Jose Maria Olazabal took a big leap towards a seventh Ryder Cup cap by ending more than three and a half years without a victory at the Mallorca Classic.

The 39-year-old, only one ahead overnight, charged four clear with a superb front nine of 31, stretched that to six after 11 holes and ended up taking the £170,744 first prize by five shots.

Olazabal, who took added satisfaction in the win from the fact he is in the process of re-designing the Pula course, finished with a round of 66 for a 10-under-par total of 270.

Second were defending champion Sergio Garcia, fellow Spaniard Jose Manuel Lara and England's Paul Broadhurst, whose level-par final round of 70 cost him the chance of a second win of the season.

"It feels very good, very special," said Olazabal. "It took quite a long time [to get back winning] but we did it again and I'm very happy about it.

"I'm happy because it was in Mallorca on a golf course I have been involved with."

Despite his impressive front nine the Spaniard said he could not relax until three holes from home.

"I just wanted to pay solid. There are no gimmes on that back nine," he added.

"You have to play solid golf to get a decent score so I knew I had a lot of things in my hands.

"Once I hit my tee shot on the fairway at the 16th I thought very strange things had to happen for me not to win."

Olazabal has risen more than 100 places in the world rankings this year after resurrecting his game and he said: "I have been working for it. I have been working on physique, trying to get it stronger, and I will get better and more consistent and that will help me to hit more consistent shots on the course."

On his chances of making next year's Ryder Cup at the K Club in Dublin he added: "I am [heading] in the right direction. I have to keep playing a few more good tournaments and I will be there."

Olazabal is now fourth in the cup standings - Garcia is second to Colin Montgomerie - and on course to return to the team next September after a gap of six years. His last match was the hugely controversial singles with Justin Leonard at Brookline in 1999.

His last title was the 2002 Buick Invitational in California and the last of his 22 European Tour victories the 2001 Hong Kong Open.

After a slump in his fortunes he has stormed back to prominence this year, losing a play-off to Phil Mickelson on the US Tour and finishing third in the Open at St Andrews.

His win made amends for what happened in this event two years ago. He led by two with two to play, but drove out of bounds on the 17th, double-bogeyed and then bogeyed the last to lose by one to Miguel Angel Jimenez.

This time he had even more strokes in hand and the pressure was off. Even when he bogeyed the short 13th there was no need to panic - and he did not.

With Garcia lifting the title a year ago it means the trio known in Spanish golfing circles as "the three musketeers" have all now put their names on the trophy in the three years it has been part of the European Tour.

Broadhurst was level when he made a 12-foot birdie putt on the short second. He and Olazabal both birdied the 383-yard fourth, but then the tide turned.

The two-time Masters champion made it a hat-trick of birdies and added another on the par-three ninth, while Broadhurst bogeyed the eighth and 10th.

Both then played the remaining holes in regulation as Olazabal was able to savour his victory.

The day also decided who stayed on the European Tour for another year - and there was delight for England's Sam Little and bitter disappointment for Scot David Drysdale.

Drysdale and Frenchman Gregory Bourdy went into the tournament holding the last two exempt spots, but lost control of their destiny by missing the halfway cut.

When Miguel Angel Martin made it through Bourdy was done for, but Drysdale then had to wait to see if he was pushed out as well with Little requiring a finish no worse than 24th.

He splashed out of sand to three feet at the last and sank the putt for the par which proved just enough.

"That was horrendous," said Little before discovering 30 minutes later Mattias Eliasson's failure to birdie the last two holes had left the Swede just short of his fourth-place target and so had made his job easier.

"I reckoned with five to play I needed two or three birdies." In the event five pars did it.

He retained his card by just £395 and had he not saved par at the last he would have been heading for the qualifying school.

Others who failed to save their places on tour included former Ryder Cup Swede Jarmo Sandelin and Drysdale's fellow Scot Raymond Russell, fourth at the 1998 Open and until this year always in Europe's top 100 since he last went to the qualifying school 10 years ago.

Andrew Coltart had the lowest round of the week, a seven-under-par 63 which he described as "a lovely way to put the season to bed" but he did not qualify for the season-ending Volvo Masters at Valderrama.

Collated final-round scores in the European Tour Mallorca Classic, Pula, Majorca: (Gbr and Irl unless stated, par 70):

(Gbr and Irl unless stated, par 70):

270 Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa) 69 65 70 66

275 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 69 69 71 66, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 68 69 70 68, Paul Broadhurst 67 66 72 70

276 Miles Tunnicliff 69 68 70 69, Simon Wakefield 69 71 67 69, Bradley Dredge 72 67 67 70

277 Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 67 71 72 67, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 70 71 66 70, Matthias Eliason (Swe) 68 68 70 71

278 Andrew Coltart 71 73 71 63, David Park 68 70 72 68, Graeme Storm 70 71 69 68, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 70 71 69 68, Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned) 70 68 71 69, John Bickerton 67 71 70 70

279 Robert Coles 70 70 74 65, Christopher Hanell (Swe) 73 69 69 68, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 70 66 70 73, Soren Hansen (Den) 70 69 66 74

280 Paul Lawrie 70 71 71 68, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 71 70 71 68, Markus Brier (Aut) 71 73 68 68, Simon Khan 67 69 72 72, Stephen Scahill (Nzl) 70 69 69 72, Sam Little 67 73 68 72

281 Miguel Angel Martin (Spa) 69 71 73 68, Christian Cevaer (Fra) 72 68 71 70, David Lynn 70 68 72 71, Gregory Havret (Fra) 69 66 73 73

282 Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 71 71 74 66, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 73 71 72 66, Benoit Teilleria (Fra) 69 69 77 67, Alastair Forsyth 69 70 76 67, Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 69 70 74 69, Jonathan Lomas 65 74 72 71, Andrew Oldcorn 71 71 69 71, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 68 72 70 72, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 72 69 69 72, Santiago Luna (Spa) 69 69 71 73, Klas Eriksson (Swe) 68 72 69 73

283 Carlos Del Moral (Spa) 69 70 76 68, Jamie Spence 72 70 72 69, Mark Roe 69 72 72 70, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 71 73 69 70, Peter Hanson (Swe) 69 73 70 71, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 71 69 71 72

284 Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 70 73 71 70, Mark Foster 66 72 75 71, Scott Drummond 69 69 75 71, Brad Kennedy (Aus) 69 70 72 73, Damien McGrane 72 71 68 73, Jesus Maria Arruti (Spa) 68 70 69 77

285 Ian Garbutt 73 71 73 68, Johan Skold (Swe) 71 73 69 72, Robert Rock 70 70 72 73, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 70 71 68 76

286 Marcel Siem (Ger) 71 72 77 66, Garry Houston 71 73 73 69, Raymond Russell 74 70 72 70, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 69 75 70 72, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 70 73 69 74

287 Niki Zitny (Aut) 70 72 75 70, Jose Manuel Carriles (Spa) 69 74 74 70, Alfredo Garcia (Spa) 75 69 73 70, Matthew Blackey 72 71 73 71, Stephen Gallacher 73 71 71 72, Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 68 68 75 76

288 Nick Dougherty 71 73 76 68, Jamie Donaldson 73 70 71 74, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 70 71 72 75

289 Marten Olander (Swe) 68 71 80 70

290 Phillip Archer 71 73 75 71, Fredrik Henge (Swe) 68 74 72 76, Andrea Maestroni (Ita) 73 68 71 78

291 Ivo Giner (Spa) 70 73 78 70, Simon Dyson 77 65 78 71, Simon Hurd 69 74 75 73

292 Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 70 69 74 79

294 Gary Murphy 66 74 78 76