Sweden's Niclas Fasth won his first European Tour event in five years by beating Miles Tunnicliff in a play-off in the Holden New Zealand Open.

Fasth birdied the second extra hole to claim the £107,000 first prize after the pair had finished tied on 22 under par at Gulf Harbour.

The former Ryder Cup player had carded a superb closing 63 and looked certain of victory when Tunnicliff missed a short birdie putt on the 17th hole in the final round.

However, Tunnicliff recovered his composure to birdie the last and force sudden death, the players returning to the 18th to decide the title.

Tunnicliff's approach on the first extra hole flew the green and hit a young female spectator, the ball bouncing off at almost 90 degrees into the rough.

After checking to make sure the unfortunate girl would be OK, Tunnicliff managed to get up and down for par, Fasth narrowly missing from 18ft for birdie.

Both players found the green the second time around and after Tunnicliff had missed from long range, Fasth holed from 12ft for birdie to seal victory.

Fasth, who finished second to David Duval in the 2001 Open at Lytham to earn his place in the Ryder Cup, endured a miserable season last year on the US Tour, missing the cut in 12 of his 21 events and recording just one top-20 finish.

He lost his card after finishing 172nd on the money list and was ranked 155th in the world at the start of the week, but demonstrated his potential with two top-10s on his visits to Europe.

"It feels really, really good," said the 32-year-old. "To win here is fantastic and it really gives me assurance that I'm going the right way with everything.

"I've felt good about things on and off and especially lately I feel the last six months of work have paid off. But it's one thing to feel it, to actually win is big. You have to do something special to win a tournament.

"I was hoping during the first six months this year to re-establish my position on the world rankings and get playing on the world scene again after a disappointing last year.

"I felt I was strong enough coming into this season to do that and I feel really good about my game. It's very strong in almost every respect and I'm expecting it to fall into place more and more.

"I'll keep playing the way I was planning to do but obviously this gives me a bit of confidence. I know where I want to go and this is one step."

Tunnicliff admitted he had been shaken by seeing his shot strike a spectator. "It wasn't nice to see her being put on a stretcher but they told me she was going to be okay," said the Marbella-based 36-year-old.

"I just had to take a few deep breaths and calm down a bit. All in all it's been a great week. I didn't come in here playing very well but seemed to turn it around and it gives me a lot of confidence."

Australian duo Richard Green and Simon Nash shared third place on 18 under par while overnight leader Oliver Wilson, playing only his fifth Tour event, struggled to a 74 to drop to a share of seventh.

Wilson, unbeaten in Britain and Ireland's unprecedented third straight Walker Cup victory in September 2003, was never in contention after three-putting the second for bogey but finished in style with a birdie on the last.

"I putted so well the first three days and it was the absolute opposite today, I think I had 36 putts," said Wilson.

"It was one of those days, I got off to a bad start with the putter and could never overcome that.

"It was at least a great way to finish because that moved me up inside the top 10. If I'd have finished outside the top 10 after that week it would have been a really bad week.

"I'm pleased with it, I've never been in that position but I took a lot from Saturday's round."

Collated final round scores and totals in the Holden New Zealand Open, Gulf Harbour CC, New Zealand

(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):

266 Niclas Fasth (Swe) 65 63 75 63 (Won on second play-off hole), Miles Tunnicliff 67 63 70 66

270 Richard Green (Aus) 70 63 69 68, Simon Nash (USA) 65 67 71 67

271 Peter O'Malley (Aus) 68 70 66 67, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 68 65 72 66

273 Jarrod Moseley (Aus) 66 66 73 68, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 66 67 72 68, Oliver Wilson 66 65 68 74, Steve Alker (Nzl) 69 65 72 67, Rolf Muntz (Ned) 67 66 72 68, Damien McGrane 67 66 72 68

274 Marcus Fraser (Aus) 68 67 68 71, Peter Lawrie 68 68 70 68, Lee Slattery 68 70 66 70, Ricky Schmidt (Aus) 68 69 73 64

275 Greg Chalmers (Aus) 71 66 74 64, Alastair Forsyth 65 71 71 68, Andrew Buckle (Aus) 67 69 74 65, Stephen Scahill (Nzl) 69 71 70 65

276 Anders Hansen (Den) 69 69 72 66, Barry Cheeseman (USA) 69 69 69 69, Peter Senior (Aus) 68 71 71 66, Simon Khan 66 70 69 71

277 James Nitties (Aus) 69 71 72 65, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 73 67 71 66, Andrew Tschudin (Aus) 68 72 66 71, Brett Rumford (Aus) 67 69 69 72, Paul Sheehan (Aus) 67 67 75 68, Nick Dougherty 70 69 71 67

278 Craig Parry (Aus) 68 68 69 73, Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 65 70 73 70, David Bransdon (Aus) 68 70 71 69, Mathew Goggin (Aus) 69 69 70 70, Fredrik Henge (Swe) 71 68 70 69, Garry Houston 66 67 72 73

279 Phillipe Lima (Fra) 68 66 75 70, Steven Jeffress (Aus) 68 71 73 67

280 Peter Fowler (Aus) 69 71 71 69, Costantino Rocca (Ita) 71 68 73 68

281 Kenneth Ferrie 72 65 74 70, Marcus Cain (Aus) 68 67 76 70, Wayne Perske (Aus) 69 68 71 73, Gary Simpson (Aus) 70 69 74 68, Steve Webster 70 69 80 62, Christopher Hanell (Swe) 65 70 76 70, Matthew Ecob (Aus) 70 69 72 70, Steven Bowditch (Aus) 64 69 79 69, Adam Groom (Aus) 66 72 69 74, Andrew Marshall 69 70 71 71, Martin Maritz (Rsa) 66 70 75 70, Brad Lamb (Aus) 68 72 72 69

282 Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 69 68 72 73, Martin Doyle (Aus) 70 68 74 70, Nathan Green (Aus) 70 67 73 72, Terry Price (Aus) 69 69 74 70, Peter Hanson (Swe) 69 68 77 68, Paul Lawrie 71 69 71 71, Kim Felton (Aus) 67 72 74 69, Dean Alaban (Aus) 70 68 74 70

283 Scott Gardiner (Aus) 69 70 71 73, Christian Cevaer (Fra) 69 70 74 70, John Bickerton 69 71 72 71, Graeme Storm 71 69 72 71, Mattias Eliasson (Swe) 70 69 74 70, Craig Carmichael (Aus) 70 69 73 71

284 Gareth Paddison (Nzl) 70 70 75 69, Marten Olander (Swe) 70 68 73 73, Phillip Archer 69 67 78 70, Nobuhito Sato (Jpn) 67 71 73 73, Barry Lane 69 69 76 70, Mark Foster 69 71 73 71

285 Craig Jones (Aus) 70 70 75 70

286 Jamie Donaldson 71 68 74 73, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 69 71 74 72

287 Jason Dawes (Aus) 67 73 75 72

288 Ben Burge (Aus) 69 71 74 74

290 Alistair Presnell (Aus) 66 73 77 74

293 Adam Crawford (Aus) 66 71 77 79