If a mug shot of Henrik Stenson had been posted on a board in the lobby of the Belfry Hotel on Thursday morning last, chances are only his fellow-Swedes and some players who had soldiered with him on the Challenge Tour would have correctly guessed his identity.

Paul McGinley, for one, would have been hard pressed to recognise him. "All I knew of him was what David Higgins told me about him, and I met Mathias Gronberg at the pictures the other night and he told me he was a hell of a player who'd been having trouble with his putting."

While Colin Montgomerie, the dominant figure on the tour for the past decade, remarked: "I can just about spell his name. If he walked past me now I wouldn't recognise him . . . but I will after today!"

Instant fame, and recognition from his peers, duly arrived last evening. Stenson, in his rookie season on the main tour, showed the calmness and composure that's an inherent trait of his race to fend off all challengers - among them McGinley - to take the Benson and Hedges International Open title.

For McGinley, it proved to be an exasperating afternoon in his quest to take one of the tour's main titles. In the end, he shot a finishing round 70 to finish on 10-under-par 278, which left him in a tie for second with Angel Cabrera, three shots behind Stenson. Despite securing the seventh runners-up spot of his career, McGinley admitted to being "a little bit disappointed". However, he had the solace of collecting a cheque for £86,855 and, also, bagging precious Ryder Cup points.

Part of his preparations before starting his final round was to watch the start of the Austrian Grand Prix on television, but his mind was well and truly on the task at hand by the time he hit off the first tee in the penultimate match alongside Cabrera. "I was going out to win. And I know if I had holed some putts I would have won. I saw where Henrik was on the 10th - his tee-shot came through the trees and could have gone anywhere. And then to chip it in from an impossible position . . . he got the breaks and took them and fair play to him," said McGinley.

Beautiful sunshine had turned to the sound of rumbling thunder overhead by the time the final two pairings got to complete their rounds. McGinley's stated objective to "get past the score Henrik had starting out" never materialised as the Swede stood firm - showing a remarkable capacity to respond to dropped shots by immediately recovering - and the Dubliner didn't get as many birdies as he would have desired.

"I figured I would have to get past his starting score to put some pressure on. I had chances and if I am going to win tournaments then I am going to have to hole more putts," he said. "But it is good to be playing so well coming into such big weeks as the TPC in Germany and then the Volvo PGA over my home course at Wentworth the following week. I have to just continue on playing as well as I am, and perhaps hole some more of those birdie putts."

While McGinley edged closer to his desired Ryder Cup place - "this is a bit like building up the blocks and I am doing that, but I am getting myself into positions to win and, really, I have to start winning. This is a step towards Ryder Cup qualification but I reckon I have only about one third of the number of points that I am going to need," he said.

This win out of the blue has evoked thoughts of making the team for the match with the Americans in September in the mind of Stenson. "There is a long way to go before that team is decided and it wasn't something I had really thought about . . . until now. I am definitely going to try to make it now," said the young champion. Certainly, on the evidence of the past four days, when he led from day one and refused to buckle under pressure, he is a player who has pushed his way into the selection frame.