When Darren Clarke's tee shot to the short third disappeared deep into the trees on the left, the destiny of the Canon European Masters was all over bar some wildly enthusiastic Argentinean celebrations.
Clarke began the last round eight behind Eduardo Romero and when that pull-hook took him into uncharted areas and led to a double-bogey five, the deficit was 10 strokes, with only 15 holes to play.
No professional golfer would countenance losing from that position and that was indeed the margin by which Romero, aged 46, became the oldest man to win on the European tour since another Argentine, Vicente Fernandez, took the English Open at the Belfry in 1992 at the same age.
Romero finished 23-under par, on 261, an extraordinary total on a toughened Crans course and worth, Nick Faldo suggested, 35-under on the previous version. He won by 10, not from Clarke who dropped three shots over the last three holes, but from last week's winner of the BMW International Open, Thomas Bjorn.
"I feel strong, I feel like Tiger," said Romero, whose grin threatened to engulf him. His playing partner Clarke saw a likeness, too. After the Argentine had smashed a driver 325 yards up hill at the ninth, the Ulsterman said to him: "It's unbelievable, you're hitting it longer than Tiger." Romero credited yoga for improving his concentration, plus a new Callaway prototype driver allegedly legal everywhere.
Clarke's consolation was to overtake Lee Westwood at the top of the order of merit, while Bjorn leads the first Ryder Cup points list with 166,660 points.
Westwood is in serious danger of becoming a well-rounded human being. After a weekend spent sliding down the leaderboards like an out-of-control skier he delivered the cliche: "There are other things to life than golf."
It can be a dangerous realisation; being civilised can be a positive hindrance to holing fourfooters. When bathing the baby or feeding the horses becomes more important than two hours' grinding on the putting green, trouble looms.
Westwood confessed he had too often this year been "wandering around the course thinking of other things", which was also the case this week. Without going into detail, he said: "There are too many things going off for me to concentrate fully." Moving house is one, but others have survived those stressful moments without losing the plot.
Sam Torrance, the Ryder Cup captain was not worried about his young star going walkabout. "If he's only just discovered there are other things in life, he's a slow learner. He had a bad day on Saturday in a tournament I'm sure he wanted to win, and this is his reaction."
Torrance revealed the existence of a little black book, an address book into which he has written the names of 45 players he reckons will be in contention for a place in the cup team. It took him four hours and he will add pertinent notes throughout the season, such as a closing 61 to finish third.
One of the names will be that of Nick Faldo who, jointly with Romero, had the second-best last round of the top dozen players, a 67. He finished at nine-under and although that was 14 strokes behind the winner, it was only four behind the leading European, Bjorn, who had a 66.
He described a day of being among the leaders as "all part of the re-learning curve". Asked what the best part of his game was, he said: "Nothing, to be honest."
