Molinari brothers closing in on Ryder Cup spots

With Francesco looking on all the way – he finished joint fourth – the 29-year-old from Turin won his duel with Darren Clarke to become Barclays Scottish Open champion at Loch Lomond.

Molinari, one ahead after his dazzling third-round 63, closed with a 74 in the much tougher conditions and, with a 12-under-par total of 272, took the 500,000 first prize by three.

The compensation for runner-up Clarke was that, with Molinari already exempt for this coming week's Open, he took the one St Andrews spot up for grabs.

The 41-year-old was always fighting an uphill battle from the moment he tried to play his ball out of the mud and water by the third green but needed three attempts at it and ran up a double-bogey seven.

No brothers have played together in the Ryder Cup since Bernard and Geoffrey Hunt in 1963, back in the days when it was just Britain against America.

But Francesco, who a week ago lost a play-off for the French Open to Miguel Angel Jimenez, moves up from eighth to fifth in the points race.

And winner Edoardo, who first hit the headlines by winning the US Amateur title five years ago, is up from 11th to sixth on the world list from which the first four members of Colin Montgomerie's side will come.

With Francesco having won the 2006 Italian Open, Edoardo's victory makes them the third brothers to lift Tour titles – and this just eight months after they combined to win the World Cup in China. Seve and Manuel Ballesteros did it and so did their fellow Spaniards Antonio and German Garrido.

Molinari was five clear after five holes, bogeyed the next two but then regained that advantage when Clarke dropped a shot on the short 11th and he made a 15-foot birdie putt three holes later.

Five ahead with four to play looked a done deal, but a terrible drive down the 415-yard 15th led to a double-bogey six.

The gap then came down to two when Clarke made a five-foot birdie putt on the short 17th, but he was the one to bogey the last.

By then, though, he knew he had edged the Open place from France's Raphael Jacquelin, who came through for third with a joint best-of-the-day 68.

Molinari, back ahead of his brother on the world rankings now, said: "This is very special. On Tuesday we were talking about the fact that we had never played well in the same week and finally it's happened.

"Now I hope Francesco wins next week!

"I was very nervous to be honest. The last few holes are very difficult and Darren hit a great shot on 17. My five-iron there was probably my best shot and the drive on 18 was great."

Clarke said: "My second to the third was five feet from being good, but I ended up making seven and was on the back foot.

"I told myself to just keep going and just wait for something to turn around, but I couldn't get close enough. I didn't play well enough.

"The Open is a consolation prize, but if somebody had said at the start of the week that I would finish second I think I would have taken it.

"Hopefully I can reproduce more of my first three rounds than the last one."

Graeme McDowell missed the chance to move into the world's top 10 for the first time at Loch Lomond.

A fourth-place finish would have taken the US Open champion above England's Paul Casey, but after starting the last day in 14th spot a four-over 75 dropped him to joint 21st.

Former Open champions John Daly and Tom Lehman did not finish as well as they had hoped either.

Daly, who this coming week returns to the scene of his 1995 victory at St Andrews, was going well at four under with seven to play, but he triple-bogeyed the 12th and 13th and with a 77 was tied for 26th.

Facing a tax demand of nearly 700,000 at home the 44-year-old still has not had a top-20 finish for over two years.

Meanwhile, Lehman, now 51, fell back from two under to three over and 34th spot with a 76.

Rotherham's Danny Willett finished well down the field after rounds of 70 72 73 72

Three-time major champion Padraig Harrington believes world No 1 Tiger Woods is only one victory away from re-establishing his dominance over the sport.

The American, plagued by injury and much-publicised marital problems, has not won one of golf's four premier events since the 2008 US Open.

Because of the issues with his private life Woods has restricted his playing schedule and even last week, days before the 150th Open Championship, he took part in a charity event in Ireland on Monday and Tuesday before flying home to Florida with a scheduled return to St Andrews at the weekend. "Has he lost that aura of who he is? If he comes out and wins next week, for him and whether he intimidates other players, it is back to square one," said the Irishman.

"Some players might think he has lost a bit of his aura but I think he is exactly the same and the only way to deal with Tiger is to play your own game because his golf can be very intimidating.

"To win the Open Championship you have to beat more than Tiger and the only one you really have to beat is yourself."