Sweden's Johan Edfors grabbed his third title in just 10 starts on Sunday - after a stunning closing round of 63 in the Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond.

Six strokes behind, down in 24th place and given odds of 125-1 with 18 holes to play, the 30-year-old came charging through to claim the £400,000 first prize.

"I said to myself that if I can make nine birdies on Thursday I can make them on Sunday - and I did," said Edfors, who will play the first major championship of his life this week. "It feels wonderful."

Edfors was a lowly 410th in the world rankings entering this season, had never finished higher than ninth in a tour event and had just made his seventh trip to the qualifying school, surviving it with only three shots to spare.

His total tour earnings at the end of 2005 stood at just over £100,000. Already this year he has won £860,000.

The breakthrough came when he won in China in March and two months later he beat a much stronger field to capture the British Masters at The Belfry.

Yet despite this latest success he still has more to do to climb into the top 10 in the Ryder Cup table. Luke Donald's second place lifts him back into an automatic spot and leaves Edfors in 11th place.

Joint overnight leaders Darren Clarke and Thomas Bjorn, two of the big guns of European golf, could manage only one over par rounds of 72 and did not even finish second.

With bogeys on the final hole they slipped to fifth, leaving Donald, South African Charl Schwartzel and Argentina's Andres Romero as joint runners-up.

Romero's performance earned him a place in this week's Open championship - but only when playing partner Benn Barham missed a nine-foot birdie putt on the last.

Edfors had all his nine birdies in the first 13 holes after resuming on five under and if he had parred in from there he would have matched Retief Goosen's course record 62.

Even after failing to get up and down from a bunker at the short 17th and then missing a 15-foot birdie chance at the last he had turned his deficit into a two-shot lead once Bjorn had bogeyed the ninth and 10th.

Clarke had three bogeys in four holes around the turn and for most of the back nine the likeliest player to catch Edfors was Romero.

No relation to his namesake Eduardo, who won this title in 2002, he came to the last needing a birdie to tie, but bunkered his approach and failed to get up and down.

Donald fired a 66 and, with no bogeys in his last 42 holes, will be one of Europe's top hopes to end their seven-year barren spell in the majors.

"It's about time," he said. "No bogeys all weekend is encouraging for next week and I want to win it as much as anyone else."

Sergio Garcia and Ernie Els finished joint ninth on nine under, Garcia reporting no recurrence of the back strain that bothered him at last month's US Open.

Colin Montgomerie was three strokes further back in 24th spot - and described not winning as possibly "a blessing in disguise."

The 43-year-old Scot, runner-up to Tiger Woods in the Open last year and, of course, after his closing double bogey in the US Open, explained: "It's tiring winning. Sometimes it's not good to.

"I'm okay. I just putted very, very poorly again. Like last year, I'll find somewhere tomorrow night and work on it for a couple of hours."

Montgomerie has never played with Edfors and was not aware of him until this year.

"He looks like (Roger) Federer and if he plays golf half as well as Federer plays tennis he'll be fine. With three wins he probably deserves a Ryder Cup place. Anyone who qualifies deserves their place."

Bjorn said: "For the first eight holes I played as good as you can play. Then I hit a bad shot on nine and that kind of rocked the boat a bit.

"From there it was a bit of a struggle all the way to try and do the sensible things. Now I just have to go and prepare for next week.

"Johan played magnificently. He did all the right things that he had to do right and he would be a good addition for our Ryder Cup team.''

Collated final scores & totals in the European Tour Barclays Scottish Open, Loch Lomond, Scotland (Gbr and Irl unless stated, par 71):

271 Johan Edfors (Swe) 65 69 74 63 (£400,000)

273 Luke Donald 68 69 70 66, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 68 66 72 67, Andres Romero (Arg) 72 64 68 69 (£178,966 each)

274 Tim Clark (Rsa) 69 67 69 69, Benn Barham 71 68 65 70, Darren Clarke 66 65 71 72, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 72 64 66 72 (£79,440 each)

275 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 71 67 69 68, Ernie Els (Rsa) 70 69 67 69, Raphael Jacquelin (Swe) 68 72 65 70

276 Kenneth Ferrie 71 69 71 65, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 72 69 66 69

277 Soren Hansen (Den) 73 66 71 67, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 70 69 71 67, Anders Hansen (Den) 74 66 70 67, Greg Owen 74 66 69 68, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 71 66 70 70, Ian Poulter 70 67 70 70, Ian Garbutt 71 67 69 70, David Lynn 70 68 69 70, Mark Foster 70 68 68 71, Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 73 65 67 72

278 Paul Lawrie 70 71 70 67, Phillip Archer 72 67 70 69, Stephen Gallacher 70 71 67 70, Colin Montgomerie 72 66 69 71, Tom Lehman (USA) 69 72 66 71, Damien McGrane 68 66 71 73

279 Lee Westwood 69 67 71 72, David Drysdale 65 70 69 75

280 David Bransdon (Aus) 67 71 73 69, Marcel Siem (Ger) 69 69 72 70, Richard Finch 70 69 69 72

281 Oliver Wilson 74 65 72 70, Simon Khan 69 72 69 71, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 68 70 71 72, David Howell 69 72 68 72

282 Brett Rumford (Aus) 72 67 75 68, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 69 69 74 70, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 70 69 73 70, Simon Wakefield 70 69 71 72, Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 68 70 71 73, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 71 70 68 73, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 71 69 69 73, Jamie Donaldson 68 67 71 76

283 Andrew Butterfield 67 73 73 70, Gary Clark 69 71 72 71, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 74 67 70 72, Paul Broadhurst 69 71 70 73, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa) 67 74 69 73, Paul McGinley 69 71 69 74, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 69 68 71 75

284 (x) Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 71 70 71 72, Steve Webster 73 68 71 72, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 68 70 73 73, Garry Houston 68 71 72 73, Gregory Havret (Fra) 69 67 73 75, Simon Dyson 70 70 69 75

285 Shiv Kapur (Ind) 72 69 72 72, Raymond Russell 67 69 75 74

286 Richard Bland 71 69 75 71, David Griffiths 70 71 70 75

287 Jonathan Lomas 69 71 74 73, Barry Lane 68 72 72 75

288 Hale Irwin (USA) 68 72 72 76

289 Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 69 70 79 71

293 Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 72 69 72 80

295 David Higgins 71 70 74 80