Dane Anders Hansen became the newest member of the European Tour's Millionaires Club in the grandest possible fashion on Sunday.

The 31-year-old, who had never previously finished higher than third in any tour event captured the prestigious Volvo PGA championship at Wentworth with a record 19-under-par total.

Hansen, an 80/1 shot at the start of the week and ranked 141st in the world, finished five clear of Scot Colin Montgomerie and Argentina's Eduardo Romero.

Two strokes further back in joint fourth were New Zealander Michael Campbell, Spaniard Carlos Rodiles and England's Nick Faldo, who needed second place to earn a place in next month's US Open.

Faldo will now decide - probably on Monday - whether to enter the final qualifying tournament in Maryland on June 3.

If he chooses not to, his run of 59 successive majors, right back to his first Open victory in 1987, will be over.

"Everything comes to an end," said the 44-year-old, who has still not given up all hope that he might be spared qualifying by receiving a special invitation from the United States Golf Association.

Montgomerie, meanwhile, will be visiting a surgeon on Monday night to see whether an operation is the only possible permanent cure for his back problem.

"I do hope not - that's the last resort," he commented.

"This is my career, though, and I have to think about how long I am going to be doing this.

"It (surgery) is up to me. It's a voluntary thing."

He will decide on Wednesday whether to play this week's Victor Chandler British Masters on Woburn.

Montgomerie has finished as a runner-up the last two weeks, but while it came as no surprise that world number one Tiger Woods was the only person to beat him in Heidelberg last Monday - after a three-hole play-off - he might not thought Hansen would be the one to deny him a fourth PGA crown in five years.

Hansen, though, gave not just the display of his life, but what compatriot Thomas Bjorn considered "the best performance we've seen in Europe for a long, long time".

Bjorn's successor as Danish amateur champion 10 years ago - he also won it in 1994 - Hansen set a 54-hole tournament record at 17 under and was never threatened on the final day.

He closed with a 70 to collect the winner's cheque of £333,330 - more than five times bigger than the previous biggest one of his career for third place at the French Open earlier this month.

Despite some torrential rain, he went to the turn in 34, picking up birdies at the second and fourth and dropping only one stroke at the difficult third.

Hansen was seven clear after holing from off the green for another two on the 184-yard 10th, but that was cut to four when he ran up a six on the long 12th and others made a move.

But a third two came at the 179-yard 14th and although he followed that with bogey he was home and dry - or rather home and sopping wet - by the time he collected his 25th and final birdie of the week on the 571-yard 17th.

Montgomerie caught Romero with two closing birdies, scoring 67 to the 47-year-old South American's 68, while Faldo's hopes of second place ended when he bogeyed the 15th and could not birdie the 17th.

Round of the day came from Australian Jarrod Moseley, a course record-equalling 63 to lift him into a tie for seventh, but the week clearly belonged to Hansen.

Hansen said: "This is the biggest moment of my golfing life - winning this as my first tournament is unbelievable.

"I hope I can go on and do great things now, but to sit here as the winner is beyond my wildest fantasy.

"I'm going home tomorrow to try to get back down to earth. I've pulled out of Woburn for emotional reasons and I'll spend some time with my son.

"That's the hardest 18 holes of my life. I had stomach cramps and was very nervous, but dealing with the pressure yesterday helped me through.

"I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep. I've wanted this so bad and would have been very, very disappointed if I hadn't pulled it off."

Collated final scores & totals in the Volvo PGA championship at the West Course, Wentworth, Surrey, England

(Gbr and Irl unless stated, par 72):

269 Anders Hansen (Den) 68 65 66 70 (£333,330)

274 Colin Montgomerie 64 71 72 67, Eduardo Romero (Arg) 67 68 71 68 (£173,710 each)

276 Michael Campbell (Nzl) 68 70 71 67, Nick Faldo 71 68 68 69, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 69 67 68 72 (£84,933 each)

277 Jarrod Moseley (Aus) 71 73 70 63, Darren Clarke 70 71 69 67

279 David Gilford 68 71 70 70, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 69 71 69 70

280 Niclas Fasth (Swe) 71 71 71 67, Stephen Leaney (Aus) 68 71 73 68, Peter Baker 70 70 68 72, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 71 70 67 72

281 Gregory Havret (Fra) 73 69 70 69, Sam Torrance 71 68 72 70, Gary Evans 68 75 67 71, Greg Turner (Nzl) 68 71 69 73

282 Thomas Bjorn (Den) 71 69 73 69, Nick Dougherty 72 70 71 69, Steen Tinning (Den) 67 76 70 69, John Bickerton 71 68 73 70, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 73 70 69 70, Barry Lane 71 71 69 71, Phillip Price 72 72 68 70, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 69 71 69 73, Mark McNulty (Zim) 67 69 71 75

283 David J Russell 68 76 73 66, Soren Hansen (Den) 75 69 71 68, Alastair Forsyth 71 68 73 71

284 Greg Owen 71 72 75 66, Gary Clark 69 72 73 70, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 68 75 70 71

285 Marc Farry (Fra) 71 72 73 69, Andrew Oldcorn 68 75 72 70, Andrew Marshall 72 70 72 71, Tom Gillis (USA) 68 74 71 72, Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 71 71 71 72, Paul Lawrie 73 70 68 74

286 Brett Rumford (Aus) 72 70 74 70, David Carter 71 72 72 71, Henrik Bjornstad (Nor) 72 71 72 71, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 71 69 74 72, Roger Wessels (Rsa) 72 71 71 72, Sebastien Delagrange (Fra) 70 73 71 72, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 70 71 70 75

287 Jorge Berendt (Arg) 73 71 74 69, Stephen Gallacher 71 71 72 73, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 72 72 69 74

288 Miguel Angel Martin (Spa) 70 73 75 70, Sion Bebb 71 71 75 71, Mark Davis 69 75 72 72, Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 71 71 73 73, Lucas Parsons (Aus) 68 74 72 74, Jose Rivero (Spa) 71 72 71 74

289 Gordon Brand Jnr 70 73 77 69, Diego Borrego (Spa) 68 74 76 71, Andrew Coltart 67 73 77 72, Robert-Jan Derksen (Den) 74 70 71 74, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 69 71 73 76

290 Jamie Spence 72 72 76 70, Richard Green (Aus) 71 73 75 71, Christopher Hanell (Swe) 72 72 72 74, Gary Emerson 73 69 73 75

291 Yeh Wei-tze (Tai) 73 71 73 74, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 69 74 73 75

292 Brian Davis 72 70 76 74, Mark Foster 69 75 74 74

293 Gary Marks 71 70 77 75, Desvonde Botes (Rsa) 70 74 73 76

294 Rolf Muntz (Ned) 69 75 77 73, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa) 68 73 75 78

295 Markus Brier (Aut) 71 72 78 74, Ronan Rafferty 68 72 79 76

296 Paul Casey 71 72 74 79

301 Murray Urquhart 73 71 82 75