Paul Broadhurst out-scrambled his rivals to claim what he considers the greatest success of his career after fellow Ryder Cup veteran Miguel Angel Jimenez suffered a collapse in the final round of The Senior Open at Carnoustie.

Even in benign conditions the toughest finishing stretch in the sport took its toll once more and the Englishman, who won down the coast at Archerfield on his debut on the over-50s circuit in the Scottish Senior Open last August, by no means made light of it. However as his rivals fell away over the closing four holes, all of them dropping at least two shots, Broadhurst birdied the 15th, then managed to save par at each of the last three in spite of missing all three greens.

It was the sort of test of nerve that has earned this course its reputation as the toughest on the Championship circuit, but he held himself together manfully, getting up and down from an awkward spot to the left of the green at the short 16th, then making sand saves for pars at the last two holes.

“I guess I was pretty in control of my emotions all the way around until I holed the putt at 15 to go one ahead and then suddenly reality hit and the swing got a little bit faster and the heart rate got a lot faster,” he admitted afterwards.

“I was chasing at the time. On the 15th tee, I was one shot behind. So I wasn't really thinking of winning. I was just trying to get it in play and create a chance if I could and I hit a perfect drive at 15, a great 7-iron to about four feet and rolled it in for birdie.

“It was then, really, that I thought: ‘Wow, I've got a realistic chance of winning.’ It wasn't until then that I really gave it a thought.”

Aside from a £213,000 cheque the victory is career-changing, opening up access to the US-based Champions Tour for the next two years.

“It's massive, absolutely massive,” said Broadhurst.

“I'm not aware of how big it is yet honestly. I'm trying not to think about it. Beyond my wildest dreams to be honest.

“This sort of thing doesn't happen to players like me normally. I’m usually always the bridesmaid. I've won a few tournaments over the years, but nothing anywhere near as big as this event. I feel very, very privileged to have won.”

The importance that Seniors golf now has was placed in perspective since this year marks the silver anniversary of Broadhurst making a Ryder Cup appearance.

“It’s difficult to compare, but personally this is the biggest achievement of my career,” he reckoned.

“Getting in the Ryder Cup was massive, but that was a result of a load of performances, an accumulation of points that got me in there. I think this has got to rank higher.”

While he claimed, following his round, that he had realistically felt he was playing for second place, Broadhurst had suggested the previous evening that in spite of trailing Jimenez he had an excellent chance, if only because he could readily put himself in the shoes of his playing partner in the final round who was also looking to win a first ‘major’.

Jimenez claimed not to have been unduly afflicted by the pressure of defending a four shot lead.

“I didn’t feel tense this morning,” he said.

“I had a four shot lead and I wanted to get out there and play. Of course you are going to feel some nerves, that’s important to feel any time you play, but I didn’t feel uncomfortable.”

The first significant indicator that those nerves might just get the better of the Spaniard had come, though, when he missed a virtual tap-in birdie chance to pull further clear of the pack at the fourth. However his collapse properly began at the ninth hole when his approach shot leaked short and right of the green and he failed to recover before, at the next, he then hit the only tree that is in play close to a green on this course, his ball rebounding into the Barry Burn, to transform the tournament as he took a double bogey six.

“I didn’t look like the same guy who played yesterday,” Jimenez admitted.

“I was hitting it badly at the beginning, like I wasn’t loose enough and I missed a good chance for birdie on the fourth. After that I didn’t have the help of fate. Any time I missed a shot I got a bogey.

“At the 10th I hit a nice little fade but it caught the branch of the tree. There were things like that today where the breaks just didn’t go for me and that’s it.”

When he almost chipped in from light rough to left of the green at ‘The Spectacles’, the par five 14th, he got back within range, but by that stage he was one of several contenders.

As Broadhurst kept his card bogey free, Jimenez’s troubles had offered encouragement to the rest of a field that had been tightly packed and others had their moments.

American Scott McCarron came closest to posting a sufficiently low score, his three-under-par 69 taking him to nine-under and he might have done enough to be uncatchable had ne not dropped shots at both the 16th and 18th holes, while Magnus Atlevi briefly raised the prospect of a third Swedish in successive weeks winning on Scottish soil - following Henrik Stenson’s victory at the Open last weekend and Alex Noren’s at the Scottish Open the week before that - when he registered a third consecutive birdie at the 14th to move into the lead, before he, too, bogeyed 16 and 18.