Lee Westwood became just the seventh player to win £10million in their European Tour careers - and could not have done it in any finer fashion.

The former European number one produced the round of the day and one of the best of his life given the situation to leave the rest for dead in the Quinn Direct British Masters at The Belfry.

A seven under par 65 highlighted by a 40-foot birdie putt on the 16th and then a 30-footer for eagle at the 564-yard next swept Westwood, two behind at the start of the round, to a majestic five-stroke victory over Ian Poulter.

"I've driven it as good as I ever have and holed the putts when I needed to," said the 34-year-old from Worksop after capturing the 29th title of his professional career.

"I'm pretty emotional and feeling very happy - I hardly put a foot wrong out there. The British Masters is a great title on the European Tour and it was one of those I was building up to."

Despite Poulter's efforts to grab the £300,000 first prize six days before his marriage he could only applaud the performance of his 2005 Ryder Cup team-mate.

"All credit to Lee," he said. "It's nice to see a British winner, but unfortunately it wasn't me."

Westwood joins Colin Montgomerie, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Padraig Harrington, Darren Clarke and Bernhard Langer in taking his earnings as a member of the circuit through the £10million barrier.

"I came here very positive," added Westwood, who in Spain in May ended four years without a win and who had finished ninth, sixth and sixth the last three weeks.

He now sits top of the Ryder Cup points table and, playing the way he is, it will be a major surprise if he needs another wild card come the end of the qualifying race next year.

One of the people to thank for his re-emergence - he fell from fourth in the world to outside the top 250 - is former Tour colleague Mark Roe, who spotted some "glaring weaknesses" in Westwood's short-game technique.

They worked together at The Open and again this week and the results are there for all to see.

"I reeled off the shots like I was on the range," he said.

"I wanted to stop the rot of getting into contention and not winning and the key to that was going out and enjoying it rather than putting too much expectation on myself."

It was his fellow Worksop player Mark Foster who had been the overnight leader and with six holes to play he and Poulter were still in with a great chance.

Foster, however, fell out of contention by hooking his drive out of bounds down the 13th and in the end had to be content with third place.

Westwood went two ahead by making birdie from nine feet on the same hole, but Poulter followed him in from 25 feet in the next group and cut the gap back to one.

Then came the two decisive putts, the first of which was a repeat of the one Westwood holed playing with Sergio Garcia against Tiger Woods and Davis Love in the 2002 Ryder Cup.

He remembered still losing that match and was determined to put the icing on the cake. That he most certainly did, calling the eagle his "killer blow".

Just as happy in a seven-way tie for fourth were two more English players, Sam Walker and Zane Scotland.

For both the importance was that they had done enough to earn their Tour cards for next season - and for Scotland it was extra special because he is finally becoming a member eight years after qualifying for The Open at the age of 16.

He has achieved the feat in a mere six starts this season, relying mostly on invitations, and commented: "It feels amazing. I'm just so happy."

Welshman Stephen Dodd could celebrate too after winning himself a Jaguar car in a nearest-the-pin competition on the 208-yard 12th in the final round. His shot finished 28 inches from the hole.

After a closing 73, meanwhile, Rory McIlroy finished his first professional event in a tie for 42nd and earned £10,440.

The 18-year-old from Northern Ireland will not mind being reminded that Woods finished only 60th on his debut, but he did then go 11th, fifth, third and first.

McIlroy's aim is to try to win a further £130,000 from coming invites - possibly as many as four more - to avoid the Tour qualifying school.

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

273 Lee Westwood 68 70 70 65

278 Ian Poulter 67 71 70 70

279 Mark Foster 71 66 69 73

281 Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 67 73 68 73, Zane Scotland (Gbr) 69 73 70 69, Sam Walker 71 67 75 68, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 73 69 69 70, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 75 66 67 73, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 71 69 70 71, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 66 72 74 69

282 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 68 72 69 73, Benn Barham 70 75 67 70, Nick Dougherty 72 68 75 67, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 70 73 65 74

283 Stephen Dodd 68 79 69 67, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 65 79 67 72, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 74 71 67 71, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 66 76 69 72

284 Colin Montgomerie 70 70 70 74, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 71 70 71 72

285 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 71 75 70 69, James Kingston (Rsa) 71 74 68 72, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 72 73 72 68, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 70 72 73 70

286 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 69 68 74 75, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 69 75 70 72, David Lynn 72 70 71 73

287 Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 63 75 70 79, Phillip Archer 68 72 73 74, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 69 75 71 72, Paul McGinley 70 75 72 70, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 65 77 71 74

288 Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 72 71 73 72, Andrew Marshall 73 72 69 74, Phillip Price 71 72 72 73, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 70 74 73 71

289 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 74 72 71 72, Oliver Wilson 70 74 75 70, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 72 73 71 73, Bradley Dredge 71 70 72 76, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 70 72 72 75

290 Anthony Wall 73 74 72 71, Rory McIlroy 69 78 70 73, Marc Warren 70 74 70 76, Simon Wakefield 71 76 69 74

291 Peter Hanson (Swe) 69 75 73 74, Juan Parron (Spa) 75 72 72 72, Damien McGrane 78 69 69 75, David Park 72 74 69 76, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 70 74 74 73, Kenneth Ferrie 69 74 76 72, Simon Khan 67 74 79 71

292 Taichi Teshima (Jpn) 70 74 73 75, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 69 78 70 75, Johan Edfors (Swe) 71 75 72 74, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 73 72 73 74

293 Marcel Siem (Ger) 69 76 73 75, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa) 72 73 77 71

294 Henrik Nystrom (Swe) 67 76 75 76, Gregory Havret (Fra) 73 74 77 70

295 Garry Houston 70 76 76 73, Marcus Higley 74 73 76 72

297 Stephen Gallacher 69 75 79 74, Christopher Hanell (Swe) 73 74 72 78, Steven O'Hara 74 73 75 75

299 Andrew Tampion (Aus) 70 75 76 78

302 Carl Suneson (Spa) 73 73 76 80

304 Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 71 76 79 78