkit (Tha) 73 72 73 68, Yuan-chi Chen (Tpe) 72 72 71 71, Philip Golding 75 70 71 70, Fredrick Andersson (Swe) 75 69 75 67, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Dk) 73 71 72 70, Mardan Mamat (Sin) 74 72 71 69 -286

-1 Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 73 68 74 72, Thavorn Wiratchant (Tha) 74 72 69 72, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 69 73 73 72, Klas Eriksson (Swe) 74 71 70 72, Simon Yates 71 74 75 67, David Bransdon (Aus) 72 74 69 72, Mike Cunning (USA) 72 74 71 70, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 73 70 73 71, Scott Drummond (Sco) 72 74 70 71, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 76 70 71 70, Adam Groom (Aus) 69 72 75 71, Paul Lawrie 72 73 71 71, Danny Chia (Mya) 68 70 75 74, Greg Chalmers (Aus) 71 70 75 71, Raymond Russell 73 67 72 75, Marcus Both (Aus) 75 69 69 74, Brad Kennedy (Aus) 72 71 68 76, Graeme Storm 75 69 73 70 - 287

E Steve Webster 74 70 72 72, Amandeep Johl (In) 74 72 70 72, Keng-chi Lin (Tai) 74 72 73 69 -288

+1 Corey Harris (USA) 75 69 69 76, Gwang-Soo Choi (Kor) 72 74 69 74, Simon Dyson 72 70 73 74, David Howell 73 72 70 74, Simon Khan 72 72 72 73, Edward Loar (USA) 74 71 75 69 - 289

+2 Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 72 71 72 75, Edward Michaels (USA) 71 75 75 69, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 74 71 72 73, Peter Hanson (Swe) 76 68 72 74, Rick Gibson (Can) 72 70 71 77 - 290

+3 Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 73 71 74 73, Joon Chung (Kor) 73 72 70 76, Costantino Rocca (Ita) 72 73 67 79, Mark Foster 68 76 71 76 - 291

+4 Roger Chapman 72 71 74 75, Gerry Norquist (USA) 74 72 71 75, Eiji Mizuguchi (Jpn) 75 71 72 74, Harmeet Kahlon (Ind) 71 75 75 71, Brett Rumford (Aus) 69 72 77 74, Richard Bland 72 72 74 74, Hendrik Buhrmann (Rsa) 70 76 73 73 - 292

+5 Markus Brier (Aut) 74 71 72 76, Rahil Gangjee (Ind) 77 69 74 73, Unho Park (Aus) 72 74 75 72, Ted Oh (Kor) 73 71 74 75 - 293

+6 Pablo Del Olmo (Mex) 74 70 74 76, Eng-Wah Poh (Sin) 74 70 76 74, Gaurav Ghei (Ind) 74 72 74 74, Jamie Spence 71 75 74 74 - 294

+7 Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 73 73 74 75 - 295

+8 Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 72 72 80 72, Chawalit Plaphol (Tha) 74 69 84 69 - 296

+9 Bill Fung (Sin) 75 68 76 78, Ross Bain 75 70 77 75 - 297

+10 Sushi Ishigaki (Jpn) 73 68 76 81 - 298