South African Hennie Otto has finally landed his first European Tour as the Australian contingent failed to make an impact at the Italian Open.
The 31-year-old Otto, beaten in a play-off by Scot Alastair Forsyth in Madeira in March, was caught by England's Oliver Wilson late on the fourth day of play.
But Otto responded by sinking a 20-foot birdie putt on the 433-yard 13th, and then narrowly avoided a bunker with his final drive.
Needing a par four to win, he had to play his second shot with one foot in the sand and conjured up one of the shots of his life to six feet.
He two-putted for a 69 and 25-under aggregate of 263, one outside the tournament record of Percy Alliss - father of television commentator Peter - way back in 1935.
Swede Robert Karlsson, who broke the Castello di Tolcinasco course record with his Friday 61, finished third and joint fourth were England's Phillip Archer and German Marcel Siem.
Australia's best was Marcus Fraser, who began the day tied for 13th and ended locked in a share of 17th position
He turned in a final-round 71 after back-to-back scores of 67 had him among the top chances at the midway point.
His four-round total 274 was 11 shots off Otto's cracking pace up front.
Fraser's countryman Scott Barr also closed with a 71 to drop down the leaderboard.
He opened the final day in 18th place but had to settle for a slice of 23rd, a stroke off Fraser.
Matthew Millar was the only other Australian to finish inside the top 30 after a closing 69 boosted him from 38th to a tie for 30th.
Ranked 154th in the world, Otto has won seven times in his home country since turning professional 10 years ago, including a two-stroke victory over current Masters champion Trevor Immelman at the 2003 Tour Championship.
But he received just as much publicity for an incident in the 2001 South African Masters when he was so disgusted by a round of 80 that he snapped each of his clubs in half and threw them in a river.
Putting had been his downfall in Madeira and afterwards he said: "You can be a billionaire, but you can't buy a putt."
After finding deep trouble off the tee at the difficult sixth and looking in danger of double-bogeying he rolled in a 50-footer for par.
But then it all changed. As Wilson completed a run of four successive birdies from the 11th - and that after going to the turn in 32 - Otto pitched into a bunker on the long 12th and took a six.
That brought them level and he went to break his putter over his knee, but Otto had time to regroup.
American John Daly finished joint 23rd after a closing 67, easily his best performance in a year which has seen him crash to 609th in the world.
Final Round Scores from the Golf Italian Open, Milan, Italy
-25: Hennie Otto 65, 66, 63, 69
-24: Oliver Wilson 66, 69, 65, 64
-23: Robert Karlsson 68, 61, 69, 67
-21: Phillip Archer 70, 64, 65, 68, Marcel Siem 70, 66, 65, 66
-20: Ross McGowan 64, 71, 64, 69
-18: Gregory Havret 70, 67, 63, 70, Christian Nilsson 67, 67, 64, 72, Alvaro Velasco 70, 64, 64, 72
-17: Nick Dougherty 71, 66, 67, 67, Marco Soffietti 72,