Nick Faldo - all smiles after third Open win (Allsport).

Nick Faldo put himself through torture before taking a place in Open history as the first Briton since Henry Cotton in 1948 to win golf's most famous trophy three times.

On the Muirfield links where he won his first title with 18 successive pars five years ago Faldo went on a totally different emotional rollercoaster ride before winning the 121st Championship by a single shot from American John Cook.

He had seen his four-stroke overnight lead turn into a two-shot deficit with four holes to play and thought: ``I've blown it.''

But, according to Faldo, another thought then entered his mind. ``Play the best four holes of your life and you can still do it.'' He then did just that.

His approach to the 15th rolled to within three feet of the flag and he was only one behind again. At the 188-yard 16th he went over the green but chipped back to three feet to save par.

Up ahead Cook, the 34-year-old who had moved within sight of his first major with birdies on the 12th, 15th and 16th, was on the green at the 550-yard 17th in two and telling himself that if he holed from 30 feet for eagle he would certainly win, and that even if he two-putted for birdie he probably would.

His first effort shaved the cup, but from only two feet he dramatically missed the return and his par must have felt like a triple bogey.

On the last the pressure told on Cook as he pushed his approach against the spectator railings. After taking a free drop he chipped to nine feet, but missed again.

Faldo, who had been handed his first major when Paul Azinger bogeyed Muirfield's last two holes in 1987, saw his chance again. He too, was on in two at the 17th with a drive and four-iron and two-putted.

Cook's closing bogey meant Faldo now had to par the 448-yard last. After a superb drive he pulled out a three-iron and rifled it. It was too good, though, and the arrow-straight ball flew to the back fringe.

The 20-foot downhill putt had only to be set in motion and Faldo, 35 yesterday, did it to perfection. The ball came to rest a foot from the hole and there was no way he was going to miss. Even before the ball dropped there were tears in his eyes.

``I knew it was going to be tough and boy did I make it tough,'' he said afterwards. ``I became negative on the 11th and I don't know why. And when I made another mistake on the 13th I thought `This is getting stupid. What are you doing?'

``Then I put it in another bunker and really wondered what was going on. Then I told myself to play the best four holes of my life.

``I was hoping and praying that the 17th would come to my rescue. It did, but sure I thought I had blown it.

``What a wreck I am. Why did I make it so difficult for myself? I need a good slap on the back of my head to sort me out.''

Faldo has lost several tournaments from winning positions this season, but none were as remotely as important as the Open, the event that means so much to him - and he showed it by producing the best finish of his life.

He goes back to the top of the Sony world rankings now, but that was incidental on a day of such tension. It was all about showing he was the best on the day - and he was. Just.

Faldo made the worst possible start when his opening drive flew into the horseshoe-shaped bunker on the left of the fairway. He could get nowhere near the green with his recovery and a bogey five went on his card.

A sudden storm hit the course then, but long after it cleared away Faldo was still having to weather one of his own. His tee shot to the third finished 75 feet from the flag, but he guided it down to two feet and saved his par.

Cook had bogeyed the first and Pate the second, but both birdied the third and when Cook made an 18-foot putt for eagle on the 559-yard fifth the gap had been cut from four to one.

Faldo chipped to four feet to salvage a three on the fourth, then saw his long-iron approach to the fifth plug in a bunker. He could not go for the flag and did well just to get it out to 30 feet and two-putted for another par.

The pendulum swung back his way as Cook bogeyed the 185-yard seventh and hit a wild tee shot at the long ninth. It was lost in thick rough and after finding more trouble with his second ball he ran up a seven to turn at nine under.

Pate took six on the same hole and so with nine to play Faldo was back to three ahead and breathing easier.

How it was all to change. He missed a ten-foot birdie chance on the tenth, then landed in sand at the next and had his second bogey of the day, a 12-foot putt not breaking as he had hoped.

A third and fourth were to follow quickly. His approach to the 13th finished 40 feet from the flag and although he was probably happy to get his first putt to three feet he missed it. Off the next tee he was bunkered and could not salvage his par four.

Suddenly he was two behind Cook, who had made a 15-foot putt on the 12th and then amid increasing excitement had slotted in efforts from seven and 20 feet on the 15th and 16th.

But there was to be another twist in the amazing story.

Olazabal was one of the supporting cast until the final ten holes, but he played them in five under to almost claim centre stage.

