Welshman Stephen Dodd began the new European tour season on Sunday by ending a 15-year wait for his first title.

The 38-year-old from Cardiff, who turned professional after becoming British amateur champion back in 1989, held off the challenge of Ryder Cup Dane Thomas Bjorn to win the Volvo China Open in Shanghai by three.

"As time goes on you're not sure it's going to happen, so obviously I'm delighted," said Dodd after a 12-foot birdie putt on the last gave him a 12 under par total of 276 and earned him just under £90,000.

Dodd's career has included no fewer than 10 trips to the qualifying school, the last of them only four years ago.

This was his 166th tour event, but that is not even close to the most anybody has had to wait. Malcolm Mackenzie finally tasted success at his 509th attempt, Roger Chapman in his 472nd tournament and Carl Mason in his 441st.

"I never believed I wasn't good enough," he added. "If I didn't think that I would have stopped a long time ago.

"There are lots of people who have been to the school four, five or six times and proved themselves as winners."

Compatriot Ian Woosnam needed three visits before becoming world number one and Masters champion.

Ranked 229th in the world compared to Bjorn's 31st, Dodd made a nonsense of that apparent gulf in class. He led by three after the second and third rounds as well and while Bjorn's closing 68 was one of the best scores of the day it did not even narrow the gap.

The former Walker Cup player - he was a member of the first Britain and Ireland side to win on American soil 15 years ago - matched it.

There were a couple of worrying moments, however. For the second day running he was in water at the seventh, but unlike his third round triple bogey this time he pitched dead to drop only one shot.

He then birdied the 10th, 11th and 13th to be four clear before Bjorn, his only danger by then, pitched to three feet at the 15th and drew two behind when Dodd three-putted the 17th.

A poor drive down the 554-yard last denied Bjorn the chance to go for the green, though, and instead it was Dodd who was on in two. A smile came on his face at that point and while his long eagle attempt was probably his worst putt of the week his next found the target.

It was the 13th runners-up finish of Bjorn's career and third this year. Miguel Angel Jimenez pipped him in the Johnnie Walker Classic in Bangkok and Ernie Els in the American Express world championship at Mount Juliet in Ireland.

The 33-year-old was the only player in the world's top 100 taking part, but was not too disappointed at failure to justify his favourite tag.

Bjorn said: "That's a win for the good guys because Stephen's one of them. He's been around for a long time and good for him.

"He did all the right things. From the sixth to the 13th I couldn't play any better, but he matched me. I had to shoot 65 to catch him and on this course that's not easy." Nobody achieved it all week.

"I came here to get a feeling of having a chance to win and I achieved that. Unfortunately it's another second, but you've got to take some good from that. You want to win, but when you're up again a guy who plays as well as he did you've just got to say 'well done'."

Joint third were Thai golfers Chawalit Plaphol and Thaworn Wiratchant along with Australian Jason Dawes, whose closing 66 included a hole-in-one on the 185-yard eighth.

Collated final totals in the Volvo China Open at Shanghai Silport, Shanghai, China:

(Gbr and Irl unless stated, par 72):

(x) denotes amateur

276 Stephen Dodd 68 70 70 68 (£89,602)

279 Thomas Bjorn (Den) 71 72 68 68 (£59,736)

282 Jason Dawes (Aus) 68 74 74 66, Chawalit Plaphol (Tha) 75 69 72 66, Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha) 71 74 69 68

283 Steve Webster 70 75 70 68, Amandeep Johl (Ind) 68 76 70 69

284 Jonathan Lomas 72 71 72 69, Barry Lane 68 75 70 71, Soren Hansen (Den) 70 71 70 73

285 Joon Chung (Kor) 69 72 72 72, Mark Foster 70 72 71 72, Simon Yates 70 73 70 72, Gregory Havret (Fra) 71 75 67 72

286 Liang Wen-chong (Chn) 72 74 73 67, Anthony Wall 73 72 71 70, Bradley Dredge 67 75 70 74

287 Peter Lawrie 72 78 70 67, David Park 73 77 70 67, Damien McGrane 71 74 73 69, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 69 77 68 73

288 Chris Williams 72 72 73 71, Paul Broadhurst 73 73 71 71

289 Andrew Pitts (USA) 69 77 74 69, James Kingston (Rsa) 69 78 70 72

290 Edward Michaels (USA) 72 72 74 72, Philip Golding 71 75 70 74

291 Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 72 78 73 68, Zhang Lian-wei (Chn) 69 76 74 72, Wang Ter-chang (Tai) 72 74 73 72, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 70 76 73 72, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 74 75 70 72, Matthew King 68 73 77 73, Rick Gibson (Can) 70 79 68 74

292 Anthony Kang (Kor) 72 76 73 71, Terry Pilkadaris (Aus) 75 72 72 73

293 Graeme Storm 78 72 76 67, Pablo Del Olmo (Mex) 72 76 73 72

294 Hendrik Buhrmann (Rsa) 71 79 73 71, Simon Dyson 72 78 72 72, Stephen Scahill (Nzl) 72 75 74 73, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 72 75 74 73, Marc Cayeux (Zim) 68 75 77 74, Fredrik Andersson (Swe) 71 75 74 74, Unho Park (Aus) 67 80 70 77, Kwang-soo Choi (Kor) 75 72 70 77, Gary Rusnak (USA) 73 75 69 77

295 Scott Barr (Aus) 73 78 74 70, Miguel Angel Martin (Spa) 75 74 74 72, Paul Lawrie 71 78 73 73, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 74 75 73 73, Nick Dougherty 72 79 69 75, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 71 76 72 76

296 Pat Giles (Aus) 75 74 74 73, Gregory Hanrahan (USA) 73 71 77 75, Andrew Marshall 73 75 72 76

297 Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned) 72 78 78 69, Des Terblanche (Rsa) 72 77 77 71, Mardan Mamat (Sing) 71 80 74 72, Raymond Russell 70 80 71 76, Robert Coles 71 76 73 77

298 Thammanoon Srirot (Tha) 72 77 77 72, (x) Henry Liaw (USA) 73 77 74 74

300 Arjun Singh (Ind) 73 77 78 72, Shang Lei (Chn) 71 79 74 76, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 76 70 74 80

301 Jamie Donaldson 73 78 75 75, Johan Axgren (Swe) 76 75 73 77

302 Harmeet Kahlon (Ind) 74 77 76 75, Danny Chia (Mal) 72 79 75 76

303 Nobuhito Sato (Jpn) 75 76 78 74, Huang Ming Jie (Chn) 73 77 76 77