Ah the irony... The host of this week’s new European Tour event had pulled off something of a coup when the invitation to a fellow former Open champion was accepted, yet it was a man nicknamed “the Asian John Daly” who emerged triumphant at the Saltire Energy Paul Lawrie Matchplay three days after the original headed home.

As a hefty individual with a rather ungainly gait and a taste for bright colours who has an adherence to the ‘grip it and rip it philosophy that helped make Daly - a first round loser here – so popular figure when he burst onto the scene in the nineties, Kiradech Aphibarnrat is first to admit that he has fully earned that comparison.

So much so that after digging the ball out of the Murcar rough to within four feet of the pin, setting up the match winning birdie on the last hole of his final against Sweden’s Robert Karlsson, the 26-year-old revealed that he had modelled his game on that of the American in the early stages of his career.

“When I was a kid, my first coach wanted me to hit as far as I could and then adjust it,” he explained.

“After the first two or three years of playing golf I looked at John Daly’s swing over and over. He has a long back swing and he is a big guy. He was one of my idols so I studied him.

“He won two majors and was one of the best players in the world. I was so proud to be described as the John Daly of Asia. I was happy with that.”

Even so there was an element of proving a point about yesterday’s triumph.

“I remember a long time ago some guy kept telling me that if I had a long back-swing like that I would not grow up to be a professional.

“Today I can show them it is not just the back-swing, it is how you hole putts to make low scores. That was why John Daly won majors.”

It was his third European Tour success but the global nature of what is now more accurately referred to as the Race to Dubai is reflected in that this was the first victory he has achieved outside Asia, the previous two having been the Malaysian Open in 2013 and this season’s Shenzhen International.

His style was clearly a contributory factor in this knockout event as was acknowledged by Karlsson, who had come tantalisingly close to claiming a first European Tour in five troubled years not least in getting the match back to all square heading down the last after twice having been three down, the second of those occasions as he headed for the 15th tee.

“He's tricky to play against,” said the Swede.

“He's playing such free and flowing golf, it’s slightly different. You never really know what he's going to do and he just makes it tricky to stay on your own game because he's so aggressive.

“You know, most likely, you're going to get one or two, he's going to give a couple away, which he did on eight and 15, but also, he's going to make birdies.

“He’s obviously a great, great player, though and it was a fantastic birdie on the last, so he deserved it.”

Curiously enough there was a sense that both players were pretty relaxed about the final because, as Aphibarnrat observed, he could play with ever greater freedom down the final hole because, quite differently to a 72-hole strokeplay event, “I knew I could take a 10 and still finish second,” while after six consecutive missed cuts for Karlsson it was just a relief to be back in contention at a European Tour event.

“It’s disappointing to get to the final and lose, but if you look on how I played lately to have a chance to win on the last hole, it's good,” he said.

“It's been a pretty poor five years. I had a good run last year the middle of summer when I played nicely, but it's nice to get this one under the belt and hopefully I can carry that on during the next few weeks.”

There was also some consolation for the last Scot left in the event after Marc Warren suffered two defeats on the final day, losing 3&2 to Aphibarnrat in the semi-final before being pipped by David Howell when the Englishman birdied the last hole of their third place play-off since he knew that his performance had all but guaranteed his involvement in the World Golf Championship Bridgestone Invitational this week ahead of taking part in next week’s USPGA.

It looks like a great golf course, so I’m looking forward to seeing that and playing there,” he said of the Bridgestone.

“I’ve got three good weeks coming up because I’m then defending my title in Denmark.”