With a 20-foot birdie putt at the first hole of a play-off 36-year-old Hansen won the European Tour's flagship BMW PGA Championship for the second time in six years.

Amazingly, he has never won any of his other 235 events - and in his first season on the US Tour this year has not had a single top-20 finish.

Rose, playing his first tournament in England for three years, had brought the biggest cheer of the day from the crowd when he played a brilliant pitch to two feet to match Hansen's closing birdie four in regulation play.

That meant they tied on the eight under par mark of 280 after a closing day of good, bad and some really ugly golf, with overnight leaders Paul Broadhurst and Ross Fisher incredibly shooting 80 and 84 respectively.

Rose then played the better approach when the pair returned to the 18th hole for sudden death but Hansen had the perfect pace and line on his putt and won the first prize of nearly £500,000 when the 26-year-old Englishman missed from 15 feet.

"This means a lot more than the first time," said Hansen. "It's a fantastic feeling. The first time I was playing really good coming in, but a lot of things have happened since.

"I've not played great this year. I've just kept shooting myself in foot. I've also missed my kids - I have family in Denmark and it's really hard being away from them.

"I'm disappointed it's taken five years [to win again]. And I never would have guessed that it would come here."

For Rose it was yet another near-miss.

In the Masters at the start of April - that was his last start as he had more back trouble the following week - he was one behind Zach Johnson with two to play but double-bogeyed the penultimate hole and finished fifth.

"I guess it is disappointing," he stated. "You are that close when you are in a play-off but it was over so quickly. He holed his putt and I missed mine.

"All in all, though, it's hard not to be pleased about playing so well at home in a tournament I really love and came to watch many times as a kid."

Rose did have another double bogey, going out of bounds with his hooked drive at the ninth, but this time he came straight back with a birdie, as he did after bogeying the 15th.

And his last-hole birdie in regulation play should fill him with confidence next time he is in contention.

"It was somewhat similar to 98," he said, being reminded of the pitch-in for birdie with which he took fourth place as a 17-year-old amateur in the Open at Birkdale.

Hansen became the fifth shock winner of the event in seven years.

Scotland's Andy Oldcorn was not in the world's top 250 when he lifted the trophy in 2001, Hansen himself was ranked only 141st the following year, Ignacio Garrido was outside the top 200 in 2003 and Scott Drummond, the biggest outsider of all, was way down in 435th spot three years ago.

This time Hansen came to the West Course 151st in the world and he did not think much of his chances when an opening 74 left him eight adrift of leaders Rose and Broadhurst.

By winning again, however, he is likely to leap more than 100 places and into the top 50 just in time to earn an exemption into next month's US Open, while he is certain to be in the Open at Carnoustie in July.

Even though the expected tempest never arrived and the final round was completed without interruptions you would have thought conditions could not have been tougher by the way overnight leaders Paul Broadhurst and Ross Fisher performed.

They set off again at 10 under par, but finished two under and two over respectively. Broadhurst had two sevens in his 80, Fisher kicked off with five straight bogeys and later had an eight in a nightmare 84 that was the worst round of the day.

They were not alone in making a mess of things, though.

Sterne led on his own, but followed a bogey on the ninth with a double bogey at the short next.

That handed top spot to 2005 winner Angel Cabrera, who had turned in a superb 31. But the big-hitting Argentinian simply had to be embarrassed by his playing of the 15th.

Still ahead at the time the world's 53rd-best player topped his drive barely 100 yards, then found sand and rough en route to a double-bogey six from which he could not recover.

While this was all going on Vijay Singh, 10 behind after he bogeyed the second hole, posted a 66 and suddenly found himself sharing top spot.

And there he remained until Hansen birdied the last from seven feet and waited to see if anybody could match him. Rose was the only one who could.

Sterne had a chance to make it a three-man play-off, but his pitch spun off the edge of the green and he had to settle for a par five and a share of third place with Singh.

ALL THE FINAL ROUND SCORES

(Gbr and Irl unless stated, par 72):

280 Anders Hansen (Den) 74 70 67 69, Justin Rose 66 70 73 71 (Hansen won play-off at first hole. Hansen wins £495,848, Rose £330,563)

281 Vijay Singh (Fij) 73 72 70 66, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 68 73 66 74 (£167,497 each)

282 Angel Cabrera (Arg) 70 66 76 70, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 70 68 72 72 (£115,136 each)

283 Luke Donald 71 72 71 69 (£89,252)

284 Henrik Stenson (Swe) 70 73 72 69, Thongchai Jaidee (Thai) 73 70 71 70, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 72 73 68 71, Richard Green (Aus) 73 73 67 71

285 Andres Romero (Arg) 70 72 75 68, Peter Lawrie 76 69 71 69, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 68 71 74 72, Lee Westwood 71 72 70 72, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 77 69 67 72, Paul Casey 73 67 72 73, Markus Brier (Aut) 73 68 70 74, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 67 70 70 78

286 Christian Cevaer (Fra) 72 72 72 70, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 68 71 74 73, Nick Dougherty 69 71 71 75, Paul Broadhurst 66 72 68 80

287 Ernie Els (Rsa) 68 76 72 71, Brett Taylor 71 73 72 71, Simon Khan 67 75 73 72, Padraig Harrington 69 69 75 74, Fredrik Andersson (Swe) 69 72 72 74

288 Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 73 68 75 72

289 Martin Kaymer (Ger) 71 75 73 70, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 67 72 78 72, Christian Nilsson (Swe) 71 73 73 72, Marc Warren 70 75 72 72, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 71 72 73 73, Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned) 73 71 72 73, Steven Jeppesen (Swe) 73 72 71 73, Colin Montgomerie 70 76 70 73, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 71 72 71 75

290 Thomas Bjorn (Den) 74 70 73 73, Ross Fisher 70 67 69 84

291 Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 70 75 75 71, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa) 70 76 73 72, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 72 71 75 73, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 72 72 72 75, James Kingston (Rsa) 70 71 74 76, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 77 68 70 76

292 Andrew Oldcorn 74 71 72 75

293 Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 72 70 77 74, Paul McGinley 74 69 76 74, Ariel Canete (Arg) 72 73 73 75, Oliver Wilson 70 71 76 75, Lee Slattery 69 71 76 77

294 Christopher Hanell (Swe) 72 72 74 76, Stephen Dodd 72 74 70 78

295 Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 76 70 76 73, Mattias Eliasson (Swe) 72 72 76 75, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 72 74 73 76, James Hepworth 71 72 75 77

297 Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 72 70 78 77, Jyoti Randhawa ( Ind) 68 75 76 78, Yang Yong-eun (Kor) 68 78 73 78, Matthew Millar (Aus) 69 69 79 80

298 Thomas Levet (Fra) 70 76 79 73, Miles Tunnicliff 71 73 75 79, Garry Houston 74 71 74 73, Richard Bland 71 71 76 80

300 Shiv Kapur (Ind) 67 71 81 81

301 Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 72 73 78 78, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 70 76 76 79

302 Peter Gustafsson (Swe) 74 72 77 79

303 Marcel Siem (Ger) 73 72 79 79, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 69 77 76 81

304 Brett Rumford (Aus) 77 69 81 77

306 Mark Foster 71 75 80 80, Johan Axgren (Swe) 75 71 77 83