Larrazabal completes unexpected victory

(CNN) -- Spanish rookie Pablo Larrazabal pulled off one of the most unexpected European PGA Tour wins in recent years when he captured the French Open at Le Golf National by four shots on Sunday.

The 25-year-old from Barcelona had to qualify for the tournament and was a rank outsider before Thursday's opening round.

But, refusing to be unnerved by the sight of Ryder Cup veterans Lee Westwood and Colin Montgomerie snapping at his heels, Larrazabal produced another sparkling round with seven birdies to complete a stunning wire-to-wire win.

The Spaniard closed with a 67 for a 15-under total of 269, four strokes ahead of Colin Montgomerie who had a 68, with Denmark's Soren Hansen a further stroke back after he carded a 69.

It was his first tournament win in what is his rookie season on the European PGA Tour. "It is hard to describe how this feels -- it's fantastic," he said. "I really played great golf and my putter was great all week."

Sharing the final pairing with Hansen, and with Montgomerie and Westwood, two former European No.1s, directly ahead of them, Larrazabal saved par with a 14-footer at the first and then sunk a 35-foot putt to birdie the second.

That sent out a clear statement to his challengers that he would not crumble under the pressure of what was the biggest round of golf he had played in his budding career.

Having started the day with a three-stroke lead, he moved to five clear after eight holes, although he then made a mess of the tough par-five ninth where he came away with a double-bogey.

But in spectacular and defiant style, Larrazabal sunk back-to-back nine-footers for birdies at the next two holes to stretch his lead to four strokes.

Westwood, coming off a third place finish behind Tiger Woods at the U.S. Open, had threatened with a tremendous eagle-three at the third, but he saw his chance of a first win of the year after seven top 10 finishes, vanish when he three-putted from six-feet for a double-bogey six at the 12th.

Birdies at 10 and 11 kept Montgomerie's hopes alive of reeling in Larrazabal, but in all reality he needed the Spaniard, 20 years his junior, to collapse down the stretch and he gave no signs of doing that despite a dropped stroke at the 14th.

He still had the punishing final four holes at Le Golf National to navigate with watery graves lurking on three of them, but he did so with aplomb sinking birdies at the 15th and 16th and following up with steady pars at the final two.

His reward was a huge payday of 666,000 euros, a vast improvement to his lowly ranking of 128th in the European Tour Order of Merit and recognition that he could be a star of the future.

Larrazabal is the first qualifier to win a European Tour event since Michael Campbell triumphed at the 2005 U.S. Open. As a result of his victory, Larrazabal will now play his first major at next month's British Open. He has also secured a place on the European Tour for the next two years and is even in the top 20 of the Ryder Cup race.