There is a real chance of 40-year-old Jean-Francois Remesy making Europe's Ryder Cup team after he became the first home winner of the French Open for 35 years.

Six years on from being close to giving up the sport following a 12th consecutive visit to the qualifying school, Remesy leapt from 24th in the cup race to seventh with a massive seven-stroke victory - the biggest of the season so far - at Le Golf National near Paris.

"I don't realise for the moment what it means," he said after being thrown in the lake by the 18th green.

"Look back a few years and I could not imagine this. Other than a major I can't win anything bigger."

Despite the failure of the star names to make their presence felt again, the nerve of the 161st-ranked golfer in the world was fully tested in a final round which began with him driving into water.

He double-bogeyed the hole, but recovered to shoot a level par 71 and took the first prize of almost £330,000 with a brilliant 12 under par total of 272 on a course set up tougher than ever before.

Australian left-handers Richard Green and Nick O'Hern were joint-second after Green, the only real challenger on the final day, went in the water on the last, while joint halfway leader Ian Woosnam also closed with a double bogey six and dropped from fourth to joint sixth.

It continues a remarkable sequence of surprise winners in Europe.

Scotland's Scott Drummond had a world ranking of 435 when he captured the Volvo PGA championship, England's Simon Khan and Miles Tunnicliff stood 255th and 261st respectively at the Wales Open and Diageo Championship and last week's St Omer Open champion Philippe Lima was 542nd.

Remesy had won only one of 203 previous tour events, the 1999 Estoril Open when he was not even a member of the circuit, and it was only after a series of visits to a sports psychologist the previous winter that he decided to stick at golf. He is now fourth on the Order of Merit.

The 1985 French amateur champion, once he had dried off and changed clothes, fittingly received the trophy from 1969 winner Jean Garaialde.

Green was only one behind at the turn, but then bogeyed the 10th, 13th and 14th. He did birdie the short 16th, but Remesy had already hit his tee shot to three feet and followed him in.

When Green dropped another shot at the 17th Remesy could be cheered all the way down the the last.

It was only last October that Maarten Lafeber became the first home winner of the Dutch Open, another of Europe's oldest events, since 1947.

Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell, winner of the Italian Open in May and runner-up in the Diageo, finished with a new course record of 64 and moved up from 30th to fourth. It also earned him a £2,000 Rolex watch for the low round of the weekend.

The 24-year-old, a member of the winning Walker Cup team in America only three years ago, is now 13th in the Ryder Cup standings.

"I said to my dad last night I couldn't get it going on this course," he said. "Any time I hit it in the thick stuff I was in big trouble, but this time I was only in it once and got on a roll.

"The Ryder Cup was never a goal for this year and I still need to play some good golf between now and then.

"My goal was to win in six months and finish top 30 in Europe. I've moved the goalposts now to top 15 and win again.

"I'm a goal-orientated kind of person and I react well of those kind of things. I'm hitting all of them on the nose."

Colin Montgomerie was only 48th - his closing 72 included a nine on the long ninth and seven birdies - and Justin Rose down in 72nd place after finishing 15 over par for the second week in a row.

Collated final totals

(Gbr and Irl unless stated, par 71):

272 Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 69 67 65 71 (£329,868)

279 Nick O'Hern (Aus) 73 68 70 68, Richard Green (Aus) 68 70 66 75 (£171,903 each)

281 Graeme McDowell 70 73 74 64, Jonathan Lomas 73 70 69 69 (£91,439 each)

282 Peter O'Malley (Aus) 73 67 70 72, Ian Woosnam 67 69 72 74

284 Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 75 72 68 69, Marcel Siem (Ger) 71 73 69 71

285 Soren Hansen (Den) 76 72 68 69, David Lynn 72 71 68 74, Paul Casey 77 70 65 73, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 66 73 70 76

286 Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa) 74 72 69 71, David Howell 71 69 74 72, Robert Allenby (Aus) 76 68 70 72, Ian Poulter 70 71 69 76

287 Steve Webster 74 71 73 69, Gary Murphy 75 72 70 70, James Kingston (Rsa) 77 72 68 70, Damien McGrane 76 70 70 71, Paul McGinley 75 72 68 72, David Park 76 68 67 76

288 Marten Olander (Swe) 72 73 73 70, Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned) 75 70 72 71, Mark Roe 70 71 74 73, John Bickerton 73 67 72 76, Gary Evans 72 70 68 78

289 Andrew Marshall 73 73 74 69, Andrew Oldcorn 77 70 73 69, Jarrod Moseley (Aus) 73 76 70 70, Peter Fowler (Aus) 71 75 70 73, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 74 68 73 74

290 Thomas Levet (Fra) 76 66 75 73, James Hepworth 71 74 69 76

291 Christopher Hanell (Swe) 78 70 73 70, Raymond Russell 76 69 75 71, Roger Chapman 74 75 70 72, David Gilford 74 72 72 73

292 Simon Khan 73 75 75 69, Robert Coles 75 73 73 71, Anders Hansen (Den) 76 71 71 74, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 73 73 71 75, Peter Hanson (Swe) 74 72 70 76, Miguel Angel Martin (Spa) 73 74 68 77

293 Matthew Blackey 72 76 74 71, Gordon Brand Jnr 72 73 71 77

294 Bradley Dredge 73 74 77 70, Colin Montgomerie 74 75 73 72, Richard McEvoy 72 70 79 73, Cesar Monasterio (Arg) 70 73 78 73, Jorge Berendt (Arg) 74 75 70 75

295 Paul Eales 72 70 79 74, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 69 77 75 74, Alastair Forsyth 75 68 77 75, Steven O'Hara 72 74 73 76, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 78 71 67 79

296 Scott Drummond 77 70 75 74, David Dixon 71 72 77 76, Jamie Spence 73 73 74 76, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 71 78 71 76, Gregory Havret (Fra) 72 70 77 77, Markus Brier (Aut) 72 77 70 77

297 Benjamin Nicolay (Fra) 73 73 79 72, Jose Manuel Carriles (Spa) 76 72 77 72, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 75 68 80 74, Bruno-Teva Lecuona (Fra) 77 69 77 74

298 Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 75 71 77 75, Philippe Lima (Fra) 74 73 74 77, Stephen Gallacher 73 74 74 77, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 74 68 78 78

299 Mattias Nilsson (Swe) 74 75 78 72, Justin Rose 75 71 77 76

303 David Carter 77 71 82 73