Spain's Ignacio Garrido, only 123rd on the European Order of Merit and 228th in the world, became the third successive shock winner of the Volvo PGA championship at Wentworth on Sunday.

After the victories of Andrew Oldcorn and Anders Hansen, neither of whom were in the world's top 100 at the time, Garrido collected his first win for six years by beating South African Trevor Immelman at the first hole of a play-off - after a brilliant closing round of 65.

"I don't know if my heart is beating at the normal rate, but I don't think so," said the 31-year-old, who went into a slump after playing in Europe's Ryder Cup triumph at Valderrama in 1997.

"I didn't expect this. I'm making big swing changes and the last few months I've not been playing great.

"I expected some results this year, but apart from the majors to me this is the best tournament to win. It means an awful lot."

The first prize was a massive £414,555 - more than he has earned for the last two seasons.

In a week dominated by Annika Sorenstam playing on the US Tour, victory on this side of the Atlantic perhaps fittingly went to the only man to have appeared on the women's circuit. Garrido's girlfriend is professional Samantha Head and he has caddied for her a few times.

He and Immelman finished tied on the 18 under par total of 270, Immelman almost making an 80-foot eagle putt on the last.

Back they went to the 18th tee and when Garrido pushed his second and the Cape Town golfer, who had also birdied the 17th in regulation play, was on the green in two again it was definitely advantage Immelman.

But Garrido, whose father Antonio played in the Ryder Cup as well, came down in the clear rather than the trees and from 50 yards he pitched brilliantly to two feet.

Immelman, from 60 feet this time, left his eagle attempt five feet short and when he missed that he feared it was over. It was.

"Man I thought I had holed at the 72nd - even though I'm so small I couldn't really see the hole," said Immelman, whose consolation was a cheque for £276,365.

"But what can you say? He shot 65 and made a great up and down in the play-off."

Sweden's Mathias Gronberg, winner of the Italian Open three weeks ago, finished third three strokes behind and world number two Ernie Els - three times a runner-up at the event, but never a winner - was fourth.

"They just weren't going in," said Els, who watched Immelman shoot 64 in the third round and then partnered Garrido on the final afternoon.

"Definitely I've got to work on my short game - it let me down."

Garrido praised the part Els played in his win.

"People might think that playing with Ernie is a difficult thing, but he's such a nice guy and such a help. He supported me and made it easy."

Nick Faldo finished joint ninth with Paul Casey and Colin Montgomerie and all three were disappointed with that.

Faldo, appearing in the event for the 25th time, was chasing a record fifth title and at five behind with a round felt he had an outside chance. But a 70 was never going to be enough.

"I played well, but couldn't get it in the hole," said the 45-year-old, third and fourth the past two years.

"I thought I could go out and have a really good day, but I made only one or two putts and that's not good enough.

"It's good to be in contention again, though, and my game is very solid. Hopefully the US Open next month is set up as tough as Hell so that half of them are screaming."

Last June Faldo finished fifth there.

Faldo believes the West Course needs modernising. In fact, he has believed it for a decade or more.

He said: "Some of the bunkers are obsolete. I've been saying it for ages and had meetings back in 1993 I think, but nothing's happened yet."

Casey was hoping for back-to-back wins on British soil after his Benson & Hedges International Open at The Belfry.

But a triple bogey seven on the third put him eight adrift, and five back nine birdies came too late.

Montgomerie's goal was a fourth win in five years, but he gave himself no chance from six back at the start of the day and was right. He shot a 69.

Little-known Midlander Robert Rock, from the colourfully-named Swingers Golf Centre in Tamworth, was only three behind after an eagle on the fourth, but fell away to eight under with an inward 40. He finished 23rd.

Shot of the day came from Lancashire's Paul Eales, who holed-in-one with an eight-iron at the 151-yard second.

Japan's Isao Aoki won a house at Gleneagles for the same feat at the World Match Play championship in 1979 - but all Eales was presented with afterwards was a bottle of champagne.

Collated final totals in the Volvo PGA championship at the West Course, Wentworth, Surrey, England (Gbr and Irl unless stated, par 72):

270 Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 70 69 66 65, Trevor Immelman 69 69 64 68 (Garrido won at first play-off hole. Garrido wins £414,555, Immelman wins £276,365)

273 Mathias Gronberg (Swe) 72 67 67 67 (£155,708)

274 Ernie Els (Rsa) 69 69 67 69 (£124,367)

275 Barry Lane 72 68 68 67, Kenneth Ferrie 70 67 70 68 (£96,260 each)

276 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 68 72 69 67, Thomas Levet (Fra) 74 69 66 67

277 Colin Montgomerie 69 70 69 69, Nick Faldo 71 68 68 70, Phillip Price 71 69 67 70, Gary Orr 69 72 66 70, Paul Casey 70 72 64 71

278 David Gilford 70 69 71 68, Paul Eales 74 69 67 68, Eduardo Romero (Arg) 72 71 65 70, Darren Clarke 66 69 72 71, Kevin Na 69 70 68 71, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 69 67 68 74

279 Adam Scott (Aus) 68 73 71 67, Peter Fowler (Aus) 70 71 70 68, Stephen Leaney (Aus) 69 73 65 72

280 Henrik Bjornstad (Nor) 71 71 71 67, John Bickerton 72 69 71 68, Martin Maritz (Rsa) 71 71 68 70, Sandy Lyle 75 68 67 70, Robert Rock 69 68 70 73

281 Stephen Dodd 71 72 69 69, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 69 74 69 69, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 69 70 72 70, Marten Olander (Swe) 73 67 69 72

282 Ronan Rafferty 69 72 72 69, Miles Tunnicliff 69 73 71 69, Justin Rose 68 73 70 71, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 72 69 70 71, Paul McGinley 70 69 71 72, Andrew Coltart 68 71 70 73, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 71 69 69 73, Mark McNulty (Zim) 69 71 68 74

283 Henrik Stenson (Swe) 71 72 70 70, Alastair Forsyth 67 71 71 74, Jamie Donaldson 69 71 68 75, Gordon Brand Jnr 68 70 68 77

284 Raymond Russell 74 67 73 70, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 71 70 70 73, James Kingston (Rsa) 67 76 67 74, Ian Woosnam 68 69 72 75

285 David Drysdale 72 71 71 71, Matthew Blackey 70 73 71 71, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa) 68 71 74 72, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 69 73 70 73, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 69 74 69 73

286 Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 73 69 75 69, Henrik Nystrom (Swe) 73 69 74 70, Anders Hansen (Den) 70 72 70 74, Peter Baker 68 73 70 75, Sam Torrance 70 71 70 75

287 Roger Chapman 71 69 79 68, Santiago Luna (Spa) 72 71 71 73, Greg Turner (Nzl) 72 70 71 74, Pierre Fulke (Swe) 71 72 70 74, Steen Tinning (Den) 74 69 70 74, Greg Owen 68 71 73 75

288 Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 69 73 77 69, Peter Senior (Aus) 68 73 76 71, Thongchai Jaidee (Thai) 67 72 76 73, Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 72 69 73 74, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 73 69 71 75

289 Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 70 73 73 73, Soren Hansen (Den) 69 68 77 75

291 Arjun Atwal (Ind) 68 74 72 77

292 Barry Austin 73 68 77 74, David Orr 72 71 75 74

295 Christian Cevaer (Fra) 73 70 77 75

297 Benn Willman 73 68 77 79