European Open: The 17th on the Palmer Course, as it is played in the Smurfit European Open, is known simply as "Half Moon", an innocent-looking crescent shaped hole of 424 yards that has a bite far more sinister than its appearance would indicate.

In yesterday's final round of the tournament, the par four played to an average of 4.68, the toughest hole of all; but it was the septuple-bogey 11 run up there by Thomas Bjorn - irrevocably consigning his title aspirations to a watery grave in the river Liffey - that most graphically demonstrated its propensity to harm.

In the most extraordinary collapse of the season on the PGA European Tour, Bjorn - who held a four-stroke advantage over his nearest pursuer heading into yesterday's final round on the Palmer Course - must have felt that the "demons", as he put it at the time, that had assailed him on the Smurfit Course a year ago had returned to haunt him as he finished with a horrendous 86 that finally left him trailing in the wake of new champion Kenneth Ferrie by all of nine shots.

On a day when a stiff wind accentuated the challenge in a championship which finished with only three players managing to break par over the 72 holes, Ferrie sneaked in under the radar to claim only his second career title. In shooting a final round 70 for a three-under-par total of 285, the Englishman - who has lost in excess of four stones in weight over the past year thanks to a fitness and dietary regime - finished two shots clear of Colin Montgomerie and Graeme Storm.

If Darren Clarke stood for a long time on the 18th green at the end of his final round and looked across the lake towards the giant scoreboard with a sense of bemusement, it was understandable. He had started his round by bogeying and then double-bogeying the first two holes, only to finish with a hat-trick of birdies for a 73 for 288 that left him in tied-fourth place.

"Not bad for a first week back," admitted Clarke, who hadn't played in almost a month, adding: "It's not quite what I expected after I got off to that start, but I'm just pleased that I hung in there." Clarke's play over those final three holes was not without a deserved break on the 18th, where his four-iron approach ricocheted from one rock to another before settling in the grass of the hazard but not in the water. He was able to play up with a putter, and holed the six-footer for a finishing birdie that gave him the distinction of finishing as leading Irish player, one ahead of Gary Murphy and Damien McGrane who finished in tied-sixth.

To be sure, it was a day to stand up to the challenge of a course that seems to get tougher by the days, never mind the weeks or months or years. Bjorn, who had seemed to be rehabilitated from the player who found life on a golf course so stressful a year ago that he walked off after just six holes of his first round on the Smurfit Course, was the one most beaten-up by the Palmer's ultimate examination.

Having started out with a four-shot lead over Raphael Jacquelin, who also collapsed spectacularly but less so than the Dane over the final stretch, Bjorn's supposed walk in the park was more like trying to avoid incendiaries in a minefield. Still, even after double-bogeying the 10th, he followed with three successive pars and then birdied the 14th to regain the lead on four-under.

Little was he to know that the birdie on there would be the last good thing to happen to him as he bogeyed three of the last four holes and the exception was that horrible septuple-bogey 11 on the 17th where, still in with a strong chance to clinch the title, he hit three successive tee-shots in to the river Liffey.

"That was the worst day in my golfing life, a tough day," said Bjorn. The wheels started to come off on the 16th, where he went for the green across the Liffey in two, but his four-iron approach found water.

Yet, it was nothing to compare with the disaster that was to follow on the 17th, where - just moments before - Andrew Coltart's title challenge had ended when he four-putted from 10 feet.

Bjorn's demise was even more dramatic, as the lure of the Liffey proved to be magnetic as one three-wood shot off the tee after another plunged its murky waters. By the time Bjorn's first tee-shot there found a watery grave, Ferrie was in the process of signing his card, a final round of 70 that featured five birdies, a bogey and a double-bogey. And by the time Ferrie reached the locker room, Bjorn's fate had been sealed. Someone told Ferrie that Bjorn had hit three shots into the water, and Ferrie knew the title was his.

A winner of the Spanish Open two years ago, this was a step-up. "It's one of the most prestigious tournaments we play in Europe. To beat the guys you've played against, to see the names on the trophy. I'm feeling pretty good," said Ferrie.

"I learned quite a lot about myself and my career after I won in Spain. I feel like I wasted my exemption the last time. Rather than rest on my laurels, I should have gone on.

"This time, I'm hoping I don't take it for granted," he added.

In claiming the €577,816 top prize (the biggest of his career), Ferrie also claimed a five-year exemption on the European Tour and his comeback from seven shots back at the start of the day was the largest since Thomas Levet's win in last year's Scottish Open at Loch Lomond.