Denmark's Soren Hansen soared to his second European Tour title on the back of two eagles in the Mercedes-Benz Championship in Germany.

Hansen chipped in from 40ft on the 13th and then holed from 12ft on the 15th on his way to a final round of 67 and 17-under-par total of 271 at Gut Larchenhof.

The Monte Carlo-based 33-year-old claimed the first prize of £217,000 after finishing four shots ahead of England's Phillip Archer and Scotland's Alastair Forsyth (70).

Archer, who lost a play-off in the Omega European Masters seven days ago, carded a closing 68 to also book his place in the Seve Trophy at the end of the month.

Joint overnight leader Thomas Bjorn and Wales' Bradley Dredge were a further stroke behind in fourth with Lee Westwood, four clear after an opening 61, sharing sixth place on 11 under.

A steady performer since joining the European Tour in 1999, Hansen won the Irish Open in a play-off in 2002 but had never previously produced the consistent performances of this season.

After two second places and a third in the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles a fortnight ago, today's win lifted him to seventh in the Order of Merit and second in the early Ryder Cup standings.

"Throughout the week I played tremendous, the best golf I've ever played," he said.

"I had a really good feeling coming into this event and I'm very proud to have beaten 77 of the best players in Europe.

"It's been a tremendous summer with two seconds and a third, I've been knocking on the door for a long time and this week was the one for me.

"I was hitting the ball well and had a great touch on the greens, which were superb. The putts were screaming to be holed."

Hansen and fellow Dane Bjorn shared the lead going into the final day and Bjorn briefly led after birdies at the first and second before a bogey on the fifth and double bogey at the next.

Two birdies took Hansen to the turn in 34 and he moved three clear of the field by chipping in from the edge of the green on the 13th for an eagle.

The 2002 Irish Open winner then effectively sealed victory in style with another eagle on the 15th when his three-wood approach from 273 yards to the par five took a friendly bounce to skip round the edge of a bunker and rolled up to 12ft from the hole.

"I wouldn't say it's been a monkey on my back but I have been close a few times since 2002," added Hansen.

"In the past I have looked too much over my shoulder at what other people were doing but today I stuck with what I had and struck some good shots.

"I stayed patient and when I holed that chip on the 13th I was off and running because the other guys (Bjorn and Forsyth) had eagle putts and I was looking at losing a shot but gained one instead.

"After the finish I had yesterday (he bogeyed the last three holes) it was good to have a few shots in the bank."

Forsyth was pleased with his share of second place after effectively being sacked by his caddie following an opening round of 76 which left him 15 shots off the pace.

"I never really got going early on so to finish second was a good result, a massive result after my first round," said the 31-year-old from Glasgow, joint third in the KLM Open in Holland three weeks ago.

"I dropped a couple of careless shots here and there and it looked like it was going to be a bad day, so to turn it round and shoot 70 was a good fightback.

"Hopefully that'll be Valderrama taken care of (the top 60 on the Order of Merit qualify for the Volvo Masters - Forsyth is now 44th) and I can press on from here and do well in the last few tournaments.

"There are still things I can work on and do better but it's good to know my game can stand up to the pressure of coming down the stretch."

Archer tops the fledgling Ryder Cup standings after two events and continues to show marked improvement from his first few years on tour, when he finished 164th and 114th on the money list.

"I don't know why I'm playing so well," Archer said. "I kept my card three years ago for the first time and that gave me a lot of confidence going into last year.

"I played some good stuff then and once you start gaining experience out here you start settling down, you get to know people and the courses."

Collated final-round scores (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):

271 Soren Hansen (Den) 65 68 71 67

275 Phillip Archer 71 70 66 68, Alastair Forsyth 76 67 62 70

276 Bradley Dredge 68 71 70 67, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 71 67 66 72

277 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 73 67 72 65, Lee Westwood 61 73 72 71, Simon Khan 67 70 69 71

278 Paul Lawrie 68 70 71 69, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 67 73 68 70

279 Graeme McDowell 69 72 69 69, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 67 71 69 72

280 Johan Edfors (Swe) 70 71 72 67, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 70 71 70 69, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 68 70 72 70

281 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 72 70 72 67, Fredrik Andersson (Swe) 69 70 73 69, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 67 73 72 69, Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe) 74 69 69 69, John Bickerton 71 69 71 70

282 Yong-eun Yang (Kor) 70 73 72 67, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 71 72 71 68, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 72 71 69 70, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 68 70 72 72, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 70 69 70 73, Richard Green (Aus) 73 67 66 76

283 John Daly (USA) 67 71 76 69, Ian Poulter 72 70 71 70, Peter Hanson (Swe) 69 74 70 70, Alex Cejka (Ger) 70 73 68 72, Bernhard Langer (Ger) 69 68 70 76

284 Markus Brier (Aut) 74 69 72 69, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 70 72 71 71, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 70 69 73 72, Ross Fisher 74 70 68 72, Nick Dougherty 66 75 69 74

285 Marcel Siem (Ger) 71 73 70 71, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 70 72 70 73, Carl Suneson (Spa) 69 72 70 74, Simon Dyson 66 71 73 75

286 Andres Romero (Arg) 68 71 76 71, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 72 68 75 71, Simon Wakefield 70 70 74 72, Pablo Martin (Spa) 70 69 72 75, Marc Warren 71 69 70 76

287 Peter Hedblom (Swe) 74 73 73 67, Mark Foster 76 70 71 70, Paul McGinley 70 79 67 71, Anders Hansen (Den) 72 72 70 73, Colin Montgomerie 69 69 73 76

288 Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 76 73 73 66

289 Sven Struver (Ger) 71 72 76 70, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 73 67 75 74

290 Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 73 70 75 72, Stephen Dodd 73 71 72 74, Scott Drummond 72 72 71 75

291 Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 74 71 74 72, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 70 76 72 73, Ariel Canete (Arg) 71 70 76 74, Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned0 68 74 73 76

292 Oliver Wilson 70 76 72 74, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 77 67 73 75

293 Gregory Havret (Fra) 73 79 71 70, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 74 73 73 73

294 Michael Campbell (Nzl) 77 73 72 72, Kenneth Ferrie 69 73 78 74, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 77 71 71 75

295 Anton Haig (Rsa) 70 76 77 72, Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 73 75 72 75, Graeme Storm 71 78 70 76, Phillip Price 70 71 76 78

296 Mardan Mamat (Sin) 70 76 73 77, David Howell 73 71 73 79

297 Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 76 69 76 76, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 75 73 72 77

298 Darren Clarke 69 75 77 77

299 Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 72 76 77 74

303 Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 73 77 74 79