Exactly 155 years after his great, great, great grandfather left Edinburgh to seek his fortune on the other side of the world, Michael Campbell made his victory breakthrough on European soil yesterday - and he did it without having to hit a single shot.

Though torrential rain failed to put a damper on the Cologne marathon, the German Masters came to a squelching standstill and the New Zealander was declared the winner over 54 holes.

It was the 31-year-old Maori's third European title of the season, in fact, but the other two came in the Johnnie Walker Classic in Taiwan and the Heineken Classic in Western Australia.

Logan Campbell, who went on to become Lord Mayor of Auckland, would have been proud of his smiling descendant, who strung together rounds of 68, 64 and 65 for a 19-under-par total of 197 which left him one ahead of Argentina's Jose Coceres.

Campbell is thus suddenly the dark horse in the race to deny Colin Montgomerie an eighth European number one title.

His £271,000 sterling prize lifted him some £64,000 above Montgomerie into fifth place in the order of merit and, although his winnings total of £1,005,322 leaves him almost £404,000 behind the table-topping Lee Westwood, he said: "I have a very good chance of finishing top."

There is £1.3m in first prizes at stake in the final two counting events - the Volvo Masters and WGC American Express Championship in Spain in the first fortnight of November - and Campbell's ambition knows no bounds.

He cannot wait to head out to Andalucia to do battle with Westwood, whose lead over Darren Clarke, an absentee here , is nearly £70,000.

Denmark's Thomas Bjorn, fourth in the table behind South African Ernie Els, is £288,463 adrift of Westwood, and Montgomerie, who shared third place four strokes behind Campbell yesterday with Ireland's Padraig Harrington to win £91,750, has a £437,714 deficit to make up.

Campbell admitted: "Tiger Woods is defending at Valderrama in the final week and he's going to start odds-on favourite to take the million dollars again. Just finishing second to him would be a great achievement.

"But I'll be going there with all guns blazing. It's a wonderful feeling to win at last in Europe and it would be even more wonderful to be European number one." Campbell held off the challenge of Woods and Els when winning in Taiwan so he knows it is a strong possibility.