The 26-year-old Spaniard, runner-up to Ian Woosnam in the US Masters last year but so low after missing the cut in last month's US Open that he took three weeks off, birdied the long ninth, then found the target from 18 and three feet at the 11th and 12th to improve to nine under.

He was bunkered at the short 16th, but splashed out to four feet for his par and then birdied the 17th, two-putting from the back of the green.

``I looked at the leaderboard for the first time then,'' he said, ``and thought I could still win if I birdied the last.'' He struck his second to 25 feet, but the putt was always just to the right.

Pate was right in the hunt until he took six on the ninth, then bogeyed the 14th and double-bogeyed the 15th.

Joint fifth three strokes further back on five under par were three other British players - Woosnam (71), Sheffield's Malcolm Mackenzie (71), Bristol-based Scot Gordon Brand Jnr (74) - and Swede Robert Karlsson, South African Ernie Els and Americans Donnie Hammond and Andrew Magee.

Collated final totals in the Open golf championship at Muirfield (GB and Ire unless stated):

(x) denotes amateur

272 N Faldo 66 64 69 73 (£95,000)

273 J Cook (US) 66 67 70 70 (£75,000)

274 J M Olazabal (Spain) 70 67 69 68 (£64,000)

276 S Pate (US) 64 70 69 73 (£53,000)

279 A Magee (US) 67 72 70 70, M Mackenzie 71 67 70 71, R Karlsson (Swe) 70 68 70 71, I Woosnam 65 73 70 71, G Brand Jnr 65 68 72 74, D Hammond (US) 70 65 70 74, E Els (SA) 66 69 70 74

280 J Spence 71 68 70 71, M O'Meara (US) 71 68 72 69, S Lyle 68 70 70 72, R Floyd (US) 64 71 73 72, L Rinker (US) 69 68 70 73, C Beck (US) 71 68 67 74

281 G Norman (Aus) 71 72 70 68

282 I Baker-Finch (Aus) 71 71 72 68, T Kite (US) 70 69 71 72, H Irwin (US) 70 73 67 72

283 T Purtzer (US) 68 69 75 71, P Mitchell 69 71 72 71, P Lawrie 70 72 68 73

284 D Waldorf (US) 69 70 73 72, B Andrade (US) 69 71 70 74, P Senior (Aus) 70 69 70 75

285 C Parry (Aus) 67 71 76 71, J Mudd (US) 71 69 74 71, M Calcavecchia (US) 69 71 73 72, R Cochran (US) 71 68 72 74, M Lanner (Swe) 72 68 71 74, M McNulty (Zimb) 71 70 70 74

286 T Johnstone (Zimb) 72 71 74 69, C Pavin (US) 69 74 73 70, P Stewart (US) 70 73 71 72, S Elkington (Aus) 68 70 75 73, A Forsbrand (Swe) 70 72 70 74

287 R Rafferty 69 71 75 72, S Richardson 74 68 73 72, L Trevino (US) 69 71 73 74, W Grady (Aus) 73 69 71 74, D W Basson (SA) 71 71 71 74, L Janzen (US) 66 73 73 75

288 M Harwood (Aus) 72 68 76 72, J Coceres (Arg) 74 69 73 72, R Mediate (US) 67 75 73 73, C Mann (Aus) 74 69 72 73, B Marchbank 71 72 71 74, L Wadkins (US) 69 69 75 75

289 V Singh (Fiji) 69 72 76 72, R Mackay (Aus) 73 70 73 73, N Price (Zimb) 69 73 73 74, B Lane 73 69 73 74

290 O Vincent III (US) 67 75 77 71, C Rocca (Italy) 67 75 73 75, M Brooks (US) 71 71 73 75, D Feherty 71 70 72 77

291 B Langer (Ger) 70 72 76 73, W Riley (Aus) 71 72 75 73, M Clayton (Aus) 72 70 75 74, P Azinger (US) 70 69 75 77

291 W Guy 72 71 70 78

292 D Mijovic (Can) 70 71 80 71, H Buhrmann (SA) 70 72 75 75, C Stadler (US) 72 70 75 75, R Chapman 72 71 71 78

293 J Robson 70 71 78 74, P_U Johansson (Swe) 67 74 77 75, P O'Malley (Aus) 72 70 76 75, (x) D Lee 68 72 77 76, A Sherborne 72 69 75 77

294 F Funk (US) 71 71 76 76

295 P Mayo 70 72 79 74

298 J Daly (US) 74 69 80 75