Two years after Ernie Els told him "once you win one you will win a few", England's Steve Webster finally grabbed an emotional second European Tour victory on Sunday.

When the win came the 32-year-old achieved it in glorious style, then collapsed into tears and sent a kiss to the skies. His mother Val died of cancer five months ago.

Webster, out for a month recently with back trouble, shot a closing 64 in the Portugal Masters at the Victoria Club in Vilamoura to take the first prize of almost £350,000 with a 25-under-par total - the lowest of the Tour season.

The Nuneaton golfer, who finished three ahead of Ryder Cup Swede Robert Karlsson and six clear of the rest, did not drop a stroke on the final day until the tournament was in the bag at the last.

"I was thinking about her all the way round," said Webster after hugging his father Terry by the green. "Losing my mum really knocked me about. I didn't even think I'd get my card because it was quite tough.

"It was so hard to keep my mind on my golf. I knew she was watching out for me and it's an amazing feeling to play that well down the stretch."

His one previous victory in the 2005 Italian Open came 10 years after he beat Tiger Woods to be leading amateur in The Open at St Andrews. The second has come in his 308th event.

One behind Argentina's Daniel Vancsik at the start of the day, Webster went into the joint lead with an outward 32, then took command with a nine-foot eagle putt on the 547-yard 12th.

Adding three more birdies in the next five holes gave him the chance to equal the second lowest total in relation to par in Tour history.

But instead of trying for another birdie he wisely chose to avoid the water down the left, knowing a bogey would be good enough for a title that meant so much. His 64 was still the lowest closing round by a winner all year.

Karlsson shot 65 himself, while joint third on 19 under were Lee Westwood, Vancsik and two more Swedes, Peter Hanson and Fredrik Andersson Hed.

Justin Rose, meanwhile, slipped from 18th to joint 21st with a closing 70 - and so not only failed to achieve the top-two finish he required to go above Ernie Els at the top of the Order of Merit, but also did not quite do enough to overtake Padraig Harrington in second place.

The importance of that is this; with Els not playing in the season-ending Volvo Masters the week after next the pair will both go there needing to finish in a two-way tie for third spot at worst, but Rose will have to beat Harrington as well rather than the other way round.

"I've closed the gap," said Rose, choosing to look on the bright side on what was his lowest European Tour finish of the year.

"At the end of the day it was going to be a top three here or there - it does not matter which one. That's the way it's boiling down.

"I'm looking forward to getting to Valderrama. I prefer it when the courses are tough rather than 20 under or something."

For the second week running Rose could also have made it into the world's top 10 for the first time. He would have got there by reaching the semi-finals of the World Match Play at Wentworth last Sunday, but was knocked out in the first round by American Hunter Mahan, and a top-two finish today would have done it.

The Order of Merit race has now come down to five players - Els, Harrington, Rose and Swedes Niclas Fasth and Henrik Stenson.

With prizemoney at Valderrama twice what it is in the Majorca Classic starting on Thursday, only Fasth is playing this week's event. He is the defending champion, but even if he was to win again it would still leave him needing to finish first or second the following Sunday.

Trailing Els by £151,358 might seem daunting, but a year ago Harrington was £151,978 behind Paul Casey and grabbed the title with a joint runners-up finish at Valderrama - thanks to Sergio Garcia bogeying the final hole to miss out on a play-off with Jeev Milkha Singh.

Harrington owes a lot to the Spaniard then. It was Garcia, of course, who also bogeyed the final hole in The Open at Carnoustie in July when one ahead and then lost the play-off.

As for Stenson, he will be in a straightforward "win or bust" position in the Volvo Masters.

For 18-year-old Rory McIlroy Sunday's 68 for a seven-under total and a share of 56th place was the final act of a heady month.

The Northern Ireland youngster, top amateur at The Open, finished third and fourth in his second and third professional events and broke par in 10 of his 12 rounds. With earnings of approaching £200,000 from just four starts much will be expected of him next year - maybe even a Ryder Cup debut.

Collated final round scores from the European Tour's Portugal Masters at Victoria Clube de Golfe in Vilamoura, Portugal (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):

263 Steve Webster 66 66 67 64

265 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 67 68 65 65

269 Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 64 66 68 71, Peter Hanson (Swe) 69 65 67 68, Lee Westwood 65 69 67 68, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 66 73 64 66

271 Sam Walker 66 68 67 70, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 66 67 66 72, Ross Fisher 68 64 68 71, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 61 72 69 69

272 Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 66 66 70 70

273 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 69 70 69 65, Alexander Noren (Swe) 68 69 67 69, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 71 67 66 69, Bradley Dredge 68 72 67 66

274 Brett Rumford (Aus) 67 71 66 70, James Kingston (Rsa) 68 69 70 67, James Hepworth 67 68 70 69, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 67 71 67 69, Peter Lawrie 67 71 68 68

275 Mattias Eliasson (Swe) 69 72 65 69, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 65 72 69 69, Oliver Wilson 68 70 68 69, Nick Dougherty 66 73 68 68, Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 69 68 65 73, Anthony Wall 71 68 70 66, Justin Rose (Rsa) 69 70 66 70, Andres Romero (Arg) 69 71 69 66, Ariel Canete (Arg) 66 70 69 70, Pablo Martin (Spa) 69 70 67 69

276 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 66 72 72 66, Gary Murphy 68 71 68 69, Paul Broadhurst 72 66 70 68

277 Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 64 68 71 74, Marc Warren 71 70 69 67, Stephen Dodd 69 71 71 66, Soren Hansen (Den) 72 65 70 70, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 66 73 74 64, Sam Little 67 69 70 71

278 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 70 67 70 71, Christian Nilsson (Swe) 70 67 70 71, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 69 71 70 68, Steven Jeppesen (Swe) 70 69 72 67, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 67 71 72 68, David Lynn 70 69 71 68

279 Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 67 72 73 67, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 67 68 69 75, Simon Khan 71 70 71 67, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 70 70 68 71, Santiago Luna (Spa) 69 71 68 71, Miles Tunnicliff 69 72 70 68, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 66 70 73 70, Barry Lane 67 71 71 70

280 Carl Suneson (Spa) 69 70 73 68, Gregory Havret (Fra) 71 70 71 68

281 Lee Slattery 70 69 73 69, Rory McIlroy 71 69 73 68, Richard Finch 72 68 71 70, Terry Price (Aus) 67 73 70 71

282 Peter Gustafsson (Swe) 69 71 66 76, Marcel Siem (Ger) 70 71 70 71, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 66 72 68 76

283 Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 65 74 71 73

284 Damien McGrane 69 72 71 72, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 67 70 70 77, Mark Foster 70 71 72 71

285 Paul Lawrie 68 72 76 69, Phillip Archer 67 72 73 73

286 Tiago Cruz (Por) 71 70 71 74

287 David Park 71 68 73 75

289 Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 68 67 81 73

291 David Frost (Rsa) 67 69 76 79

292 Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 71 69 75 77