Liverpool's Nick Dougherty suffered Open championship heartbreak on Sunday as South African Tim Clark won the Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond.

While Clark - at just 5ft 7in the same height as Gary Player - held off the challenge of Darren Clarke and Dutchman Maarten Lafeber to take the £400,000 first prize, Dougherty's dream of a first Open appearance was dashed.

And dashed after he made a brilliant effort to catch Lafeber in the race for the one place on offer at St Andrews.

"I'm gutted - absolutely gutted," said the 23-year-old, who birdied the 16th and 18th for a closing 67, but came up two shots short when Lafeber, having bogeyed the 15th to re-ignited his hopes, parred the last three.

As Dougherty, who had never even played in a major until last month's US Open and had wanted so much to be part of Jack Nicklaus' farewell appearance, headed home rather to the home of golf, Clark celebrated a magnificent performance capped by an 18-foot birdie putt on the last green.

The reigning South African Open champion was level with Lafeber with four to play, but the Eindhoven golfer bogeyed the 15th and Clark's grandstand finish gave him the title by two.

He also shot 67 for a 19 under par aggregate which equalled Tom Lehman's tournament record on the course.

It was an overseas triumph therefore, but there are plenty of Europeans heading for the St Andrews in high spirits.

Clarke returned only last week from a month off helping his wife Heather in her battle with cancer and heart problems, but he goes into the Open with finishes of fourth and second.

Helped by sinking a 130-yard wedge for an eagle two at the fourth he fired a 66, while Ian Poulter charged into fourth place with a 65, out-scoring playing partner and twice winner Ernie Els by three over the weekend.

Dougherty was tied for fifth with his former Walker Cup partner Luke Donald, who now hopes to dramatically improve an Open record of five starts, five missed cuts.

He will feel immense sympathy for Dougherty, though, after seeing him play so well under pressure.

Clark, whose Open odds have come down from 80/1 to 50/1 as a result, said: "I'm extremely honoured to win this.

"On quality of field it's my biggest win, but it's always great to win your home title. Maarten played great too and the quality of golf kept us both going."

Key to his victory was the long 13th. He leaked his drive there, found sand and could not advance it far.

For his third shot Clark, ranked 26th in the world following his third place finish in the US Open, needed a six-iron, but he struck it to 10 feet and made the putt.

Lafeber had birdied the hole before to go ahead, but when he three-putted the 15th he was one behind and he could not get it back.

Clarke stated: "I've very excited about this week. Coming back last week I had no expectations.

"There's probably a lesson there, but I'm just not smart enough to realise it!

"I couldn't quite get it close enough over the last few holes, but that's the best I've played this week. I've been struggling, but I went on the range last night for a couple of hours and figured a couple of things out.

"I'm grinding it out when I have to and sometimes you just have to wait for a day like today. Hopefully I'll get the grinding down and there will be more days like today."

Poulter is overjoyed about how he is playing going into his fifth Open - 25th place last year was his best - but was also critical of some heavy-footed golfer in front of him.

He would love to put a name to the culprit, saying: "Somebody is causing havoc. They have 14-inch spikes and I don't know how anybody can dig up greens that badly.

"Ernie and I were just laughing at the marks - it was comical. You've just got to careful you don't twist your feet or do anything silly. And tap them down afterwards.

"I can't wait for St Andrews. I'm playing much better than when I played my first Open there five years ago and it's going to be awesome."

Donald stated: "I had a good solid week, good preparation. I was struggling a bit with my alignment on the greens, but I spent an hour after each round working on it and it's getting better.

"I'm not thinking about making the cut this week. I'm going there to win. I know St Andrews better than the other Open venues and I've played well there."

But Dougherty was rueing what might have been.

"My bogey on the 14th (a driveable par four) was the killer," he said. "You can't afford a mistake like that.

"I was seething coming off, but finished strongly and that's a credit to the work I've been doing with Jamil."

He is a number of golfers who sees "mind magician" Jamil Quereshi.

"I've played better than some of the top players in the world here (Phil Mickelson and Retief Goosen managed only five under) and it could be a blessing in disguise to have a week off.

"I heard a rumour there were two spots in the Open here, but Maarten has played great in a field like this and all credit to him.

"He and I were in the same restaurant last night and I put a lot of pepper on his meal when he went to the toilet, but I hope he does really well this week."

Collated final-round scores (Gbr and Irl unless stated, par 71):

265 Tim Clark (Rsa) 67 66 65 67 (£400,000)

267 Darren Clarke 67 65 69 66, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 67 63 68 69 (£208,450 each)

268 Ian Poulter 69 67 67 65 (£120,000)

269 Nick Dougherty 66 69 67 67, Luke Donald 68 67 67 67, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 64 67 68 70 (£85,920 each)

270 Peter Hedblom (Swe) 67 68 68 67, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 67 69 66 68, Alastair Forsyth 68 64 67 71

271 Ernie Els (Rsa) 70 66 67 68

272 Gary Orr 68 65 71 68, Adam Scott (Aus) 70 67 64 71

273 Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 71 67 69 66, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 74 66 65 68, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 70 66 68 69, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 66 70 67 70

274 Anthony Wall 69 66 71 68, Simon Dyson 71 64 70 69, David Lynn 69 68 67 70, Colin Montgomerie 68 69 66 71

275 Richard Finch 68 71 68 68, Greg Owen 67 66 72 70, Simon Khan 67 67 70 71

276 Richard Bland 69 70 68 69, Lee Westwood 65 69 72 70, David Drysdale 67 69 70 70, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa) 68 69 69 70, Paul Broadhurst 73 65 65 73

277 Phillip Archer 70 67 72 68, Mark Roe 68 71 70 68, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 69 70 69 69, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 65 68 74 70, Tom Lehman (USA) 66 69 71 71, Jonathan Lomas 67 65 72 73, Terry Price (Aus) 69 68 67 73, Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned) 69 67 67 74, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 66 69 66 76

278 John Bickerton 71 69 72 66, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 71 69 69 69, Christopher Hanell (Swe) 69 69 69 71, Klas Eriksson (Swe) 68 70 68 72, Ben Mason 72 65 68 73

279 Robert Allenby (Aus) 68 67 75 69, Phil Mickelson 67 72 71 69, Scott Henderson 72 68 70 69, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 71 67 71 70, Eduardo Romero (Arg) 70 67 71 71, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 69 69 69 72

280 Christian Cevaer (Fra) 71 69 72 68, Thomas Levet (Fra) 71 68 71 70, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 66 72 71 71, Philip Golding 70 66 72 72, Garry Houston 70 69 69 72

281 Stephen Gallacher 68 70 74 69, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 68 70 72 71

282 SimonWakefield 70 68 67 77

283 Jamie Donaldson 71 65 75 72, David Griffiths 69 69 73 72, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 73 67 71 72, Miguel Angel Martin (Spa) 66 73 71 73, Scott Drummond 72 67 71 73, Paul Lawrie 65 71 71 76

284 Oliver Wilson 69 69 72 74

285 Peter Gustafsson (Swe) 69 70 72 74

286 Jamie Spence 73 67 74 72, Stuart Little 64 73 73 76

287 Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 70 70 73 74, Rolf Muntz (Ned) 69 69 73 76, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 72 68 69 78

288 Kenneth Ferrie 67 71 79 71

289 David Carter 68 68 79 74