Charl Schwartzel won the Madrid Masters after a flawless five-under-par 66 in the final round left him three shots ahead of second-placed Ricardo Gonzalez. The South African took a one-shot lead into the final round and was in imperious form again, racking up two birdies on the front nine and three more on the way back.
Argentinian Gonzalez, who came from nowhere with a nine-under-par 62 in the third round, threatened in patches to overthrow the South African atop the leaderboard, as did Englishman Robert Rock, who launched an early assault on the way to a stunning seven-under-par 64.
Pablo Larrazabal had two early birdies but he lacked the same spark which ignited his nine-under 62 on Saturday and a 67 meant he finished third on 15-under.
Ultimately the classy Schwartzel was too strong, despite admitting earlier in the tournament he had been struggling with injury and illness.
"I played very well again today," said the 24-year-old after his third European Tour win. "I woke up this morning and felt a lot better than I have been feeling.
"I thought I ground it out nicely all week. I just managed to keep it going today."
Collated final round scores & totals in the European Tour Madrid Masters, Club
de Campo, Madrid, Spain (Gbr & Irl unless stated, Irish in bold par 71)
265Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 69 64 66 66
268Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 69 69 62 68
269Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 68 72 62 67
270Robert Rock 70 65 71 64, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 74 66 66 64
272Paul Waring 69 67 67 69
273Carlos Del Moral (Spa) 69 67 67 70
274 Damien McGrane69 68 68 69, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 69 69 67 69
275Jesus Maria Arruti (Spa) 72 67 70 66, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 70 68 67 70, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 74 68 66 67
276Andrew Tampion (Aus) 75 63 65 73, Steve Webster 68 69 71 68, Sion Bebb 69 68 68 71
277Tom Whitehouse 71 70 66 70, Kyron Sullivan 71 68 68 70, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 71 69 67 70, James Kamte (Rsa) 68 70 72 67, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 72 69 71 65
278Joakim Backstrom (Swe) 70 69 71 68, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 67 70 73 68, Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 70 69 70 69, Steven Jeppesen (Swe) 68 67 71 72, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 72 70 67 69, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 71 69 70 68, Sam Little 71 70 71 66, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 67 66 74 71
279Francis Valera (Spa) 69 70 71 69, Steve Alker (Nzl) 73 66 71 69, Leif Westerberg (Swe) 75 66 72 66, Paul Lawrie 72 68 72 67, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 69 71 72 67, Eduardo De La Riva (Spa) 71 71 65 72, Paul Broadhurst 67 72 69 71, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 69 69 72 69
280Lee Slattery 73 66 69 72, Stephen Gallacher 71 65 71 73, Mattias Eliasson (Swe) 72 69 70 69, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 70 72 71 67, Phillip Archer 71 69 69 71, Bradley Dredge 73 66 70 71
281Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 69 68 73 71, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 75 67 73 66, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 72 70 68 71, Joel Sjoholm (Swe) 71 68 75 67, Benoit Teilleria (Fra) 71 71 69 70, Santiago Luna (Spa) 68 68 71 74, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 71 70 74 66, Miles Tunnicliff 74 66 71 70
282Gabriel Canizares (Spa) 71 71 73 67, Ariel Canete (Arg) 69 71 70 72
283Pedro Linhart (Spa) 71 70 74 68, Lee S James 73 69 75 66, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 72 67 73 71, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 70 71 72 70
284Miguel Angel Martin (Spa) 71 70 70 73, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 75 67 68 74, Simon Wakefield 72 69 71 72
285 Gary Murphy70 71 72 72, Stuart Manley 71 70 70 74, Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (Spa) 72 70 70 73, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 70 72 76 67, Julio Zapata (Arg) 70 69 74 72
286Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa) 70 72 71 73, Carlos Balmaseda (Spa) 71 71 73 71
290Paolo Terreni (Ita) 71 65 72 82, Peter Fowler (Aus) 72 70 76 72
291Peter Baker 69 73 76 73, Pablo Martin (Spa) 73 67 80 71
