Australian Brett Rumford finally lived up to the promise of his amateur career when he won the Nissan Irish Open by four shots at the magnificent County Louth links in Baltray.

Two days before his 27th birthday the Perth golfer, a lowly 267th in the world, sent Padraig Harrington to his 24th runners-up finish with a superb closing round of 67 - the joint best of the day - in the windy conditions.

"I should have a post to notch them all up on," said Harrington, who shared second place with France's Raphael Jacquelin.

It was Rumford's second European tour title, but the first against full-scale opposition. When he captured the St Omer Open in France last year all the circuit's big names were away at the US Open.

"I'm as proud as punch - mentally drained, but burning inside," he said. "Your stomach grinds the whole day and I certainly felt the pinch, but there's no feeling quite like winning."

Five years ago Rumford joined the elite band of players, Phil Mickelson amongst them, who have won professional titles while still an amateur.

That was the Australasian tour's Players Championship, but that remains his only success there and after gaining a European card at the 2000 qualifying school he had only two top 10 finishes in his first two seasons.

He came to Ireland 103rd on the Order of Merit, but you never would have known from the way he stormed to the £210,514 first prize with a 14 under par total of 274. And that with a closing bogey six when the trophy was in the bag.

World number eight Harrington has now been the nearly man four times this season, but considering he was 11 strokes behind with 27 holes to play he did well just to provide the home crowd with plenty to cheer about.

Nevertheless, with Paul McGinley dropping back from his overnight fourth position to joint fifth with England's Paul Broadhurst and Scot Andrew Oldcorn, the wait goes on for a first Irish winner since John O'Leary in 1982.

Rumford, Australian amateur champion in 1998, began the day one behind compatriot Peter Lonard, but had a hat-trick of birdies from the second and went three ahead when Lonard, with memories of triple-bogeying the short seventh in the third round, bogeyed it on his return.

But six groups ahead Harrington was starting to pose the biggest threat. He had birdied the first three holes, made another on the 531-yard sixth and, after taking four at the dangerous seventh, pitched to two feet at the 12th.

When he then made a 30-footer two holes later he was only two behind, but Rumford replied in kind at the 10th and when Harrington could not salvage par after driving into sand on the 429-yard 16th the gap had grown to four.

It was just a question then of whether Rumford would crack - and he didn't. There was a bogey at the 13th, but he chipped in at the 15th and birdied the next as well for good measure.

Harrington lost it really when he went to the turn in 40 in his third round and he blamed a lack of concentration for that.

The start to his final round showed he had learnt the lesson.

"I saw the error of my ways - on the range I was solely getting my mind focused and as a consequence I came out of the blocks quicker," he said.

"I just tried to shoot as low as I could and it was great to be in contention here."

McGinley's third 66 was the best of the day by three and moved him up from 67th to fourth. But a closing 70 was never likely to be good enough and he still needs something significant to get back in the Ryder Cup hunt.

Jacquelin also needed to win to climb into an automatic top 10 spot in the cup race, but although he just missed out the possibility remains of him joining compatriots Thomas Levet and Jean-Francois Remesy in the side. They currently lie sixth and 11th.

Darren Clarke never had a thought of victory after collapsing to a Saturday 78 and he must have feared he was in for another horror time when he four-putted for a double bogey six from just short of the opening green.

But even with double-bogeying the 421-yard 13th after cutting his drive into an unplayable lie Clarke got round in 73 for a four over aggregate.

"That third round was bizarre because I hit the ball great the first two days and did again today," said the Ulsterman. "The 13th was the only shot I missed all day."

Clarke has not won for 11 months now - since his memorable victory in the NEC world championship in Ohio - and states: "I'm just going through one of those spells where things are not going my way."

His next event in three weeks' time is the US PGA championship, where he has a mind-boggling record of five missed cuts and a ninth place, and after that comes his NEC title defence.

Clarke certainly cannot be accused of keeping things the same as he searches for his best form. He has started working again with sports psychologist Jos Vanstiphout, his old caddie Billy Foster will be back on his bag in America and he aims to consult renowned short-game expert Stan Uttley.

Collated Final Totals:

(Gbr and Irl unless stated, par 72):

274 Brett Rumford (Aus) 66 71 70 67 (£210,514)

278 Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 69 68 74 67, Padraig Harrington 70 70 71 67 (£109,708 each)

279 Peter Lonard (Aus) 64 70 72 73 (£63,155)

280 Andrew Oldcorn 71 69 71 69, Paul Broadhurst 73 67 70 70, Paul McGinley 73 71 66 70

281 Peter Fowler (Aus) 70 72 69 70, Peter Baker 70 72 69 70, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 64 74 72 71

282 Gary Evans 77 66 72 67, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 69 69 74 70, Sandy Lyle 67 74 71 70, Graeme McDowell 73 69 70 70, Stephen Gallacher 66 70 75 71, James Kingston (Rsa) 68 68 72 74

283 Cesar Monasterio (Arg) 70 73 73 67, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 68 73 74 68, Miguel Angel Martin (Spa) 70 68 74 71, Henrik Stenson 69 70 73 71, David Carter 70 70 70 73

284 Michael Campbell (Nzl) 70 72 73 69, Robert Rock 72 70 72 70, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 70 71 72 71, Luke Donald 71 71 71 71

285 Soren Hansen (Den) 69 73 74 69, Gary Murphy 71 73 71 70, Anthony Wall 70 72 72 71, Steve Webster 67 70 74 74, Julien Clement (Swi) 70 71 69 75

286 Christian Cevaer (Fra) 68 70 78 70, Peter Lawrie 67 73 75 71, Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned) 67 70 77 72, Mark Roe 67 75 72 72, John Bickerton 71 73 69 73, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 72 68 72 74, Roger Chapman 69 68 74 75, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 73 69 69 75

287 Ian Woosnam 76 67 73 71, Damien McGrane 71 71 73 72, Stephen Dodd 69 69 76 73, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 70 70 74 73, Jorge Berendt (Arg) 72 69 73 73, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 68 75 71 73, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 69 72 72 74, David Higgins 68 73 72 74, David Park 71 70 72 74, Terry Price (Aus) 72 67 71 77

288 Bradley Dredge 71 71 75 71, Simon Dyson 72 71 73 72, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 71 71 73 73, John Dwyer 72 71 71 74

289 Fredrik Andersson (Swe) 67 72 79 71, Johan Edfors (Swe) 73 71 74 71, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 70 73 74 72, Nick Dougherty 71 72 72 74

290 Raymond Russell 70 73 74 73

291 Iain Pyman 72 71 77 71, Jamie Spence 73 71 75 72, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 68 74 75 74, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 74 70 73 74, Alastair Forsyth 73 71 73 74, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 71 72 71 77

292 Christopher Hanell (Swe) 70 71 78 73, Darren Clarke 70 71 78 73, Stuart Little 71 72 76 73, Ben Mason 69 71 78 74, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 71 71 74 76

293 Mark Foster 72 70 78 73, Gordon Brand Jnr 70 73 76 74

295 Ivo Giner (Spa) 72 72 78 73

297 Martin Maritz (Rsa) 71 71 81 74

298 Nick Flanagan (Aus) 70 70 79 79

303 Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 72 70 79 82