Welshman Garry Houston clinched the Ryder Cup Wales 2010 Welsh Open PGA Championship title on Thursday after carding a stunning seven-under-par 62 in the final round at Royal St David's.
Having taken a one-shot lead into the last day, Houston blew away the rest of the field and finished eight shots clear of Knaresborough's Andrew Turner and Oakdale's Matthew Griffiths, who shot 69 and 68 respectively.
Ian Keenan carded an impressive last-round 66 to finish fourth, while Paul Grannell came fifth after shooting 67.
It was a fitting victory for the European Tour player, who won the Welsh Amateur Championship on the same course 13 years ago, and he laid down the gauntlet early on with four pars and two birdies from the opening six holes.
Houston had not had a birdie for 15 holes when he put his approach shot on the fifth to within 15ft. Fifteen pars had followed yesterday's birdie on the par-five seventh, and his relief was obvious when he rolled in the putt for a three.
Ironically Houston immediately bagged another birdie, tapping in from inches following a sublime approach shot at the sixth.
A third birdie followed at the par-five eighth and the 37-year-old turned the screw on the back nine.
"I was solid early on and got my putting boots on around the turn," he said. "I saw someone else was under par when I was on seven and knew there was a bit of pressure so to get the birdie on 10 was very settling.
"Then I had a couple more and after that I was just thinking about shooting as low as possible."
Asked if he expected to win it coming into the tournament, Houston said: "I'd be lying if I said I didn't expect to. It's gratifying to win it when there is that expectation. I suppose the pressure was on me today to it's nice to have played like that.
"It's great to win a tournament. Where I'm playing it's very rare to win and it has been a long time since I've won a tournament so it's a great boost. I'm made up."
Houston is hopeful this victory will help inject some fresh spark into his season. His best finish so far on the Tour this year was 14th at the South African Airways Open and in his last appearance, he tied for 30th at the Russian Open.
"My form is getting better," he said. "I need to put some good performances on the board to maintain my status so this is a massive boost.
"I'm playing in a pro-am on Sunday with my brother and then on Monday I fly out to Sweden for the Scandinavian Masters."
Joint runner-up Turner was delighted with the way he played today and was philosophical about missing out on first place.
"I played really nicely today," he said. "I started well, lost it a little bit in the middle but finished really solid.
"I didn't see a leaderboard until about the 15th hole and until then I thought I could be in with a shot but once I saw what Garry had done I knew I was playing for second place.
"That's a fantastic round and he deserves to win."
Pryors Hayes' Grannell was four shots off the lead at the start of the day and powered into a temporary lead with five birdies in the opening six holes.
It was not to last though and Grannell said: "I'm disappointed because I haven't won anything for a long time.
"It was hard because you want to keep going for the birdies but also you're thinking about holding on to the lead.
"I've been putting a lot of work in on my game recently and it's starting to pay off."