Todd Hamilton, better known in the golf clubs of Tokyo than he is across America or in Britain, became another amazing, unlikely winner of the Open title at Royal Troon today.

The 38-year-old from Illinois, quoted at 500/1 at the start of the week, followed in the footsteps of Ben Curtis at Sandwich last year by beating world No 2 Ernie Els by one shot in a four-hole play-off after they had tied on the 10 under par total of 274.

It might not quite be the shock of all shocks as Curtis was - he did win the Honda Classic in Florida in March after all - but it is still a remarkable story.

He is the sixth successive American winner of an Open on the Ayrshire course, but nobody could have predicted that he would be the one to emulate Arnold Palmer, Tom Weiskopf, Tom Watson, Mark Calcavecchia and Justin Leonard.

As failure followed failure at the US Tour qualifying school Hamilton even thought about giving up the game, but he decided to go to the Far East to make a living and what a great decision that now looks.

With 11 wins in Japan under his belt, he made it through the tour school at last at the eighth attempt last December and now, as well as being one of the oldest rookies on the circuit, he is a major champion.

"I've won tournaments around the world, but nothing on this level," he said.

"I'm so excited I probably won't sleep for two days. I truly had a blast - and I could play this course every day of my life.

"It really has not sunk in yet. But I am true believer that if you can win a junior event, a club championship or whatever you can focus on the positive and transfer it to your next event."

Els, pipped by Phil Mickelson at the Masters in April, had his chances again and knew it.

"I didn't play a great play-off, but I had a great week and I think we have a great champion," he said.

"He kept his nerve and didn't make any big mistakes. I did make a big mistake (a double bogey at the 10th), but I didn't want to let this one go.

"To get into a play-off you have to take the positives, but obviously I'm disappointed."

While Curtis won at his first attempt in the majors and was ranked 396th in the world at the time, Hamilton was playing just his eighth major and was ranked 56th.

And whereas Curtis had it handed to him by Thomas Bjorn's collapse Hamilton did it the hard way - from the front.

When he holed a 10-foot birdie putt on the 16th green he was two clear of Phil Mickelson and three ahead of Els. But while most of the crowd thought it was probably over it was not.

Els, chasing his second Open crown in three years and his fourth major, followed him in from seven feet to join Mickelson on nine under.

Then he hit a superb iron into the 222-yard 17th and made a 12-footer. And when he fired his approach to 10 feet at the last suddenly he was the favourite.

That was because Hamilton, his nerve suddenly betraying him, hit a poor iron off the tee into the right-hand rough and went from there across the fairway and up against the spectator barrier.

He was allowed a free drop away from that, but his pitch ran almost 18 feet past the flag.

When he missed it was Els who had the putt for the claret jug, but by his own standards it was a poor effort, clearly going left long before it reached the hole.

So the pair of them, level after Els shot 68 to Hamilton's 69, went into extra holes - Els for the second time in three years.

At Muirfield he triumphed, but this time he paid the price for bogeying the short 17th. They had parred the first two extra holes, but the South African, chasing his fourth major win, went left, chipped to eight feet and missed it.

So, with the American one ahead with one to go, they were in exactly the position they had been after 71 holes, although on that occasion Els had not thrown his ball in disgust at his bag coming off the green.

Both chose irons off the last, but Els struck his much the crisper and Hamilton, taking a free drop off the spectator crossing, then came up short of the green.

Els hit his into an almost identical spot to the one from which he missed the putt to win, dead on line and roughly 12 feet short.

Hamilton used a fairway wood to chip and hit it inside three feet. Els had to think his birdie attempt was to stay alive this time.

Once again, though, he did not give it enough break and Hamilton stepped forward and made his for victory.

Mickelson, first and second in the first two majors of the season, was third - and never having recorded a top 10 finish in the Open before, he had nothing to feel too dejected about.

He has a record this season to be proud of and it makes him the envy of many - Tiger Woods included.

Europe is still waiting for its first major winner since Paul Lawrie in 1999, but Lee Westwood made a last-day charge into fourth spot and after his nightmare slump to outside the game's top 250 that represented his best-ever finish to a major.

Even if Els won the play-off, however, he would not have been crowned world number one as well. That was because Woods was joint ninth and needed to be outside the top 17 for the South African to end his five-year reign.

As for Colin Montgomerie, his dream of winning on his home course was effectively ended by bogeys on the ninth and 10th and he fell away to 25th.

When he then double-bogeyed the 13th, three-putting from four feet, the 41-year-old was joint 16th and nine shots adrift. His chance had gone - but despite signing for a 76 Montgomerie will reflect fondly on most of his week after all he has been through of late.

And maybe he did enough over the opening three days to guarantee himself a Ryder Cup wild card if he cannot climb into an automatic spot in the month of qualifying that remains.

"I hope Bernhard [Langer] will think I can do a job for him. I think I can," said the Scot, Sam Torrance's rock in The Belfry win two years ago.

With Montgomerie out of it, the next of the chasing pack to have the spotlight turned on him was Woods.

