Andres Romero held off the challenge of Masters champion Sergio Garcia and England's Richard Bland to win his first title in nine years at the BMW International Open.
The Argentinian was playing on a sponsor's invite in Munich and had slipped to 837th in the world since his last victory at the 2008 Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
He showed no signs of that alarming drop in form on Sunday, however, carding a closing bogey-free 65 to get to 17 under and beat Bland, Garcia and Belgium's Thomas Detry by a single shot.
Romero began his round with seven pars but birdied the eighth, ninth and 11th before a hat-trick of gains from the 13th moved him into a share of the lead.
Detry posted a closing 66 to set the target at 16 under but when Garcia three-putted the 16th and Bland missed the green on the next, the door was open for Romero.
He left his eagle putt on the last a long way short but held his nerve to make a birdie, leaving the final pairing of Bland and Garcia both needing finishing eagles to force a play-off.
The duo could only make birdies, however, and Romero was handed his second European Tour win.
Garcia was looking for his third win of the season in his first event in Europe since his triumph at Augusta, while Bland fell agonisingly short of his first victory in his 411th European Tour appearance.
Swede Rikard Karlberg finished at 14 under, a shot clear of England's Tommy Fleetwood and Italian Renato Paratore, with Open champion Henrik Stenson six shots behind the winner.
Romero said of his stunning success: "I'm really, really happy. I haven't been in that position for a long time, so it felt a little funny - but only on that 18th hole, because I was playing great golf.
"And then I was looking at the leaderboard and I saw that the other guys missed the green on 17 but I didn't want to look at that. I was a little nervous.
"I'm very happy that I'm going to be here on the European Tour again. I enjoy it here and I want to say thanks to the people at BMW because if it wasn't for them - they gave me an invite for this event - I wouldn't have any category now, and this is going to be life-changing."
Garcia fell short but took positives from his performance, saying: "It was a good week and I obviously fell just short. I felt like I played well enough to win for sure.
"Obviously there were a couple of missed putts here and there today, and some really good putts that didn't want to go in.
"So it was difficult to get anything going. And then, unfortunately that chip on 18 looked pretty good but it just missed on the right side.
"You have to give credit to Andres. With no status, he's neither here on the European Tour nor the PGA Tour - to go out and shoot 65 today, I'm happy for him and we'll just keep trying."
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