Lynn clinches maiden Tour victory

Britain's David Lynn eased past a faltering Richard Green of Australia to win his maiden European Tour title at the Dutch Open on Sunday.

Lynn's closing four-under-par 66 left him three strokes ahead of Green and Ireland's Paul McGinley as he became the 11th first-time winner of the European season.

Green carded a 72 for a 16-under-par total of 264, while McGinley's 65 at Hilversum allowed him to steal a march on his Ryder Cup rivals.

Lynn led the first round with a 63 but Green took over for the next two rounds, twice heading the field by three strokes.

But after extending his lead over Lynn to four shots with an opening birdie, the Australian stalled to let in his playing partner for the $240,000 first prize.

While Green was hoping to break a run of seven years without a European victory and McGinley was trying to move up the Ryder Cup table, Lynn's agenda was to finish one better than his second places in the 1996 Austrian and 2001 Moroccan Opens.

The 30-year-old Englishman, who had his career-best round of 63 on the first day, did that in style with two stunning putts, picking up three birdies before the turn and two more coming home.

Lynn marked his ball with an 1891 'Queen's Shilling' traditionally carried by British soldiers in wartime, which was given to him by his father after he lost his Wedgwood China ball-marker the previous week.

"If the guy who had this shilling brought it back with him it must have been lucky," Lynn said. "It was lucky for me today.

"I've been close a few times but this time I managed to finish the job off."

Green's long run without success since beating Greg Norman and Ian Woosnam in a playoff for the 1997 Dubai Desert Classic title continued as he had to settle for his third second place of the season.

"I thought I was going to make something happen after the first hole," said Green, who had hit to just four feet on the opening hole. "But then it just went flat for me."

McGinley's fine finish took him past Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell into 15th place in the combined Ryder Cup table, leaving Britons Ian Poulter and David Howell in his wake.

The Irishman who sank the winning putt in the 2002 Ryder Cup was delighted he decided to play the tournament.

"I want desperately to be in that Ryder Cup team, I feel I'm playing well enough to be in it and I will keep chasing," said McGinley, like his rivals moving on now to the U.S. PGA Championship.

McDowell rallied with a 67 to be nine shots behind Lynn, but a triple-bogey on the short 13th ended Poulter's hopes of moving above Howell, who closed with a 67 to finish in eighth spot in the table.

Poulter stayed ninth, with the top-10 gaining automatic qualification into Bernhard Langer's European team for next month's match against the United States.

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