A quiet, meticulous man did the golfing equivalent yesterday of inheriting the earth when American supremacy was maintained on this rugged Ayrshire links. Indeed Justin Leonard seemed to surprise everybody except himself when a brilliant final round of 65 gave him the 126th British Open by a three-stroke margin.

The 25-year-old's victory, on 272 - 12-under-par - meant another cruel disappointment for Sweden's Jesper Parnevik, who led by two strokes going into the final round.

Darren Clarke could afford to take a far more positive view of his share of second place, however, given the huge compensations that ensued. And with Padraig Harrington three places further back, it was the first time two Irishmen had finished in the top five of this event.

By sinking a 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th, where Parnevik bogeyed, Clarke lifted himself from the third position to which he seemed consigned from mid-afternoon. So, a difference of £25,000 brought his reward to £150,000 - effectively the same as winning a £900,000 tournament on the European Tour.

It lifted him to second place both in the Order of Merit and the Ryder Cup points table. But in career terms, it had the far more significant effect of qualifying him for a US Tour card for next year - an option of which he will almost certainly avail.

While indicating that the projected earnings requirement for a place among the top 125 at the end of this season is about $170,000, a USPGA Tour official said yesterday: "If Darren wants to play our tour, he's in."

In the circumstances, Clarke performed heroically, given a confidence-wrecking experience on the second tee. After the boost of an opening birdie, he chose a three-iron for safety, only to be horrified by a golfing unmentionable. With the boundary fence only a few yards to his right and the beach beyond, the ball came off the shank of the club and squirted out of bounds.

"From then on I was frightened I was going to lose everything right," he said. "It was unnerving and clearly added to the pressure which I felt I coped with in an average sort of way. Before the start of the final round, I thought I could win, but I was gradually forced to accept that I simply wasn't playing well enough."

So, he has now become the fourth Irishman to be runner-up in this championship, following Fred Daly in 1948, Harry Bradshaw in 1949 and Christy O'Connor Snr in 1965.

Parnevik faces even more acute pain than he had to endure after a bogey on Turnberry's 72nd hole in 1994 deprived him of a play-off with Nick Price. "This is going to hurt a lot more," he admitted after three bogeys on the last six holes, including the 17th and 18th.

"The pressure today was a little too much. It seemed I had to scramble to save my life on every hole, and when I saw that Justin had got to 12 under, the wind went totally out of my sails."

In terms of the destination of the title, it was only when it was all over that one could recognise the number of red herrings that had been floating about since Saturday evening. And the biggest of them all concerned the prospects of Tiger Woods, who claimed he could close an eight-stroke gap - and was believed.

As things turned out, Woods went in the opposite direction with a final round of 74. His chance was well and truly buried in one of the brilliantly strategic bunkers at the Postage Stamp eighth. The so-called phenom took two to escape and then three-putted for a triple-bogey six.

Then there was Fred Couples, who appeared to be menacingly positioned five strokes behind the leader entering the final round. While alternating bogeys with birdies, however, his main contribution to the battle for the title became the calming influence he had as Leonard's playing partner.

And it is questionable how necessary that may have been. "Mr Excitement" was the heavily-ironic description by one of the American scribes of a fellow countryman who came to these shores for the 1993 Open at Royal St George's as a reward for winning the US Amateur the previous year.

Leonard then returned as a professional in 1995 when he went to Ladybank to try to qualify for St Andrews. "Darren and I played together on that occasion," he recalled of Clarke. "We both qualified and became firm friends after that."

Winner of the Buick Open last year and the Kemper Open last month, Leonard of the low, slash- ing follow-through had cause to smile at being described as the most eligible bachelor on the tour. Indeed for what it's worth, he is the first bachelor to capture this title since Seve Ballesteros won it for a second time in 1984.

"I consider it a wonderful honour to win this title," said this most gracious of champions. "I'm here on my own - well just me and my caddie. And I'm afraid I got a bit caught up out there (at the presentation ceremony), when I thought of my parents, my sister and my grandmother, back home in Dallas."

Leonard went on: "I'm also thinking right now of how crazy the locker-room must be at my home club of Royal Oaks. I certainly hope somebody has videoed it. And I'm thinking of how big my bill at the club is going to be when we start celebrating."

A distinguished list of winners at Royal Troon became dominated by Americans after Arnold Palmer's triumph in 1962. It was followed by Tom Weiskopf in 1973, Tom Watson in 1982 and Mark Calcavecchia in 1989. But there was a particularly nice touch to Leonard's success.

US Ryder Cup captain Tom Kite, who finished earlier in the afternoon, was at Prestwick Airport when he discovered what was happening. "He and his wife Christy turned the car around and came back to congratulate me," said Leonard. " `Welcome to the Ryder Cup team,' said Tom. It was a special moment with a special friend. Making the Ryder Cup team has been a goal of mine for the last two years."

The problem about treating Leonard as a serious challenger stemmed from a decidedly moderate round of 72 in Clarke's company on Saturday, when his only bogey was at the 17th. But as he said last night: "The big difference today was that I was sinking the putts I missed on Saturday."

That much became evident when birdies at the second, third, fourth, sixth, seventh and ninth (with a bogey at the fifth sandwiched in between) - all the product of putts ranging from four to 12 feet - brought him to the turn in 31. Though he bogeyed the 10th, where he drove into rough on the right, he was tied for the lead with Parnevik after sinking a 15-footer for a birdie at the long 16th.

Then came the coup de grace - a three-iron to the 223-yard 17th, followed by a 30-foot birdie putt. And he completed the assignment with admirable composure down the last, where a three-wood off the tee was followed by a six-iron, 190-yard approach and two putts from 40 feet.

Meanwhile, Parnevik's brave battle for survival began to founder from as early as the long sixth, where he was bunkered in two on the way to a bogey six. But the ultimate blow was a missed birdie putt of four feet at the 16th, which he pushed over the right lip of the hole. And his pain was compounded by a pulled two-iron for a bogey at the next.

Clarke got back to nine-under by sinking a 15-footer for a birdie at the long sixth, but he gave the shot back at the ninth, where he missed the green with a seven-iron. After that, he scrambled marvellously to be still on eight under par and comfortably in control of third position, with four holes to play.

His next slip, however, came at the 15th where there was to be no recovery from another wayward approach. But in stubborn refusal to surrender to an ailing game, he found a faithful ally in his putter. A 12-footer found the target for a birdie at the long 16th, where he closed to within three strokes of Parnevik, and with a par at the next the gap had become two, before he achieved a two-shot swing down the last.

When it was all over, Clarke's caddie, Billy Foster, was fighting back the tears. But his "master" will come to realise that, far from being a failure, this will one day rank as an important steppingstone towards, hopefully, a major triumph not too far down the road.