Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano survived a nervous finish to claim his seventh European Tour title as victory in the BMW Masters in Shanghai took him top of the Ryder Cup standings.
Fernandez-Castano was three shots clear of the field with one hole to play, but ran up a double-bogey six on the 18th to take some of the gloss off an otherwise brilliant performance.
The Spaniard began the day one shot behind joint leaders Luke Guthrie and Rafael Cabrera-Bello but carded a closing 68 to finish 11 under par at Lake Malaren, one shot ahead of Seve Trophy team-mate Francesco Molinari and Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee.
“It’s perfect timing because it’s Ryder Cup qualification period right now. It doesn’t get any better than this; first event of the first ever Final Series and I got the victory,” said Fernandez-Castano, who is moving to Miami this winter and will play largely on the PGA Tour next season.
Guthrie finished two shots behind on nine under after a closing 71, with Thomas Bjorn, Peter Uihlein and Pablo Larrazabal a shot further back.
Defending champion Peter Hanson finished seven under after an excellent closing 63, the Swede having started the tournament which does not have a halfway cut with a round of 79.
The Final Series remains in China for next week’s WGC-HSBC Champions, before heading to Turkey and then Dubai, where the top 60 will compete for the DP World Tour Championship.
Rory McIlroy remains outside the top 60 after his share of 27th place following a closing 73 only lifted him from 63rd to 62nd. Race to Dubai leader Henrik Stenson could only finish 34th despite a final round of 65.
Leading Scot was Scott Jamieson, whose final round 70 saw him finish seven uner par and only four behind Fernandez-Castano in a tie for joint fifth.
Craig Lee was three-under carding a 74, while Paul Lawrie was two over and Stephen Gallacher six over. Marc Warren fired a 77 to leave him 13 over and well down the scoreboard.