By Mark Garrod, PA Sport Golf Correspondent

Two hundred people involved in a frantic search came up with four balls and a frog today - but not the ball which might have made Gary Evans perhaps the unlikeliest Open champion in history.

On a day he will never forget and gave him a buzz he said a bungee jump comes nowhere near, Evans emerged from the pack and with two holes to play led at Muirfield by two.

In a European Tour of 275 events the 33-year-old from Worthing has never won once - and his only runners-up finish was early in his rookie season in 1992.

Of all those on the circuit at the moment without a victory nobody has waited longer and the thought it might end at the biggest event of them all gave Evans a more exciting rollercoaster ride than he will find in any theme park.

An incredible six birdies in the first eight holes - after he had bogeyed the first - took him to the turn in 31.

He was on the leaderboard with that and when he made a monster 70-foot putt at the 10th and rolled in a 12-footer on the next he was at the very top of that board.

Five pars followed and then a cracking drive down the long 17th. One more good shot and he would be putting for an eagle and a three-stroke lead.

His four-wood, though, was pulled horribly left into some of the worst rough on the course.

The search party grew in numbers with every passing second - with Evans only too aware that five minutes was the maximum allowed.

"Spread out, spread out," he beseeched them all. "Look down. Come on."

After one minute the first ball was found, but it was not the ball which at that moment Evans, a qualifier, would have paid a £1million for.

Then another, then the frog - taken carefully away to a new resting place - then the third with 20 seconds left. But when he came over to identify it he had a horrible let-down.

It was, as one Scot described it, "a tatty one."

Just as time ran out another ball was discovered. But that was - again - a false alarm and Evans had to go back down the fairway.

He did find the green this time and to the biggest roar of the week holed the 50-foot putt for his par.

Evans, unable to contain himself, punched the air, exchanged high-fives with playing partner Scott Verplank and whispered into a tv camera "That was for you, Mum".

The support and words of encouragement he got going to the final tee was something he had never experienced before. But he chose to hit a two iron rather than a driver on the 449-yard hole, leaked it right into heavy rough and went from there into the grandstand on the left.

His third, from the drop zone, missed the green, chipped eight feet past, but bravely made the putt for a bogey five.

He was no longer leading, but he was still in with a chance and he had to wait three hours to see.

"At the 17th I thought it was pretty much over and on that last putt every piece of me was shaking," he said.

"I can't get my head around it at the moment. Now I know how Jean Van de Velde felt and why Retief Goosen, a good friend of mine, three-putted the last at the US Open last year.

"I don't know how Faldo and these guys hit these shots under pressure. That's a different world to me - it's very difficult to hold it together.

"I'll probably buy the video to this one.

"At the 17th, coming up to the green the second time, I kept saying to myself 'strong as a bull'. It's a trigger link my bank manager's wife told me.

"I hate to think what the papers will make of that. Please be kind.

"My heart was just pumping, but I told my caddie I'd hole the putt. I never looked at a leaderboard all day - I just didn't want to go there - and at the end I didn't even know what I scored."

It was a 65 for a five-under-par total of 279.

"You get an almighty buzz. I was wondering in practice what it might be like coming up the last with a chance. Now I know - it just gives you a feeling of worth that people want you to do well."

Evans nearly quit tour golf a few years ago after breaking his wrist and then finding it hard to keep his tour card.

He would be the first to say he came off the rails a bit in his life, but he stuck at it and today was his reward for perseverance.

"It's every kid's dream to walk up the last. I can't imagine what it must be like actually to put your hands on the trophy."