Ian Poulter grabbed a Ryder Cup debut in quite unbelievable fashion on Sunday - after looking as though he had totally blown it.

On a day of high drama at the final qualifying event, the BMW International Open in Munich, 2002 match-winner Paul McGinley and Poulter's fellow uncapped Englishmen Paul Casey and David Howell made it as well.

But the story has to start with what happened to Poulter, no longer to be known only for what he wears or the colour of his hair.

Knowing that every shot in the last round could be absolutely vital the 28-year-old from Milton Keynes took seven of them on the 481-yard sixth and then eight more, a quadruple bogey, at the 472-yard 10th.

First he went out of bounds from a fairway bunker, then he had two penalty drops after finding water and then a ditch.

Words of encouragement, however, from Darren Clarke - now his team-mate in Detroit next month - helped Poulter to show sporting courage of the highest order.

He eagled the next from 30 feet, birdied the 15th and 16th and then on the 568-yard last, believing he might need another eagle, struck a 277-yard three-wood to 10 feet and made it.

Six under for eight holes - and then he had to wait to see if it was good enough.

Forty-three minutes later it was. Swede Fredrik Jacobson, the danger man to Poulter, Howell and McGinley as the tournament developed, played the last seven holes in one over and, having led on the front nine, he finished joint sixth.

In fact, the cruel irony of that sixth place was that it did not matter what Poulter, Howell or McGinley had done all week. They would have made it in any case.

But Poulter did not know that as he produced his heroics, unarguably the best eight holes of his life.

While Miguel Angel Jimenez grabbed his fourth victory of the year by two from France's Thomas Levet - both made certain of their places on Bernhard Langer's team last week - and Colin Montgomerie waited for confirmation of his wild card Poulter spoke of the emotion he went through.

"I'm going home. I've put myself through enough," he said, and remembering his near-miss three years ago (he missed out by £20,000 to Phillip Price after both failed t make the cut in the final event) added: "I wanted to make this team so badly.

"Where shall we start? What a day, what a day. I could have been nine or 10 under for the last eight. It was ridiculous."

He finished joint-25th but was lying 56th after that nightmare eight and Jacobson at that moment was in position to deny him.

"As I came off the green Darren and his caddie Billy (Foster) told me to try to make as many birdies as I could. Try and shoot five under, they said. Well, I did better.

"Thousands of things go through your mind. I was under pressure and on the back foot. I could have let the wheels fall off and finished 70th, but that's not me and that's why I want to ber part of the Ryder Cup side.

"You can do anything in golf. Everything is possible."

Howell and Casey were in the following group to Poulter and while Casey was never in danger of being pushed out of his seventh spot in the points table eighth-placed Howell knew he had to perform.

And he did. After going to the turn in 35 he birdied the next three holes and had another on the 15th.

There were jitters when he double-bogeyed the 16th and bogeyed the next, but a 15-foot putt birdie on the last edged him ahead of Poulter and, regardless of their finishing position, he knew he was in. For the record, his 69 for 11 under left him joint 22nd.

Like Poulter, Casey, McGinley and Clarke Howell has qualified without winning a tournament and, nine years on from holing the winning putt against an American side containing Tiger Woods in the Walker Cup, he was struggling to hold off the tears.

"This is the biggest thing I've achieved," said the Swindon golfer. "I played my heart out and I was a lot calmer than I thought I would be.

"It was very stressful, but I was not shaking like I have in some other tournaments and hopefully this will give me belief that the next win is not far away."

McGinley had the added stress of partnering Jacobson, who took a share of the lead with four birdies in the first seven holes.

But the Dubliner, having bogeyed the second, did not drop another stroke and collected five birdies of his own.

There was tension right to the end, though. McGinley's leaked three-wood to the last hit the edge of the grandstand at the back of the green and rebounded into a pond.

"Van de Velde all over," he said, referring to the Frenchman's triple-bogey blow-up on the final hole of the 1999 Open at Carnoustie.

"It was never going in the water hazard, but hit the stand and kicked right." Jacobson was standing over a 14-foot birdie chance as McGinley gathered himself, not totally aware of the overall situation in cup terms.

When he chipped to four feet and made it after Jacobson had missed, however, it was confirmed to him he was in and the celebrations could start.

All week McGinley had felt pressure akin to that when he made his 10-footer at The Belfry, but he had come through it with flying colours again.

It was his 10th week in a row and he had used up every ounce of his energy, but it was worth it and now he can enjoy a short holiday before turning his thoughts to the match itself.

