A thrilled Padraig Harrington made it three wins in a row for Europe's Ryder Cup side heading into this week's match in Detroit.

Six shots behind with 16 holes to play at the Linde German Masters in Cologne, Harrington charged to a three-stroke victory a week after Luke Donald won and two weeks after Miguel Angel Jimenez triumphed.

In many ways it was the perfect result for cup captain Bernhard Langer. The form of his only world top 10 player had started to become a real cause for concern in the build-up to Oakland Hills.

But, after having laser eye surgery on his left eye last Saturday and then spending two hours on the phone with American sports psychologist Bob Rotella late on Wednesday night, the Dubliner went out and added another £339,321 to his career earnings.

And Harrington is confident the "tight" shoulder he needed treatment on over the weekend will not be a problem at Oakland Hills.

"It was perfect today. I just overdid it practising for four hours on Friday afternoon," he said.

The 33-year-old, who has now pocketed over £8million on the European Tour alone, added: "It feels really good, especially after the last couple of weeks.

"I got back down to basics, but I am surprised to have turned it around so quickly."

Langer stated: "I played the first two rounds with Thomas Bjorn and said to him that the one person I was a bit concerned about was Harrington, but Thomas said, 'Don't worry - he'll be fine.'

"Now he's gone and won. I'm delighted for him on a personal level and the run of winners the last three weeks is fantastic. I couldn't ask for anything more."

A 25th runners-up finish of his career loomed large for Harrington, however, when he began the final day with two bogeys and Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell moved five clear of the field.

But McDowell was twice in water for double bogeys as he fell away to joint third with a 77 and second place was taken by Australian Nick O'Hern.

Harrington's deficit was back to three by the time he birdied the long seventh, but he could never have expected that another at the 469-yard ninth would bring him level.

On the hole Ian Woosnam failed to finish on Thursday after he went splashing around in the lake, McDowell found the same stretch of water from a greenside bunker and double-bogeyed while Harrington made an 18-footer.

The Portrush golfer's failure to get up and down from more sand on the short 11th put Harrington in the lead on his own and he never let it go.

By the time McDowell went in water again at the short 16th the gap was four and Harrington's bogey at the 17th did not matter.

Ryder Cup team-mate Paul Casey was lying joint second with two to go, but then had a quadruple bogey eight and a closing bogey to drop to sixth.

Casey called the situation that led to the eight "daft". After going in the water he faced the same problem Woosnam had and to stop the ball rolling back in the lake he had to place it in a divot.

His chip from there failed to climb the bank and inevitably finished in the water again.

Thomas Levet finished 12th, Darren Clarke 17th after going in the lake at the last for a double bogey six and Jimenez 38th.

For very different reasons, Harrington's delight was shared by England's Nick Dougherty, whose share of sixth place should secure his European Tour card for next season.

"I've never felt pressure like it," said Dougherty, who moves up from 128th on the Order of Merit to 95th. The top 115 keep their cards at the end of the year.

Collated final totals (Gbr and Irl unless stated, par 72):

275 Padraig Harrington 66 75 64 70 (£339,321)

278 Nick O'Hern (Aus) 68 68 72 70 (£226,211)

279 Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 68 68 70 73, Graeme McDowell 69 64 69 77 (£114,622 each)

280 Alex Cejka (Ger) 67 70 71 72 (£86,323)

283 Nick Dougherty 72 71 71 69, Richard Green (Aus) 68 68 73 74, Paul Casey 68 72 67 76

284 Kenneth Ferrie 73 71 72 68

285 Alastair Forsyth 70 71 73 71, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 70 73 71 71

286 Rolf Muntz (Ned) 69 73 72 72, Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 72 71 71 72, Thomas Levet (Fra) 70 68 74 74, Stephen Dodd 72 71 70 73, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa) 69 74 69 74

287 Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 77 70 71 69, Klas Eriksson (Swe) 71 74 71 71, Markus Brier (Aut) 73 72 70 72, Greg Owen 68 71 74 74, Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned) 70 69 73 75, Darren Clarke 71 70 71 75

288 Thomas Gogele (Ger) 71 76 72 69, Philippe Lima (Fra) 75 69 73 71, Brian Davis 73 69 70 76, Simon Khan 74 71 66 77

289 Jamie Spence 73 73 74 69, Miles Tunnicliff 76 71 72 70, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 70 75 71 73, Brett Rumford (Aus) 71 73 72 73, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 71 69 75 74, Phillip Price 73 72 70 74, Gregory Havret (Fra) 72 73 70 74, Mark Roe 75 70 70 74, Bradley Dredge 75 68 71 75, Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 74 71 69 75, Steve Webster 73 70 70 76

290 Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 75 69 73 73, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 73 71 71 75

291 Thomas Bjorn (Den) 74 70 75 72, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 73 72 73 73, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 68 76 74 73, Jarrod Moseley (Aus) 72 73 72 74, Anders Hansen (Den) 72 72 73 74, Gary Orr 71 73 73 74, Soren Hansen (Den) 71 74 71 75

292 Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 76 71 72 73, Peter Baker 73 73 72 74, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 72 72 74 74, Christian Cevaer (Fra) 72 72 73 75, Marten Olander (Swe) 75 72 69 76

293 Eduardo Romero (Arg) 75 72 76 70, Anthony Wall 69 76 77 71, Barry Lane 69 78 70 76

294 KJ Choi (Kor) 71 75 69 79

295 Sandy Lyle 78 69 74 74, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 72 75 73 75, Martin Maritz (Rsa) 74 72 73 76, Diego Borrego (Spa) 73 70 75 77, Robert Rock 72 70 74 79

296 Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 73 74 73 76, Gary Murphy 69 78 71 78, Gary Emerson 73 72 70 81

297 Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 74 72 75 76, James Kingston (Rsa) 75 72 71 79

298 Pierre Fulke (Swe) 74 73 73 78, Erol Simsek (Ger) 71 73 76 78, Raymond Russell 71 70 74 83

300 Marcel Siem (Ger) 72 75 81 72

301 Marc Farry (Fra) 70 76 72 83

304 David Geall 70 73 77 84

305 Andrew Oldcorn 73 72 80 80