Ten years after Tiger Woods won just his fifth professional event, fellow American John Holmes did it even quicker.

The 23-year-old from Kentucky, who last August helped the United States regain the Walker Cup and in December topped the US Tour qualifying school, romped to an amazing seven-stroke victory at the FBR Open in Scottsdale.

Against a field containing five of the world's top 10 - but not Woods, who was winning in Dubai - Holmes shot a closing 66 to taste success in only the fourth start of his rookie season.

And, incredibly, the man ranked 464th in the world before the tournament is now in position to earn a Ryder Cup debut at the K Club near Dublin in September. A week ago he was not even in the top 120 of the American points table.

One ahead with four holes to play, Holmes, repeatedly booming drives well over 300 yards, turned that into a six-shot advantage in the space of a few minutes.

He sank a 15-foot eagle putt on the long 15th while Ryan Palmer, who had been one in front after a front-nine 33, twice found water and then three-putted for a triple-bogey eight.

Holmes then drove the green on the par 17th with a three-wood, two-putted for birdie and parred the last - after a drive of 354 yards - to finish with a 21-under-par total of 263.

Palmer ended up joint second with JJ Henry, Colombian rookie Camilo Villegas, Steve Lowery and Scott Verplank. Defending champion Phil Mickelson was a shot further back after four closing birdies.

Leading European was Norway's Henrik Bjornstad, another rookie, in 12th spot. England's Brian Davis and Justin Rose finished 27th and 33rd respectively.

Collated final-round scores (USA unless stated, par 71):

263 J.B. Holmes 68 64 65 66

270 Scott Verplank 69 66 67 68, Camilo Villegas (Col) 68 67 66 69, Ryan Palmer 68 66 64 72, Steve Lowery 65 68 70 67, J J Henry 67 61 70 72

271 Justin Leonard 69 66 65 71, Phil Mickelson 69 66 70 66, Jonathan Byrd 70 65 68 68

272 Dean Wilson 69 66 66 71, Arron Oberholser 67 69 69 67

273 Kenny Perry 72 65 67 69, Joe Ogilvie 67 70 67 69, Henrik Bjornstad (Nor) 67 69 68 69

274 John Rollins 68 71 68 67, Scott Piercy 68 69 68 69, Stewart Cink 69 69 68 68, Chris DiMarco 69 70 68 67

275 David Toms 68 66 66 75

276 Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 69 69 64 74, Jerry Smith 66 71 68 71, Lucas Glover 67 71 67 71, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 67 72 67 70, Vijay Singh (Fij) 71 68 69 68, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 69 69 69 69, Ben Curtis 69 71 68 68

277 Kirk Triplett 67 69 68 73, Tim Herron 69 68 74 66, Tom Pernice Jnr. 69 70 65 73, Daniel Chopra (Swe) 73 65 70 69, Carlos Franco (Par) 70 70 69 68, Brian Davis (Eng) 69 68 69 71

278 Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 70 68 71 69, Brian Gay 69 71 68 70, Nathan Green (Aus) 69 70 69 70, Justin Rose (Eng) 69 68 71 70, Thomas Levet (Fra) 67 72 66 73, Jesper Parnevik (Swe) 70 69 67 72, Jeff Sluman 68 67 74 69

279 Rodney Pampling (Aus) 68 73 69 69, Vaughn Taylor 70 69 71 69, Olin Browne 70 67 69 73, Brent Geiberger 66 73 68 72, Charles Howell III 70 68 71 70, James Driscoll 66 72 66 75, Ryan Moore 71 65 72 71, J.L. Lewis 71 67 70 71, Mark Calcavecchia 67 67 73 72, Kent Jones 71 69 69 70

280 Bernhard Langer (Ger) 71 68 69 72, Chris Couch 71 69 68 72, John Senden (Aus) 69 72 68 71

281 Alex Cejka (Ger) 65 73 72 71, Brett Quigley 69 72 69 71

282 Robert Allenby (Aus) 70 67 73 72, Paul Azinger 71 69 71 71, Paul Stankowski 67 66 76 73, Scott McCarron 70 68 72 72

283 Heath Slocum 69 68 76 70, D.J. Trahan 70 69 72 72, Nicholas Thompson 71 70 70 72, Steve Flesch 71 68 72 72, Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn) 70 71 74 68

284 Bob Tway 70 71 71 72, Hidemichi Tanaka (Jpn) 69 70 74 71, Harrison Frazar 69 70 72 73

285 Andrew Magee 67 73 75 70

286 Bo Van Pelt 66 73 74 73

288 Jeff Maggert 71 67 74 76

289 Chad Campbell 72 69 79 69, Jeff Brehaut 69 68 81 71