TCL Classic winner Johan Edfors is expecting a major career change after the 30-year-old Swede won his first tournament on the European Tour on the Chinese island of Hainan.

Edfors finished one shot ahead of Australia's Andrew Buckle after overnight leader David Howell fell apart after three blistering opening rounds in the sedate surroundings of the South China Sea resort.

Howell went into the final day one shot clear at 23 under but the Swindon-born golfer imploded, carding a 75 to finish five behind the winner.

Edfors, whose previous best performance on the European Tour was a tie for ninth at the Madrid Open in 2004, now has a two-year exemption after earning his card for this season by going through the tour's qualifying school.

"It will change a lot," he said of his plans for the rest of the year.

"Until now, after getting my card back at the qualifying school in November, it was hard knowing what tournaments I would get to play.

"Now I can choose which tournaments I play and it will be great to make a schedule for the rest of the year. It will make a big impact."

With the win Edfors will receive an invitation to the HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai in November and moved into the top 20 on the European Order of Merit after picking up a cheque for £97,300, the biggest pay-day of his career.

Edfors started the fourth round two shots behind Howell and two bogeys in the first three holes looked to have put him out of contention.

But seven birdies - including one at the 18th - in the remaining 15 holes and only one bogey proved to be enough to stave off Buckle's challenge.

"I didn't have a very good start and bogeyed two and three and thought I was out of it then," said the Swede.

"Then, going down the ninth, I saw I was top of the leaderboard and I was really surprised. After that I started striking the ball nicely.

"On the last I had the perfect yardage for a pitching wedge for my second shot and hit it really well.

"I told myself to try to die the putt into the hole and it went straight in. It was a great feeling when that last putt went in."

After three days of low scores the wind finally picked up at the Yalong Bay Golf Club, providing the field with a stiffer challenge than before.

Edfors, however, felt the course was still relatively easy.

"If there is no wind, this is one of the easier courses but if it picks up..." he said.

"It suits my game perfectly. I am long off the tee and straight as well so I can drive three of the par fours and get up easily on the par fives.

"There are a lot of birdies there but if you are not careful it is easy to screw up as well. If you are playing well it is an easy course.

"It is probably one of the easier ones. I played on the Challenge Tour last year and there are a lot of courses like this.

"There is no rough so you can give it a go off the tee and that makes it easier I guess."

For Howell, however, his poor performance was anything but ideal preparation as he flies to Florida for next week's Players Championship at Sawgrass.

"Strangely I'm not that disappointed," he said. "It was just one of those days and I just didn't play very well.

"Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. I felt my concentration was pretty good. It was just one of those days. I couldn't do anything right for love nor money.

"What can you do? Try your best and it wasn't good enough. Andrew played great and Johan has had a great round.

"It is a lot more difficult out there with the wind and maybe I didn't adapt to the conditions quite well enough.

"I had a low score still in mind when I should perhaps have been looking at something sensible like 68, which would have won the tournament. I possibly had the wrong mindset going out there."

Collated final scores & totals

(Gbr and Irl unless stated, par 72):

(x) denotes amateur

263 Johan Edfors (Swe) 66 66 63 68

264 Andrew Buckle (aus) 63 66 65 70

265 Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 66 66 68 65

266 Nick Dougherty 66 67 64 69

267 Gaurev Ghei (Ind) 67 69 65 66, Lu Wen Teh (Tpe) 69 68 64 66

268 Warren Abery (Rsa) 63 68 71 66, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 69 63 66 70, David Howell 64 63 66 75

269 Paul Casey 65 68 68 68, Edward Loar (USA) 62 69 68 70

270 Ariel Canete (Arg) 65 66 70 69

271 Matthew Millar (Aus) 68 67 68 68, Wang Ter Chang (Tpe) 66 67 69 69, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 65 67 69 70

272 Anthony Kang (USA) 68 71 69 64, Prom Meesawat (Tha) 68 70 68 66, Paul McGinley 69 65 68 70, Lin Keng Chi (Tpe) 67 67 67 71

273 Scott Strange (Aus) 68 64 71 70

274 Alexandre Rocha (Bra) 70 69 66 69, Amandeep Johl (Ind) 70 63 69 72, Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 66 65 70 73, Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 63 69 68 74

275 Simon Yates 67 72 71 65, Uhno Park (Aus) 71 64 73 67, Li Chao (Chn) 70 67 71 67, Brad Kennedy (Aus) 68 66 73 68, David Bransdon (Aus) 70 68 68 69, Simon Hurd 69 68 68 70, Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha) 69 70 65 71, Christopher Hanell (Swe) 67 68 68 72

276 Phillip Archer 66 72 70 68, Chris Rodgers 67 72 69 68, Rafael Gomez (Arg) 71 68 69 68, Gregory Havret (Fra) 67 66 72 71, Mahal Pearce (NZ) 68 68 69 71, Jamie Donaldson 68 68 69 71, David Griffiths 68 67 69 72, Soren Hansen (Den) 66 69 67 74

277 Lee Sung (Kor) 68 69 72 68, Richard McEvoy 68 71 70 68, Wilhelm Schauman (Swe) 66 69 73 69, Marco Ruiz (Par) 67 70 70 70, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 71 68 67 71, Hendrik Buhrmann (Rsa) 71 68 67 71, Rahil Gangjee (Ind) 66 69 69 73

278 Thammanoon Srirot (Tha) 69 70 74 65, Jarrod Lyle (Aus) 68 65 75 70, Hennie Otto (Rsa) 69 68 68 73, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 66 73 66 73

279 Iain Pyman 69 70 70 70, Liang Wen Chong (Chn) 62 74 71 72, Jason Dawes (Aus) 68 67 71 73

280 Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 70 68 72 70, Ross Bain 70 67 72 71, Angelo Que (Phi) 71 67 71 71, Gary Clark 70 69 69 72, Keith Horne (Rsa) 72 67 69 72, Adam Blyth (Aus) 67 66 73 74, Ari Savolainen (Fin) 66 69 67 78

281 Terry Pilkadaris (Aus) 69 68 69 75

282 Brian Akstrup (Den) 69 69 73 71, Stephen Scahill (NZ) 71 66 70 75

284 Johan Skold (Swe) 68 70 72 74, Raymond Russell 70 67 72 75, Richard Moir (Aus) 69 68 71 76

287 Marcel Siem (Ger) 70 68 71 78