Paul Lawrie is back in the world's top 50 for the first time since 2003 after a flawless performance gave him a second Qatar Masters title.
The 43-year-old Scot, known as "Chippy" all his career, chipped in twice during a brilliant closing 65 and beat Australian Jason Day and Swede Peter Hanson by four.
Less than a year ago the 1999 Open champion was down at 272nd in the rankings. Now he is part of golf's elite group again.
The victory guarantees him a place in the 64-man Accenture world match play championship in Arizona later this month and the 24-man Volvo World Match Play in Spain in May.
He is on course to win a second Ryder Cup cap 13 years after his first and if he can stay in the top 50 for another seven weeks he will make a return to The Masters at Augusta in April after an eight-year gap.
This was the Aberdeen player's first success since his long-time coach Adam Hunter died of leukaemia in October and Lawrie was close to tears when reminded of that afterwards.
"I don't think I can play much better than that," said Lawrie on Sky Sports after finishing with a 15 under par total in an event cut to 54 holes because of Friday's strong winds.
"I've been playing well for a long, long time, but it's just nice to come out one ahead and shoot seven under."
It was the joint lowest round of the day.
He added: "When you've got a chance to win a tournament you don't sleep as well the night before and things go racing through your mind.
"You've got to get back to basics and I did that. I hit some nice shots coming in."
Also reminded that his 1999 victory in the tournament was followed five months later by lifting the Open Claret Jug at Carnoustie Lawrie said: "Now wouldn't that be nice to get that again?"
And as for the Ryder Cup he added: "I've been trying to keep that to the back of my mind.
"If I keep playing as I am I will get in, there's no question, but there's a long way to go and I know as well as anyone that there are a lot of good players."
The first chip-in was perfectly timed. Lawrie had been caught by Sergio Garcia moments before, but holing out for eagle from just short of the green at the long ninth put him two in front again.
Garcia, six under for the first 11 holes, then bogeyed the 13th and 15th to drop back to joint fifth and instead it was Day who applied the pressure.
The 24-year-old, runner-up in both the Masters and US Open last season, began each half with four successive birdies, but a bogey six on the ninth left him with too much ground to make up.
Lawrie went clear with birdies on the 11th, 14th and 16th and victory was effectively sealed when he chipped in again at the short 17th.
Hanson caught Day by pitching in for eagle on the 16th and matching his two-putt birdie on the last. They were round in 67 and 65 respectively.
Fourth was 45-year-old American John Daly. Down at 543rd in the world at the start of the week, it was the former Open champion's best display since he was second in the 2009 Italian Open.
Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer, third and fourth on the rankings, finished 12th and ninth respectively, Westwood sharing his position with Jose Maria Olazabal on the Ryder Cup captain's 46th birthday.
Collated final-round scores (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):
201 Paul Lawrie 69 67 65
205 Peter Hanson (Swe) 69 69 67, Jason Day (Aus) 68 72 65
207 John Daly (USA) 67 73 67
208 Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 71 67 70, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 71 72 65, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 72 68 68, Soren Hansen (Den) 71 71 66
209 Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 69 68 72, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 71 70 68, Victor Dubuisson (Fra) 72 68 69
210 Anders Hansen (Den) 70 73 67, Marcel Siem (Ger) 71 69 70, Scott Jamieson 73 69 68, Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa) 71 70 69, Keith Horne (Rsa) 73 69 68, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa) 66 75 69, Michael Hoey 71 71 68, Lee Westwood 71 70 69
211 Brett Rumford (Aus) 74 69 68, Chris Wood 72 72 67, James Kingston (Rsa) 70 69 72, Andrew Dodt (Aus) 71 69 71, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 72 71 68
212 Jorge Campillo (Spa) 73 71 68, Simon Khan 71 68 73, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 71 70 71, Anthony Wall 74 66 72, Shaun Micheel (USA) 71 74 67, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 79 65 68, Richard Finch 69 74 69, Richard Green (Aus) 70 73 69, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 72 69 71, Gregory Havret (Fra) 71 72 69
213 Carlos Del Moral (Spa) 71 70 72, Martin Wiegele (Aut) 71 72 70, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 73 71 69, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 72 68 73, Jaco Van Zyl (Rsa) 71 71 71, George Coetzee (Rsa) 70 73 70, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 72 71 70, Lee Slattery 72 71 70, Marc Warren 72 68 73, Romain Wattel (Fra) 73 71 69, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 72 69 72, Mark Foster 73 70 70
214 Christian Nilsson (Swe) 74 71 69, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 73 71 70, Branden Grace (Rsa) 75 68 71, Matthew Zions (Aus) 73 72 69, Ben Curtis (USA) 71 70 73, Rhys Davies 74 71 69, David Lynn 71 69 74, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 73 71 70, Alex Cejka (Ger) 73 69 72, Oliver Fisher 70 74 70, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 77 68 69, David Drysdale 73 72 69
215 Richard S Johnson (Swe) 75 69 71, Graeme McDowell 73 72 70, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 73 69 73, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den) 72 71 72, Markus Brier (Aut) 72 70 73, Peter Lawrie 71 73 71, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 73 70 72, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 72 71 72
216 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 73 71 72, Ricardo Santos (Por) 77 68 71
217 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 71 72 74, Jamie Moul 77 66 74, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 73 72 72, Oliver Wilson 72 72 73
218 Damien McGrane 78 67 73, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 75 70 73, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 71 74 73
219 Kenneth Ferrie 74 71 74
