England's Ross Fisher survived a nerve-wracking finish and lengthy rules investigation before claiming his first European Tour title in extraordinary fashion in the KLM Open in Zandvoort.

Fisher saw a four-shot lead disappear over the closing stretch before somehow regaining his composure to birdie the last from 10 feet and seemingly secure a one-shot victory over local favourite Joost Luiten.

However, before he could sign his card he was informed of a potential rules violation on the 12th hole and driven off in a buggy to investigate.

The debate centred on whether Fisher had moved a bramble from near his ball before playing his second shot to the par five.

The 26-year-old initially thought it was a loose impediment which he could move, but discovered it was still attached to the ground.

Tour officials Miguel Vidaor and Jose Maria Zamora accompanied Fisher as they tried to recreate the incident and study television footage to see whether he had improved his stance.

Eventually Fisher was cleared of any wrongdoing and could celebrate lifting the trophy and £180,000 first prize.

"I feel very lucky and fortunate to be standing here as the winner," admitted Fisher, who signed for a closing 67 and 12-under total of 268.

"I was ecstatic one minute and then suddenly it was not looking so good.

"I read the rule and thought 'Christ, what have I done?' The buggy ride to the 12th was the longest of my life and to stand there for 15-20 minutes looking at the footage was terrible.

"I feel very privileged that they said to me 'You haven't done anything wrong, you're the winner'. I went to move it thinking it was a loose impediment but it wasn't and I just left it."

Fisher looked to be cruising to victory when he led by four shots with three to play after four birdies in 13 holes, but then three-putted the 16th and 17th as Luiten - playing three groups ahead - birdied the 16th and 18th.

"I just tried to suck it up," added Fisher, who led after 54 holes of the BMW Championship on his home course of Wentworth earlier this season only to crumble to a closing 84.

"I thought 'You've still got a chance' and although I was a bit angry on the 18th tee I just tried to compose myself and trust my swing.

"I thought I'd left the putt short but to see it disappear brought a tear to my eyes almost."

Luiten is just 21 years old but has won twice on the Challenge Tour already this seaso courtesy of closing rounds of 64 and 61, and carded a flawless 66 today.

"I am happy with the way I played and the spectators, they were great," said Luiten.

"I loved playing in front of so many people and it was a great stimulus for me to play well.

"It would have been great to win but I would not have wanted to win it by someone else getting a penalty."

Scotland's Alastair Forsyth, Germany's Bernhard Langer, Swede Alexander Noren, France's Thomas Levet and New Zealand's Steve Alker shared third place on eight under, while overnight joint leader David Carter slumped to a closing 75 for a share of 23rd place.

After his first event for a month since undergoing surgery to remove kidney stones, Langer said: "Overall I played fairly decent. It must have taken us 45 minutes to play the seventh hole as we both looked for balls for five minutes and then had to find a place to drop.

"I felt I left out some shots out there but that is golf and this course is so brutal."

The former Ryder Cup captain turns 50 tomorrow and will make his seniors debut on the Champions Tour at Pebble Beach on Thursday.

"There are some great players out there and I will be a rookie next week but then there will be new rookies coming along," he said.

"I think I will enjoy myself and that is what I'm trying to do right now."

Collated final scores (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 70):

268 Ross Fisher 66 67 68 67

269 Joost Luiten (Ned) 68 64 71 66

272 Bernhard Langer (Ger) 67 71 67 67, Steve Alker (Nzl) 66 66 69 71, Alexander Noren (Swe) 65 67 72 68, Alastair Forsyth 66 71 69 66, Thomas Levet (Fra) 65 70 68 69

273 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 64 71 70 68, Stephen Gallacher 70 68 66 69, Markus Brier (Aut) 67 68 70 68, Tom Whitehouse 68 67 71 67

274 Michael Campbell (Nzl) 65 71 69 69, Richard Finch 68 67 72 67, John Bickerton 68 67 69 70, David Lynn 65 70 70 69, Simon Khan 67 69 69 69

275 Brett Rumford (Aus) 69 70 69 67, Chris Riley (USA) 66 69 71 69, Garry Houston 68 68 72 67, Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 69 71 71 64, Phillip Price 68 68 67 72, David Higgins 68 67 68 72

276 David Carter 65 65 71 75, Henrik Nystrom (Swe) 66 67 72 71, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 69 67 69 71, Peter Gustafsson (Swe) 70 70 69 67

277 Simon Dyson 67 73 66 71, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 70 70 69 68, Simon Wakefield 68 68 73 68, Lee Slattery 66 73 70 68, Sam Walker 69 64 75 69, Gary Murphy 67 71 70 69, Mark Pilkington 71 68 68 70, Paul Lawrie 66 69 69 73, David Bransdon (Aus) 68 69 70 70, James Hepworth 70 69 66 72

278 Steve Webster 65 71 72 70, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 68 71 68 71, Nick Dougherty 69 67 69 73, Andrew Coltart 65 73 71 69, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 67 69 71 71, Johan Axgren (Swe) 67 71 69 71, Marc Cayeux (Zim) 69 70 69 70, Marcus Higley 72 67 72 67, Taichi Teshima (Jpn) 64 72 71 71

279 Kenneth Ferrie 66 74 68 71

280 Sven Struver (Ger) 66 72 68 74, Luis Claverie (Spa) 67 70 73 70, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 67 73 68 72, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 67 70 71 72, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 69 70 70 71

281 Joakim Backstrom (Swe) 69 68 73 71, Christian Cevaer (Fra) 71 66 75 69, James Kingston (Rsa) 70 67 71 73, James Heath 70 69 71 71, Steven O'Hara 68 69 69 75, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 69 68 76 68

282 Robert Rock 69 69 72 72, David Griffiths 71 64 72 75, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 69 68 71 74, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 71 68 70 73, Martin Maritz (Rsa) 70 70 71 71

283 Andrew Marshall 66 73 71 73, Marcel Siem (Ger) 68 72 73 70

285 Anton Haig (Rsa) 70 69 73 73, David Drysdale 70 68 75 72, Matthew Millar (Aus) 68 71 72 74, Ian Garbutt 73 67 70 75

287 Shaun P Webster 71 66 74 76

289 Anthony Wall 69 69 71 80, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 69 70 75 75, David Park 70 69 77 73