Golf BMW Championship: Had it been a boxing contest, it would have been a mismatch.

In the blue corner: Angel Cabrera, a 6ft, 15st heavyweight from Cordoba; in the green corner: Paul McGinley, a 5ft 7in, 11½st light-middleweight from south Dublin.

Yesterday, though, although paired in different groups, the two traded punches of a different kind.

They hit 300-yard-plus drives, conjured up wonderful iron approach shots, produced superb bunker shots and, when the need demanded, used their blades like magic wands on the firm Wentworth greens.

In the end, both escaped the clutches of the field in the BMW Championship over the West Course here and each signed for final rounds 67. The difference was that Cabrera had carried a two-shot lead into the final day and, so, the 35-year-old Argentinian claimed his third European Tour title, finishing on 15-under-par 273, two strokes clear of McGinley. Nick O'Hern, who produced a final round 64, finished alone in third.

In truth, however, the final day was about two men who have not won as often as their pedigree would suggest they should.

For McGinley, it felt like one that got away. "I played fantastic, but so too obviously did Angel," he was to remark.

Until the final stretch, however, it was nip and tuck between the protagonists. McGinley is a great believer in momentum in sport and, on a calm and overcast day that made conditions ideal for golf, it seemed the force was very much with him as he covered the opening nine holes in just 30 strokes. That run included five birdies, four of them in succession from the third.

"I got my putter hot," conceded McGinley, who has been bedevilled more than most by the putter.

He holed from 30 feet on the third. From five feet on the fourth. From 20 feet on the fifth. From 20 feet on the sixth. And from four feet on the eighth.

When he rolled in a four-footer for a sixth birdie at the 12th, he had moved to 14 under par and had assumed the lead.

Behind him, however, Cabrera, who had eagled the fourth, was unrelenting in his pursuit. And, ultimately, the title was decided coming down the stretch.

On the 16th, McGinley drove into the lip of a fairway bunker and missed the green on the right, a precarious place, with his approach. It found another bunker.

"You just can't miss there," he said. It lead to the first bogey of his round, and the dropped shot was compounded when his drive on the 17th was pushed behind trees. Another bogey followed and, with it, the title.

Although McGinley birdied the last, Cabrera, who had holed a 15-footer for birdie on the 16th, had shots in hand and could afford the comfort of a par-par finish to claim the biggest win of his career.

"There was huge pressure on me, but I really wanted to win this one," said McGinley. "I'm not happy with the win ratio I've had in my career. I feel as if I deserve better, but there always seems to be someone there to stop me."

Cabrera could reflect on a job well done, particularly coming on top of two runner-up finishes in this championship in the past. "It's a course I like, I just seem to play well here. I cannot tell you if there is a specific reason."

It's a measure of Padraig Harrington's expectations that, even on a course that has tormented him down the years, a tied-11th place finish wasn't entirely acceptable. "Ah, I'd like to have played better," said Harrington, who finished with a 71 for five-under-par 283. "I've certainly got things to work on, that's for sure. The good thing is that they're more mental than technical. I know what I need to do, to work on my putting and on my routine. That's it, everything else is pretty strong. I need to be a bit stronger mentally. These past two weeks have been a good reminder of what I need to do."

Still, for a time in yesterday's final round it seemed as if Harrington was poised to mount a charge.

He birdied two of the first three holes, then stalled with seven straight pars before birdieing the 11th.

But the Dubliner pulled his drive into a drain on the 12th and, although he salvaged par, he later remarked: "I just wanted to get home after that."

Coming in, Harrington suffered a hat-trick of bogeys at the 15th, 16th and 17th, and only salvaged his round with a birdie on the last. "There are some positives. I now know I need to be more disciplined on my focus. The best place to practice that is in tournament play, but I'm not tempted to add on another tournament. If I did that, that would make it seven in a row and it would catch up with me later."

In a championship that promised so much for so long for the Irish players, Gary Murphy finished alongside Harrington in tied-11th but was conscious he had let slip a glorious opportunity for an even better finish.

Murphy dropped three shots in his last five holes, having moved into a position for a top-five finish after recording eagles at the fourth, where he hit a five-iron approach to 40 feet, and the 12th, where he holed a 25-footer.

"I was cruising along," said Murphy, "but it was a bit of a roller-coaster after that. It's just so disappointing, because I was playing really well."

Murphy's form of late, though, has raised his expectations and he plans to play a practice round at Walton Heath today ahead of next week's US Open qualifier there. All of which is an indication of how much he has raised the bar. His tied-11th finish earned him €62,457.

Damien McGrane finished with a final round 72 for four-under-par 284 (€48,900), while Graeme McDowell closed with a 68 for 286 (€36,200). Peter Lawrie, who had shared the first round lead with McDowell, had a final round 71 for 288 (€23,200).