European Tour: Retief Goosen admitted he had ridden his luck after surviving a last-hole stumble in the Linde German Masters in Cologne to claim his second victory in the space of a week.

Goosen held a two-shot lead playing the 18th but drove into the water to the left of the fairway and missed from four feet to save his par after a superb recovery.

Overnight joint leaders Nick Dougherty and Henrik Stenson needed to birdie the last to force a play-off but were unable to take advantage of Goosen's slip-up.

The world number five's closing 67 gave him a 20-under-par total of 268 and one-shot victory over Dougherty, Stenson, Jose Maria Olazabal and David Lynn.

David Howell was a shot further back in sixth after a 66, one ahead of Ryder Cup team-mate Paul Casey and Anthony Wall.

Goosen began the day sharing the lead on 15 under par but quickly found trouble on the par-four second. After driving into trees and taking a penalty drop, the South African compounded his error with three putts to run up a double-bogey six.

"I told myself the good thing is that it's still early in the round, we still have 16 holes left to play and I got on a good run from there on," said Goosen, who duly fired four birdies in the following five holes.

"After I made a couple of birdies on the front nine I started getting comfortable again on the greens. I read them perfectly today and putted well all week."

The 36-year-old birdied the 10th from five feet to draw level with Wall and another birdie on the 12th took him into the lead for the first time.

The leading pair traded birdies on the 13th and 15th before Wall crucially bogeyed the 16th - the first of three dropped shots in a row - missing the green with his tee shot and failing to get up and down for par.

That gave Goosen a two-shot cushion and it was just as well.

"As soon as I hit the drive on 18 I knew it was in the drink," said Goosen, who won the Volkswagen Masters in Beijing last week.

"I've struggled all week trying to hit that fairway, and struggled with my driving, but I managed to drop it in a good place and hit a solid nine iron in. I just hit the putt too hard. It was a little bit of an unfortunate finish and lucky we got away with it."

The victory was Goosen's 12th on the European Tour and third of the season, the winner's cheque of £340,000 also taking him top of the Order of Merit and into pole position for a third money-list title.

"I'm definitely going to try," added Goosen, who won it in 2001 and 2002 and finished fourth behind Ernie Els last year. "Next week with the World Match Play - the first prize at Wentworth is £1 million - is very important and so is the American Express championship in San Francisco.

"If you can do well there you can pretty much win the Order of Merit."

Dougherty and Stenson had shared the overnight lead with Goosen and fought back superbly after both bogeyed the opening hole.

"I feel I could have won but I didn't play all that well today," said Dougherty, who had the consolation of securing his place in the Seve Trophy and the American Express championship in San Francisco.

"I saw what happened to Retief and I knew I needed a birdie to tie. I almost wished he holed his par putt because it put me in a predicament and I ended up hitting my shot down the right, which wasn't that good.

"But I had a lot of things on my plate at the start of the week, a lot of things to accomplish, and I have done so I am very pleased.

"One of those was the Seve Trophy of course and I am absolutely delighted to have confirmed my place in the team."

Lynn also shared second after a closing 67 and added: "It's been a pleasing week and I felt good out there, very comfortable."

German Masters

(British unless stated, Irish in bold)

268 - Retief Goosen (Rsa) 67 68 66 67 (500,000).

269 - Jose Maria Olazabal (Swe) 68 65 70 66, David Lynn 68 67 67 67, Nick Dougherty 71 64 66 68, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 71 66 64 68 (199,582 each).

270 - David Howell 72 66 66 66.

271 - Paul Casey 67 67 71 66, Anthony Wall 71 62 68 70.

272 - Angel Cabrera (Arg) 70 68 67 67.

273 - Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 67 71 71 64, Kenneth Ferrie 68 72 66 67.

275 - Marc Cayeux (Zim) 66 69 72 68, Bernhard Langer (Ger) 67 69 71 68, Pierre Fulke (Swe) 68 69 69 69, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 69 71 65 70, Scott Drummond 68 68 68 71.

276 - Thomas Bjorn (Den) 71 70 69 66, Stephen Dodd 69 70 70 67, Simon Khan 69 69 69 69, Simon Dyson 72 68 67 69, Philip Golding 71 66 68 71, Thomas Levet (Fra) 71 66 67 72.

277 - Andrew Coltart 73 68 67 69, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 69 70 66 72, Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 71 69 65 72.

278 - Christian Cevaer (Fra) 71 71 70 66, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 67 72 72 67, Lee Slattery 72 66 71 69, Graeme Storm 69 69 70 70, Richard Green (Aus) 70 70 66 72.

279 - Marten Olander (Swe) 71 68 72 68, Paul Broadhurst 69 68 73 69, Jonathan Lomas 73 65 71 70, Bradley Dredge 66 75 68 70, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 67 74 66 72.

280 - Michael Campbell (Nzl) 71 69 73 67, Soren Hansen (Den) 71 71 70 68, Peter Senior (Aus) 66 72 72 70, Barry Lane (Nzl) 66 72 70 72.

281 - Graeme McDowell (NIre) 71 70 70 70 (€19,200), Ian Woosnam 75 67 68 71.

282 - John Bickerton 72 70 71 69, Andrew Marshall 66 71 74 71, Damien McGrane (Ire) 71 70 70 71 (€17,100), Mark Hensby (Aus) 71 71 68 72, Steve Webster 69 72 68 73.

283 - Miles Tunnicliff 74 68 73 68, Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 71 71 72 69, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 72 67 74 70, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 68 73 71 71, Peter Hanson (Swe) 69 73 70 71, Raymond Russell 72 70 70 71, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 71 67 73 72, Stuart Little 69 71 70 73.

284 - Niki Zitny (Aut) 67 72 76 69, Alastair Forsyth 69 71 74 70, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 70 70 74 70, Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned) 75 65 72 72, Markus Brier (Aut) 66 73 72 73, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 73 67 71 73.

285 - Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 70 71 71 73, Sven Struver (Ger) 70 68 73 74, Brett Rumford (Aus) 70 72 69 74, Joakim Backstrom (Swe) 71 66 72 76.

286 - Ian Poulter 72 70 74 70.

287 - Andrew Oldcorn 68 73 74 72, Andre Bossert (Swi) 72 69 73 73, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 71 71 72 73.

288 - David Carter 71 71 74 72.

290 - Marcel Siem (Ger) 71 70 75 74, Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 74 68 71 77.

291 - Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 71 71 74 75.