Sweden’s Marcus Kinhult was lost for words after producing a brilliant finish to claim his first European Tour title in a thrilling climax to the British Masters at Hillside.
Kinhult’s chances looked to have gone when he surrendered a one-shot lead with bogeys on the 15th and 16th.
But the 22-year-old birdied the final two holes to finish a shot ahead of defending champion Eddie Pepperell, Matt Wallace and Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre.
Pepperell had set the clubhouse target on 15 under after a closing 66 before MacIntyre produced a stunning eagle-birdie finish to join him at the top of the leaderboard.
A four-man play-off looked on the cards when Kinhult birdied the 17th and playing partner Wallace missed from four feet.
But after Wallace also missed for birdie on the last, Kinhult holed from 12 feet to seal a remarkable win and secure the £500,000 first prize.
Further down the leaderboard, Paul Dunne rounded off his week with a 70, leaving him two under for the tournament.
“I’m speechless, I don’t know what happened the last two holes,” Kinhult said.
“I was behind Matt and he looked really solid but I birdied 17 and all of a sudden I had a putt to win — it’s incredible.
“I have never felt that pressure before. Richie (Ramsay) gave me a good read so I just tried to do the same thing and holed it.
“There’s a lot going through my mind, a lot of emotions and I am just so happy that I managed to handle those pretty well. It’s really special. I have been waiting for this moment for 20 years.”
Kinhult, who won the prestigious Lytham Trophy as an amateur but had missed his last four cuts on the European Tour, added: “This game is so weird. It’s small margins.
“My game felt okay but I just couldn’t make a cut. I got off to a good start and just kept the momentum through the week.”
Latest fourth round scores in the British Masters (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):
272 Marcus Kinhult (Se) 65 69 68 70
273 Matt Wallace 65 67 70 71, Robert Macintyre 68 69 68 68, Eddie Pepperell 70 67 70 66
276 Richie Ramsay 66 67 71 72
277 Paul Waring 72 70 68 67, Jordan Smith 68 74 67 68, 278 Tommy Fleetwood 68 69 68 73, Oliver Wilson 71 71 67 69, Niklas Lemke (Se) 69 64 75 70, Joost Luiten (Nl) 70 71 68 69, Martin Kaymer (De) 68 71 73 66, Renato Paratore (It) 73 67 72 66, Pablo Larrazabal (Es) 71 71 70 66
279 Soren Kjeldsen (Dk) 69 69 72 69, Ross Fisher 68 65 75 71, Matthew Jordan 63 72 73 71, Andrea Pavan (It) 71 71 68 69, Victor Perez (Fr) 71 70 72 66, Gavin Green (My) 74 67 68 70, Thomas Detry (Be) 66 67 73 73, Dimitrios Papadatos (Au) 69 70 69 71
280 Victor Dubuisson (Fr) 69 67 72 72, Nino Bertasio (It) 73 68 70 69
281 Robert Rock 69 69 76 67, Haydn Porteous (Za) 70 69 69 73, Gaganjeet Bhullar (In) 72 68 71 70, Gregory Bourdy (Fr) 72 69 70 70, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Es) 72 68 69 72
282 Hugo Leon (Us) 72 68 69 73, Lasse Jensen (Dk) 68 71 76 67, David Horsey 72 70 68 72, Edoardo Molinari (It) 72 70 71 69, Michael Hoey 68 71 73 70
283 Lucas Herbert (Au) 72 68 74 69, Scott Hend (Au) 68 69 73 73, Tyrrell Hatton 70 70 70 73, Guido Migliozzi (Es) 70 67 76 70, Thongchai Jaidee (Th) 74 68 74 67, Oliver Fisher 73 68 73 69, Lee Westwood 66 70 74 73
284 Andrew Johnston 68 71 73 72, David Howell 72 70 71 71, Nicolas Colsaerts (Be) 73 68 70 73, Jaco Van Zyl (Za) 70 69 74 71, Ashley Chesters 68 69 74 73, Matthias Schwab (At) 71 70 74 69, Dean Burmester (Za) 71 71 73 69, Liam Johnston 71 68 71 74, Connor Syme 72 68 73 71, Sean Crocker (Us) 67 71 72 74
Nacho Elvira (Es) 70 68 71 75
285 David Law 71 71 71 72, Tom Lewis 70 69 75 71, Richard McEvoy 75 67 67 76, Fabrizio Zanotti (Py) 73 69 71 72, Jack Singh Brar 67 71 74 73
286 Steven Brown 72 68 70 76, Maximilian Kieffer (De) 69 67 76 74, Stuart Manley 71 70 71 74, Scott Jamieson 69 70 73 74, Jason Scrivener (Au) 72 70 70 74, Robert Karlsson (Se) 66 73 76 71, Pedro Figueiredo (Pt) 71 69 75 71, Jack Senior 72 69 72 73,
Richard Sterne (Za) 70 68 78 70, Jens Dantorp (Se) 74 67 73 72
287 Grant Forrest 73 68 72 74, Oliver Farr 71 70 75 71
288 Paul Dunne 71 69 78 70, Matthew Baldwin 71 70 73 74, Bernd Wiesberger (At) 69 72 71 76
289 Jamie Donaldson 72 68 77 72
290 Sam Horsfield 69 73 74 74
291 Lorenzo Gagli (It) 69 71 75 76
292 Raphael Jacquelin (Fr) 71 71 76 74
Cut to take place at end of Round 2 for scores of no more than 142
