European Masters: Bradley Dredge turned the final round of the European Masters into a procession yesterday and claimed his second European Tour title. The Welshman returned a 67 for a 17-under-par total of 267 and victory by eight shots, the biggest winning margin of the season.

Germany's Marcel Siem and Italy's Francesco Molinari shared second place on nine-under after rounds of 73 and 71 respectively. The defending champion, Sergio Garcia, began five shots off the lead and never threatened, eventually signing for a 71 to finish in a share of fourth with Denmark's Soren Kjeldsen and Scotland's Marc Warren on eight-under.

Dredge, who picked up £227,000, had finished second three times and recorded a total of 16 top-10 finishes since his other victory, at the Madeira Island Open in 2003.

There was never any chance of failure from the moment he birdied the first three holes yesterday, however, and for the second day in succession.

On Saturday he had followed it with a double-bogey six on the fourth after driving out of bounds, but this time he made par and was able to cruise to victory, his only blemish a bogey on the 16th. "It feels really good," said the 33-year-old from Cardiff, who will partner Stephen Dodd as Wales defend the World Cup in Barbados during December.

"I got off to a great start but I knew I had a lot of people chasing me so I tried to stay aggressive. Since the French Open this year (when he was third after 36 holes but faded to 17th) I decided to fire at all the flags, within reason.

"I watch all the top players like Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh and they all seem to be aggressive when they can be. It was getting very frustrating, not finishing off events.

"I felt as if I was playing good golf, but shooting level par on the weekend is not going to win you many events."

Dredge is now looking forward to that World Cup defence from December 7th-10th.

"Doddy and I are both high enough in the world rankings to qualify and thankfully he's picked me," he joked.

"I had a text from him last night wishing me good luck and I told him to rest up and get ready for Barbados."

Garcia looked likely to challenge when he birdied the first but he then bogeyed the second and also dropped shots at the eighth, 10th and 12th.

"Definitely not my day," admitted the part-time resident of the area and the only member of Ian Woosnam's Ryder Cup team in the field.

"I struggled a little on the greens but feel the game is solid. Bradley played awesome to shoot 17 under. I never thought at the start of the week anything like that would win here.

"Now I'm going to relax for a couple of days and then start practising. I am going back home because I don't feel like practising at this altitude will help me. I'm not going to be hitting 387-yard drives at the Ryder Cup. I'm going to work hard on my game and help my team as much as possible."

• Guardian Service