JIM PAYNE signalled his full recovery from a spinal fusion operation when he won the Italian Open at Bergamo yesterday. The lanky, former Walker Cup golfer and European amateur champion twice shot 67 to beat Swedish rookie professional Patrik Sjoland by one stroke. Two more English golfers, Lee Westwood and Jonathan Lomas, tied for third place with Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez.

Padraig Harrington had closing rounds of 66 and 71, to finish level with Ronan Rafferty as the top Irishmen on 280 - equal 10th. This was Harrington's third successive top-10 finish.

Payne had a nine-under-par 275 after starting the last day sharing 22nd place, six behind half-way leader Gary Evans. He charged home in 32 with five birdies in the afternoon, but his total looked an inadequate target after Westwood got around in 65 in the morning to grab the lead, and then went 13 under par after only six holes of his final round.

At that stage Westwood had a four-stroke advantage over Sjoland, but he crashed disastrously with an eight at the 12th and when he came to the last with a second chance he failed to get the par four he needed to force a play-off.

Sjoland also lost out, while Jimenez, who scorched to a record 63 in the morning, also equalled by Mark Mouland in the afternoon, went into water at the 16th to squander his chance.

Payne, who first got back trouble at the 1994 Irish Open and had surgery three months later, said: "I am surprised, delighted and amazed to win so soon. There were many times when I thought I would never play again, never mind be a winner again." Payne won the 1993 Majorca Open before being forced out of the game.

Harrington's share of 10th place earned him another £8,942, taking his prize money from eight successive cheques to £40,145. only a short step away from securing his card for next year. He had 11 birdies in his final 36 holes - a handsome present for his girlfriend Caroline Gregan, who dutifully walked every hole on her 23rd birthday.

Five of Harrington's birdies came in an inspired outward 31 in the morning which lifted the former Walker Cup golfer from Stackstown out of the pack. He went on to snatch lunch on a four-under-par 209 and resumed at the 10th with an immediate birdie.

But he had trouble judging his approach shots downwind from the 12th to the 16th, and dropped four shots in that five-hole stretch. He overshot the target three times and found himself unable to get his recovery chips near the hole from clinging rough, then drove into heavy rough at the par-five 16th. A 15-foot birdie putt at the 17th stopped the slide, and he finished strongly with a brace of birdie threes.

At the eighth he was down from eight feet, and he holed from four yards on the final green for another thoroughly-satisfactory weekend. "I shall carry on in the Spanish Open in Madrid this week, in order to try and get into the Benson and Hedges at Oxfordshire," he said. Ronan Rafferty was within one shot of the lead when he followed his morning 67 by snapping up three more birdies in an outward 33. Although he was short with his approach to the 10th, he holed from 15 feet to birdie the 12th and remain just one behind. But then the 1989 Italian champion crashed spectacularly from contention by driving into rough at the 13th and 14th and ending with a double-bogey six when he was again in rough from the tee.

When his third shot spun back off the green Rafferty took three more to get down and signed for a 72. It put him alongside Harrington on 280, but the former European number one is still 36 players behind the newcomer in the Volvo rankings.

Harrington has moved up to 39th, two places behind Des Smyth.

David Higgins' hopes of a top-10 cheque after starting the last day on a one-under-par 141, were wrecked almost as soon as he started. Just as in Madeira, when be qualified for his first weekend on the PGA European Tour, he began his third round with an eight, and he carded 76.