Danny Willett finally claimed his first European Tour title at the BMW International Open after 19 top-10 finishes.
The Englishman had to endure a marathan play-off with Australian Marcus Fraser in terrible conditions at Gut Lärchenhof before he could finally breathe a sigh of relief at getting the job done.
It took Willett four sudden-death holes to see off Fraser's challenge after the duo finished the tournament tied on 11 under par - Willett after a final round one-over-par 73 and Fraser after a 71.
"It's amazing," said Willett. "It was a tough day - it was brutal with the wind whipping and it was raining.
"Marcus had a great round today and I hung in there nicely. Hopefully I gave people a good show.
"This week has been strange, I've been working really hard with support from my family and my girlfriend. I've had some ups and downs in the last 18 months as everyone knows but I'm injury free now and back to playing
well and I'd like to thank everyone back home for supporting me.
"I'll keep working hard and hopefully we can do it again."
Willett, leading overnight, seemed to be heading for victory after birdying the third and fourth holes, but it was a struggle from then on as he played his final 14 holes in three over par to bring Fraser firmly into the picture.
His dream nearly ended at the 18th when he drove his ball down the right at the 18th and bounced off a cart path and behind a tree, but he pulled off an amazing long hooked iron to land safely on the green and make his par.
In the end, on the fourth play-off hole, it came down to a missed three-footer for par, leaving Willett with a gentle tap-in for victory.
Paul McGinley (66), Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (69) and Chris Wood (73) shared third place a shot behind the leading duo.
golf365.com