Charl Schwartzel made Lee Westwood work for his victory. At one point he was within two shots on the final afternoon, but Westwood stood firm, sinking a couple of monster birdies at 12 and 13 to wrench the momentum from his ISM stablemate.

Two days ago, with Westwood 11 clear following rounds of 60 and 64, the outcome looked certain. Enter Schwartzel with a marvellous 66 on Saturday and another courageous effort yesterday, which after his 30-foot birdie on the 12th looked like going to the wire.

Then up stepped Westwood to rattle home his own birdie putt from 20 feet before repeating the dose from twice the distance at the very next hole. That took bottle, which Schwartzel was quick to acknowledge. “That was the tournament right there. Lee did well to follow my birdie at 12 and the one at 13 effectively settled it,” Schwartzel said.

Westwood eventually stretched his advantage to seven finishing on 22 under par. His victory swept him back to the world no.2 spot. He is not settling for that, however.

Westwood said: "It was nice to hole on top of Charl on 12 and then make the one on 13, it took the pressure off a bit. I'm going to continue to work on my fitness and all aspects of my game. I'm going in the right direction, I can see a lot of improvement and I'm happy with the way I've finished the year, I've won two out of my last three events.

"I'll go into the winter with a lot of confidence and I'll try to come out next year playing the same kind of golf as I played this week, a little bit leaner and well rested."

Simon Dyson shot six birdies in his 69 for a share of fourth place with Thailand's Chawalit Plaphol.

Jeev MilkhaSingh celebrated his 40th birthday at the start of the tournament and rounded off a great with a top-10 finish. He was tied ninth on -7. Gregory Bourdy was a shot further back on -6 to make five it five ISM players in the top 11.

Darren Clarke finished in tied 58th.