South African Hennie Otto finally landed his first European Tour title on Sunday - but only after he had lost a five-shot lead for the second time in four tournaments.

The 31-year-old, beaten in a play-off by Alastair Forsyth in Madeira in March, was caught at the Italian Open in Milan by England's Oliver Wilson.

But this time Otto responded by sinking a 20-foot birdie putt on the 433-yard 13th, and then narrowly avoided a bunker with his final drive.

Needing a par four to win, he had to play his second shot with one foot in the sand and conjured up one of the shots of his life to six feet.

He two-putted for a 69 and 25-under aggregate of 263, one outside the tournament record of Percy Alliss - father of television commentator Peter - way back in 1935.

For Wilson, the 27-year-old former Walker Cup player from Mansfield, a superb 64 meant a third runners-up finish of the season and a sixth in all.

Yet to win, he was left to reflect on a moment of annoyance on Friday when he banged his putter against his bag and bent it.

Unable to use it the rest of the round he actually made three birdies with a wedge on the greens, but his 69 was his worst score of the week.

Swede Robert Karlsson, who broke the Castello di Tolcinasco course record with his Friday 61, finished third and joint fourth were England's Phillip Archer and German Marcel Siem.

At 22 under par after 54 holes, Otto was only one outside the Tour record held by Ernie Els and David Howell.

He needed a 65 to equal Els' record 29 under at the 2003 Johnnie Walker Classic in Perth, but understandably his focus was on achieving a win that gives him back his Tour membership.

Ranked 154th in the world, he has won seven times in his home country since turning professional 10 years ago, including a two-stroke victory over current Masters champion Trevor Immelman at the 2003 Tour Championship.

But he received just as much publicity for an incident in the 2001 South African Masters when he was so disgusted by a round of 80 that he snapped each of his clubs in half and threw them in a river.

Putting had been his downfall in Madeira and afterwards he said: "You can be a billionaire, but you can't buy a putt."

This was only his third European event since then, but he did not look the same player as he stretched his four-shot overnight lead to five with three birdies in his first five holes.

And after finding deep trouble off the tee at the difficult sixth and looking in danger of double-bogeying he rolled in a 50-footer for par.

But then it all changed. As Wilson completed a run of four successive birdies from the 11th - and that after going to the turn in 32 - Otto pitched into a bunker on the long 12th and took a six.

That brought them level and he went to break his putter over his knee, but Otto had time to regroup and took the £221,303 first prize.

Nick Dougherty, who flew to the event after attending his mother's funeral on Tuesday, came joint 10th on 17 under after a 67.

"Maybe I've got tougher times to come, but I'm pleased I came and with what I've done here," said the 25-year-old from Liverpool.

After playing his first 10 holes in six under he was in fifth spot and still thought there was a chance, but he covered the closing stretch in one over.

Paul Broadhurst finished his 500th European Tour event in a share for 12th, while American John Daly finished joint 23rd after a closing 67, easily his best performance in a year which has seen him crash to 609th in the world.

A relieved Otto said: "I thought I was under the lip of the bunker on the last but when I saw where it finished I said to my caddy 'let's just get this on the green, two putt and go home'.

"It's great to win. I have been working very hard on my putting and I don't think I've ever holed more long putts than I did this week."

Wilson commented: "Going out there I was six behind and just went to get second more than anything. I got it going, but I didn't quite hit it close enough on the last few holes to put real pressure on him.

"I shot eight under, though, so I can't really complain. At the end of the day I want to win and I want to win badly, but if I keep getting into contention it is only a matter of time before it happens.

"I have played great this week and I am sure it will not be long. There are some big tournaments coming up, so we will see how I go in those."

Collated final round scores & totals in the European Tour Methorios Capital Italian Open, Castello di Tolcinasco G & CC, Milan, Italy

(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):

263 Hennie Otto (Rsa) 65 66 63 69

264 Oliver Wilson 66 69 65 64

265 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 68 61 69 67

267 Phillip Archer 70 64 65 68, Marcel Siem (Ger) 70 66 65 66

268 Ross McGowan 64 71 64 69

270 Christian Nilsson (Swe) 67 67 64 72, Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 70 64 64 72, Gregory Havret (Fra) 70 67 63 70

271 Nick Dougherty 71 66 67 67, Marco Soffietti (Ita) 72 66 63 70

273 Estanislao Goya (Arg) 66 67 68 72, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 71 66 67 69, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 66 72 66 69, Mark Foster 65 66 72 70, Paul Broadhurst 69 67 67 70

274 Anders Hansen (Den) 68 65 68 73, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 70 65 70 69, Paul Waring 70 67 67 70, Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe) 66 73 66 69, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 67 67 69 71, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 67 69 69 69

275 John Daly (USA) 67 73 68 67, Steve Webster 66 69 71 69, Henrik Nystrom (Swe) 68 70 69 68, Scott Barr (Aus) 70 69 65 71, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 68 66 69 72, David Park 70 70 67 68, Santiago Luna (Spa) 71 68 68 68

276 Peter Baker 69 71 68 68, Matthew Millar (Aus) 68 70 69 69, David Frost (Rsa) 71 68 65 72, Lee Slattery 71 68 66 71, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 66 73 69 68, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 68 70 67 71, Miles Tunnicliff 69 68 68 71, Bradley Dredge 69 65 70 72

277 Alexandre Rocha (Bra) 69 68 66 74, Marco Ruiz (Par) 64 70 70 73, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 66 71 71 69, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 69 70 72 66, Thomas Levet (Fra) 69 70 67 71

278 Ben Mason 68 68 69 73, Doug McGuigan 68 68 70 72, David Lynn 68 67 73 70, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 69 70 70 69, Mark Pilkington 74 64 71 69, Stephen Dodd 72 68 71 67, Alexander Noren (Swe) 66 71 70 71, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 68 70 68 72

280 Richard Bland 68 71 72 69, Martin Wiegele (Aut) 71 69 72 68, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 67 73 72 68, Gary Clark 71 69 71 69, Robert Rock 71 69 74 66, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 71 67 71 71, Sam Little 69 66 74 71, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 67 71 69 73

281 Ulrich Van Den Berg (Rsa) 70 68 71 72, Gareth Paddison (Nzl) 67 72 74 68, Federico Colombo (Ita) 69 70 67 75, Lorenzo null Gagli (Ita) 71 66 73 71, James Kamte (Rsa) 69 70 72 70

282 Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 67 72 70 73

283 Christian Cevaer (Fra) 71 69 70 73, Pedro Linhart (Spa) 70 70 71 72, Gary Orr 69 69 73 72, Marc Warren 65 70 72 76, Alastair Forsyth 74 66 72 71

287 Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 67 70 70 80

288 Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 67 71 72 78

290 Ian Garbutt 73 67 73 77

291 Jan Are Larsen (Nor) 69 70 82 70

292 Nunzio Lombardi (Ita) 68 71 76 77

295 Renaud Guillard (Fra) 72 67 75 81

296 Claudio Vigano (Ita) 75 65 78 78