Langer prevails in battle of Ryder Cup captains

The 52-year-old finished five under par after a closing one-over-par 72 – enough to hold off the challenge of Pavin, two years his junior and playing in his maiden senior major.

Langer has won consecutive senior Order of Merit titles and finished in the top 10 seven times in senior majors, but this was the first time he has finished atop the leaderboard.

Langer began the round three strokes clear of Pavin on six under, and a birdie three at the fifth restored that margin after Pavin had picked up a shot at the second.

Ian Woosnam and Jay Haas were one shot behind Pavin at the start of the day and the Welshman looked to be making his move after holing a superb birdie putt from the fringe of the eighth green.

Haas' challenge had stalled on the previous hole, though, when he took two attempts to get out of a greenside bunker and missed a short putt en route to a triple-bogey seven. Woosnam fell away on the back nine with two bogeys and a closing double-bogey six.

Fellow pursuers Russ Cochran, Jay Don Blake and Fred Funk failed to make headway, leaving the leading duo to dispute matters between themselves.

Langer dropped shots at eight and nine and Pavin's birdie at 11 brought him within one shot of the lead, but he bogeyed the 15th and Langer was two clear playing the last, allowing him to complete his first major victory since his second US Masters success in 1993 despite finishing with a bogey.

Europe's victorious 2004 Ryder Cup captain paid tribute to his challenger, saying: "Corey played very well all day, he's a beautiful ball-striker and has a great short game. I knew he wouldn't go away.

"He cut the lead to two, and I then got it back to three, then it went to two and down to one – it was obviously a little closer than I wanted."

SWEDE Richard Johnson sank a 30-foot birdie putt on the final green to become only the second home winner of the Scandinavian Masters in the last 12 years yesterday.

With a play-off looming against Argentina's Rafa Echenique, the 33-year-old looked to have played safe with his approach to to the 407-yard last at Bro Hof Slott near Stockholm.

But months of putting woes in America – he is now based there, but has not had a single top-30 finish since February – were forgotten as he took his second European Tour title eight years after his first.

Johnson, whose regular caddie Lance Ten Broeck went and played in the British Senior Open instead and missed the cut, earned 223,689 after a closing 71 gave him an 11-under-par total of 277.

"It's one of the sweetest things I've ever done," he said. "Just to come up the 17th and 18th is magical.

"This is a huge tournament to win for a Swede and I'm speechless right now. It's epic."

Italian Edoardo Molinari, winner of the Scottish Open two weeks ago, took another step towards a Ryder Cup debut – possibly alongside his brother Francesco – by finishing third thanks to a 20-foot last putt.

That left Open champion Louis Oosthuizen in a tie for fourth with Australian Brett Rumford and New Zealander Mark Brown.

"I didn't play well," said Oosthuizen after his 73. "I didn't drive well and it put everything under pressure. I had to push it at the end, but Richard played brilliantly. I'm a bit disappointed, but after last week I was hoping to make the cut and I finished fourth, so I'm happy."

He now heads back home for a week off and a party at his home club to celebrate his major victory.

Molinari, meanwhile, said after his 69: "I missed so many putts. I think I could have won easily to be honest. But that's golf sometimes. I'm still outside the team, so I need to play well in the last two or three events."

A second-place finish would have put him fourth in the standings and would have put Donald out of the top nine, although the English star had a chance to improve his hopes of a recall in Canada later in the day.