Having climbed from 17th to seventh with his Saturday 68, the cheer when he holed a bunker shot at the 210-yard fifth was heard around the course.

He then birdied the long sixth as well, but he was hoping for more than an outward 34 - he was up to fifth, but had cut his deficit only by a stroke to three.

Woods could not afford many mistakes coming home, but they came. After his pushed drive on the 11th, the toughest hole on the course, narrowly avoided the gorse, he played a poor chip and missed his 10-foot par putt.

Then a horrid approach to the next brought another bogey and he was out of it.

So too was France's Thomas Levet after bogeys at the 15th and 17th and both Goosen and Berkshire's Barry Lane had slipped down the leaderboard before that.

Hamilton had taken a one-shot lead into the day and after being overtaken by Mickelson at one point he came back with birdies at the 11th and 14th before the one on the 16th took him within touching distance of victory in only his eighth major.

Els, meanwhile, had worked his way into the joint lead as well until a double bogey at the 10th. Off a poor drive he needed three more shots to make the green.

It was a big blow, but a potentially fatal one on the 11th turned into a remarkable par. Another bad drive finished two foot off the ground in a gorse bush, but he was able to bash it just ahead of him into rough and made a 15-footer for par to remain only two behind.

A 35-footer at the 13th put him back into second place with Mickelson and then came the dramatic final few holes - and the four that followed.

Collated final totals (GB & Ire unless stated)

274 Todd Hamilton (USA) 71 67 67 69 (£720,000), Ernie Els (Rsa) 69 69 68 68 (£430,000) (Hamilton wins after 4 hole play-off)

275 Phil Mickelson (USA) 73 66 68 68 (£275,000)

278 Lee Westwood 72 71 68 67 (£210,000)

279 Davis Love III (USA) 72 69 71 67, Thomas Levet (Fra) 66 70 71 72 (£159,500 each)

280 Scott Verplank (USA) 69 70 70 71, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 69 70 68 73 (£117,500 each)

281 Mike Weir (Can) 71 68 71 71, Tiger Woods (USA) 70 71 68 72 (£89,500 each)

282 Darren Clarke 69 72 73 68, Mark Calcavecchia (USA) 72 73 69 68, Skip Kendall (USA) 69 66 75 72 (£69,333 each)

283 Stewart Cink (USA) 72 71 71 69, Barry Lane 69 68 71 75 ()

284 Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 69 73 72 70, Justin Leonard (USA) 70 72 71 71, Kenny Perry (USA) 69 70 73 72, K.J. Choi (Kor) 68 69 74 73

285 Vijay Singh (Fij) 68 70 76 71, Gary Evans 68 73 73 71, Bob Estes (USA) 73 72 69 71, Paul Casey 66 77 70 72, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 67 71 74 73

286 Ian Poulter 71 72 71 72, Colin Montgomerie 69 69 72 76

287 Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 73 72 70 72, Rodney Pampling (Aus) 72 68 74 73, Takashi Kamiyama (Jpn) 70 73 71 73

288 Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn) 71 72 74 71, David Toms (USA) 71 71 74 72, Bo Van Pelt (USA) 72 71 71 74, Keiichiro Fukabori (Jpn) 73 71 70 74, Mark O'Meara (USA) 71 74 68 75, Nick Price (Zim) 71 71 69 77

289 Steve Lowery (USA) 69 73 75 72, Tjaart Van Der Walt (Rsa) 70 73 72 74, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 71 70 73 75, Hunter Mahan (USA) 74 69 71 75, Tetsuji Hiratsuka (Jpn) 70 74 70 75, Kim Felton (Aus) 73 67 72 77

290 Charles Howell III (USA) 75 70 72 73, Adam Scott (Aus) 73 68 74 75, Kenneth Ferrie 68 74 73 75, Andrew Oldcorn 73 70 71 76, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 69 74 71 76

291 Alastair Forsyth 68 74 79 70, Jerry Kelly (USA) 75 70 73 73, Mathias Gronberg (Swe) 70 74 73 74, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 74 71 71 75 Sean Whiffin 73 72 71 75, Paul Bradshaw 75 67 72 77, Shaun Micheel (USA) 70 72 70 79

292 Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 72 72 73 75, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 71 74 72 75, Steve Flesch (USA) 75 70 70 77

293 Paul McGinley 69 76 75 73, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 68 77 74 74, James Kingston (Rsa) 73 72 74 74

294 Gary Emerson 70 71 76 77, Paul Broadhurst 71 74 72 77, Brad Faxon (USA) 74 68 73 79

296 Chris DiMarco (USA) 71 71 78 76, (x) Stuart Wilson 68 75 77 76, Mark Foster 71 72 76 77

297 Marten Olander (Swe) 68 74 78 77, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 71 72 73 81

298 Paul Wesselingh 73 72 76 77, Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 73 70 77 78

299 Bob Tway (USA) 67 68 73 82

300 Rich Beem (USA) 69 73 77 81, Christian Cevaer (Fra) 70 74 74 82

303 Sandy Lyle 70 73 81 79