European Tour/ Qatar Masters: For the best part of four days the sight of Retief Goosen's name hardly did any favours for the promoters trying to convince the outside world the Qatar Masters should stand alongside next week's Desert Classic in Dubai.

Not the most colourful of characters and with a reputation for grinding out results, the South African is often respected only for his past achievement of winning the US Open in 2001 and again three years later.

Yesterday, however, Goosen broke the mould with a spectacular, last-hole dash for victory just when the Australian left-hander Nick O'Hern thought a par would be good enough to secure his first victory on the European Tour after eight years of trying and six other second-place finishes.

Goosen covered the 587 yards of the 18th at the Doha Golf Club with a booming drive that split the fairway and a three-wood from 280 yards out that ran through the back of the green and left his ball in the first cut of fringe grass, with longer growth just inches away and threatening to impair his putting stroke.

A birdie would have forced a play-off, but Goosen measured up and then sank a 50-foot putt, across two levels with a tricky five-foot swing from right to left, for an eagle finish to take the €282,743 winner's cheque.

Now, having slipped to eighth in the world rankings after 12 months without a win in either Europe or the States, Goosen feels he is ready to start mounting a serious challenge for the world's bigger tournaments.

"This has got to give a lot of confidence," said Goosen. "It feels such a long time since I have won and some of my golf, even here, has been pretty bad. But that's golf. Sometimes you don't play well, but score well and win, and now I can build on this.

"Its been my goal to try to climb back up the world rankings and compete in the majors again, and this is a good way to start."

For O'Hern, defeat at such a late hour did little to destroy the belief on tour that when the pressure is on down the stretch it proves too much for him to handle.

Although he won the Australian PGA Championship early in December, the way he played the 18th yesterday, with a one-shot lead standing on the tee, confirmed many suspicions.

He missed the fairway and could only hack out of the rough; playing his third from 200 yards he merely went for the middle of the green instead of attacking the pin in the way that Goosen, a proven winner with 32 titles to his name across the world, did to turn the tide in his favour.

And if Goosen feels he is ready to become a major force again, the week in Qatar has also proved something of a watershed for his compatriot Ernie Els, who has struggled to play his best golf again after suffering a serious knee injury in an accident. Four shots off the lead overnight, Els produced a final-round 67 to finish third, two shots off the pace.

And there was encouragement too for Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell, who led the British Open at Hoylake after the first round.

After shooting a one-over-par 73 in the opening round, he turned in cards of 68, 68 and 67 to climb into joint fourth place. That was worth €72,000.

Paul McGinley finished in a tie for 16th on eight under after a three-under-par 69.

The Dubliner carded four successive birdies from the first and dropped one shot, but just one birdie on the back nine and another bogey ended his slim hopes of challenging. Still, he earned €23,000.

Meanwhile, Edward Michaels endured a disappointing day on the course after he had put himself into contention. The American, who was playing in his first tournament for over a year after battling back from a shoulder injury, had started just two shots behind the leaders after his three-under 69 in the third round.

But he had a poor run on the front nine where he carded just one birdie, bogeyed the first and ninth and double-bogeyed the par-three third.

He fared little better coming home where he made just one birdie before dropping two shots for a four-over 76 to finish six under overall.

• Guardian Service

Final Round Scores

273 - Retief Goosen (SA) 65 68 71 69.

274 - Nick O'Hern (Aus) 66 69 69 70.

275 - Ernie Els (SA) 69 71 68 67.

276 - Graeme McDowell73 68 68 67, Richard Green (Aus) 68 65 71 72, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 70 69 71 66.

277 - Andres Romero (Arg) 70 71 67 69, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 68 68 70 71.

278 - Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 69 67 72 70, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 71 67 72 68.

279 - Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 72 69 66 72, Paul Lawrie 69 67 71 72, Chris DiMarco (USA) 73 66 71 69, David Lynn 73 69 71 66, Oliver Fisher 73 68 70 68.

280 - Nick Dougherty 68 71 71 70, Paul McGinley71 68 72 69, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 73 67 67 73.

281 - Sergio Garcia (Spn) 70 71 73 67, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spn) 66 70 73 72, Ariel Canete (Arg) 69 70 72 70.

282 - Robert Karlsson (Swe) 70 71 70 71, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 69 68 75 70, Edward Michaels (USA) 68 69 69 76, Alejandro Canizares (Spn) 70 69 70 73, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 70 68 72 72.

283 - Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 71 71 70 71, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 70 70 70 73, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 67 73 72 71, Stephen Dodd 72 68 73 70, Soren Hansen (Den) 72 72 68 71, Chawalit Plaphol (Tha) 73 69 70 71, Johan Edfors (Swe) 73 67 74 69.

284 - Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha) 73 70 73 68, Lee Westwood 71 70 72 71, Alvaro Quiros (Spn) 70 70 71 73.

285 - Peter Hanson (Swe) 70 73 71 71, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 75 69 70 71, Andrew Coltart 69 73 72 71, Scott Strange (Aus) 70 71 74 70, Jong Yul Suk (Kor) 69 73 72 71, Simon Hurd 71 70 71 73, Jason Knutzon (USA) 73 71 70 71.

286 - Anton Haig (SA) 71 70 72 73, Phillip Archer 72 70 72 72, Chinarat Phadungsil (Tha) 69 68 75 74, Terry Pilkadaris (Aus) 71 70 72 73, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 73 70 71 72, Jose Manuel Lara (Spn) 73 71 71 71, Mardan Mamat (Sin) 69 70 76 71.

287 - Anthony Kang (USA) 72 70 71 74, Phillip Price 70 72 73 72.

288 - Frankie Minoza (Phi) 75 69 73 71, Marcus Both (Aus) 71 73 74 70, Chris Rodgers 70 70 72 76, Simon Khan 72 71 74 71, Cesar Monasterio (Arg) 73 70 74 71.

289 - Gary Rusnak (USA) 72 71 76 70, Paul Broadhurst 71 69 74 75, Seve Benson 72 72 74 71.

290 - Steve Webster 71 72 73 74 291 Prom Meesawat (Tha) 71 70 75 75, David Bransdon (Aus) 70 73 74 74, Bradley Dredge 71 72 74 74.

292 - Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 71 73 72 76, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 72 71 75 74.

293 - Mahal Pearce (Nzl) 70 73 75 75, Juvic Pagunsan (Phi) 70 71 77 75, Thammanoon Srirot (Tha) 71 72 74 76.

294 - Gary Simpson (Aus) 72 69 74 79, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spn) 70 73 74 77.

295 - Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 74 70 76 75.

296 - Kenneth Ferrie 70 74 75 77.

297 - Yasin Ali 69 75 78 75.

304 - Clay Devers (USA) 74 70 80 80.