"It obviously means a lot. I had such a great experience the last time, but not just because I holed the winning putt. It was the bonding with the team and the captain.

"It was one of those things in your life that I will always remember. It's been a rollercoaster these last few weeks, but I had the leash between my teeth like a dog and I didn't want to let it go.

"Fortunately, I just held on to it long enough."

Jimenez's victory was inevitably overshadowed, but it continues a remarkable 12 months for the 41-year-old. He had five wins in all during the qualifying period.

A closing 66 gave him a 21 under par total of 267. Levet shot 68, while Casey and German Alex Cejka shared third on 16 under with Colin Montgomerie, who then was called to see Langer.

Everybody assumed it was for confirmation of his wild card call-up - and Jacobson was expected to get the other just ahead of Luke Donald and Cejka.

Collated final round scores and totals in the BMW International Open at Munchen Nord-Eichenried, Munich, Germany

(Gbr and Irl unless stated, par 72):

267 Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 68 66 67 66 (£202,997)

269 Thomas Levet (Fra) 73 65 63 68 (£135,331)

272 Alex Cejka (Ger) 68 70 69 65, Paul Casey 69 69 69 65, Colin Montgomerie 67 70 67 68 (£62,929 each)

273 Darren Clarke 72 68 68 65, Andrew Raitt 73 69 65 67, Paul McGinley 70 68 67 68, David Lynn 67 68 69 69, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 71 65 68 69, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 66 69 68 70

274 John Daly (USA) 67 70 72 65, Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 69 70 70 65, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 70 67 69 68, Tino Schuster (Ger) 70 68 68 68

275 Graeme McDowell 72 72 69 62, Sebastian Fernandez (Arg) 71 68 67 69, Lee Westwood 72 68 66 69, Markus Brier (Aut) 71 65 67 72

276 Luke Donald 68 71 68 69, Peter Fowler (Aus) 73 67 64 72

277 Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 68 72 71 66, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 71 73 67 66, David Howell 73 68 67 69

278 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 71 69 70 68, Damien McGrane 73 70 67 68, Ian Poulter 73 66 69 70

279 Gary Murphy 71 72 70 66, Anders Hansen (Den) 72 65 73 69, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 69 73 68 69, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 69 72 68 70, Miguel Angel Martin (Spa) 72 69 68 70

280 Henrik Stenson (Swe) 69 69 76 66, Paul Broadhurst 70 72 71 67, Mark Foster 69 72 71 68, Marten Olander (Swe) 74 69 69 68, Greg Owen 73 71 68 68, Ivo Giner (Spa) 69 69 72 70, Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned) 73 69 68 70, Jonathan Lomas 73 71 66 70

281 Alastair Forsyth 74 68 71 68, David Park 70 71 69 71, Klas Eriksson (Swe) 72 71 67 71, Bradley Dredge 71 66 72 72

282 Robert Coles 72 72 67 71, David Carter 73 71 67 71, Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 72 69 69 72, Nobuhito Sato (Jpn) 72 69 69 72, Mark Roe 71 67 71 73

283 Anthony Wall 73 69 74 67, Nick Dougherty 76 67 73 67, Miles Tunnicliff 75 65 74 69, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 73 69 70 71, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 67 72 72 72, Sven Struver (Ger) 70 71 70 72, Pierre Fulke (Swe) 74 67 69 73, Jamie Spence 69 71 69 70

284 Hennie Otto (Rsa) 74 70 74 66, Stephen Scahill (Nzl) 72 72 73 67, Simon Khan 72 72 72 68, Steven O'Hara 73 70 72 69, Stephen Gallacher 72 68 73 71, Raymond Russell 73 70 70 71, Thomas Gogele (Ger) 73 69 70 72, Matthew Blackey 72 71 68 73

285 Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 69 73 73 70, Gary Emerson 71 73 71 70

286 Ben Mason 73 71 73 69, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 71 72 72 71, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 71 73 71 71

287 Andrew Oldcorn 74 67 74 72, Rob Rashell (USA) 73 70 72 72, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 71 69 74 73, Johan Edfors (Swe) 69 69 75 74

288 Andrew Marshall 71 73 73 71, Marcel Siem (Ger) 74 70 70 74, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 72 72 69 75

289 Michael Jonzon (Swe) 68 76 70 75

290 Simon Dyson 70 74 74 72

291 Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 73 69 75 74, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 70 68 78 75

294 Marcel Haremza (Ger) 74 68 78 74, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 72 72 72 78