South African Hennie Otto finally landed his first European Tour today - but only after he had lost a five-shot lead for the second time in four tournaments.
The 31-year-old, beaten in a play-off by Scot Alastair Forsyth in Madeira in March, was caught at the Italian Open in Milan by England's Oliver Wilson.
But this time Otto responded by sinking a 20-foot birdie putt on the 433-yard 13th, and then narrowly avoided a bunker with his final drive.
Needing a par four to win, he had to play his second shot with one foot in the sand and conjured up one of the shots of his life to six feet.
He two-putted for a 69 and 25-under aggregate of 263, one outside the tournament record of Percy Alliss — father of television commentator Peter — way back in 1935.
For Wilson, the 27-year-old former Walker Cup player, a superb 64 meant a third runners-up finish of the season and a sixth in all.
Yet to win, he was left to reflect on a moment of annoyance on Friday when he banged his putter against his bag and bent it.
Unable to use it the rest of the round he actually made three birdies with a wedge on the greens, but his 69 was his worst score of the week.
Robert Karlsson, who broke the Castello di Tolcinasco course record with his Friday 61, finished third and joint fourth were England's Phillip Archer and German Marcel Siem.
Collated scores
263 Hennie Otto (Rsa) 65 66 63 69
264 Oliver Wilson 66 69 65 64
265 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 68 61 69 67
267 Phillip Archer 70 64 65 68, Marcel Siem (Ger) 70 66 65 66
268 Ross McGowan 64 71 64 69
270 Christian Nilsson (Swe) 67 67 64 72, Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 70 64 64 72, Gregory Havret (Fra) 70 67 63 70
271 Nick Dougherty 71 66 67 67, Marco Soffietti (Ita) 72 66 63 70
273 Estanislao Goya (Arg) 66 67 68 72, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 71 66 67 69, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 66 72 66 69, Mark Foster 65 66 72 70, Paul Broadhurst 69 67 67 70
274 Anders Hansen (Den) 68 65 68 73, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 70 65 70 69, Paul Waring 70 67 67 70, Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe) 66 73 66 69, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 67 67 69 71, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 67 69 69 69
275 John Daly (USA) 67 73 68 67, Steve Webster 66 69 71 69, Henrik Nystrom (Swe) 68 70 69 68, Scott Barr (Aus) 70 69 65 71, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 68 66 69 72, David Park 70 70 67 68, Santiago Luna (Spa) 71 68 68 68
276 Peter Baker 69 71 68 68, Matthew Millar (Aus) 68 70 69 69, David Frost (Rsa) 71 68 65 72, Lee Slattery 71 68 66 71, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 66 73 69 68, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 68 70 67 71, Miles Tunnicliff 69 68 68 71, Bradley Dredge 69 65 70 72
277 Alexandre Rocha (Bra) 69 68 66 74, Marco Ruiz (Par) 64 70 70 73, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 66 71 71 69, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 69 70 72 66, Thomas Levet (Fra) 69 70 67 71
278 Ben Mason 68 68 69 73, Doug McGuigan 68 68 70 72, David Lynn 68 67 73 70, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 69 70 70 69, Mark Pilkington 74 64 71 69, Stephen Dodd 72 68 71 67, Alexander Noren (Swe) 66 71 70 71, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 68 70 68 72
280 Richard Bland 68 71 72 69, Martin Wiegele (Aut) 71 69 72 68, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 67 73 72 68, Gary Clark 71 69 71 69, Robert Rock 71 69 74 66, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 71 67 71 71, Sam Little 69 66 74 71, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 67 71 69 73
281 Ulrich Van Den Berg (Rsa) 70 68 71 72, Gareth Paddison (Nzl) 67 72 74 68, Federico Colombo (Ita) 69 70 67 75, Lorenzo null Gagli (Ita) 71 66 73 71, James Kamte (Rsa) 69 70 72 70
282 Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 67 72 70 73
283 Christian Cevaer (Fra) 71 69 70 73, Pedro Linhart (Spa) 70 70 71 72, Gary Orr 69 69 73 72, Marc Warren 65 70 72 76, Alastair Forsyth 74 66 72 71
287 Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 67 70 70 80
288 Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 67 71 72 78
290 Ian Garbutt 73 67 73 77
291 Jan Are Larsen (Nor) 69 70 82 70
292 Nunzio Lombardi (Ita) 68 71 76 77
295 Renaud Guillard (Fra) 72 67 75 81
296 Claudio Vigano (Ita) 75 65 78 78
