Darren Clarke boosted his chances of being awarded a Ryder Cup wildcard spot after surging to a four-shot victory at the KLM Open on Sunday.

A week after his 40th birthday the Northern Irishman captured his second victory of the season in Holland and did it with a second successive 66.

Ireland's Paul McGinley, his cup team-mate in the last three matches, finished runner-up with a 64, one shot ahead of Swede Henrik Stenson.

Clarke's 66 for a 16-under-par total came too late for him to force his way into an automatic cup spot, but European captain Nick Faldo hands out two wild cards next Sunday.

And if Clarke and Paul Casey are picked it would mean Colin Montgomerie missing his first match since his 1991 debut.

"It's nice to win knowing that I had to play well and then actually doing it," said Clarke, who was an inspiration to the last European side by winning all his three games just weeks after his wife Heather died of breast cancer.

"I had two weeks to try to impress Nick. The first is out of the way and I seem to have done that.

"I don't know if I have done enough, but I'm going to Gleneagles in better shape and hopefully he will take notice."

Clarke began the last day three clear, but after just three holes playing partner Stenson had turned that deficit into a one-stroke advantage.

But Clarke birdied three of the next four and with the Swede hitting a bogey and double bogey on the seventh and ninth he started the back nine four clear and for good measure birdied the next three holes.

McGinley, who resigned as an assistant to Faldo to try to play himself in, took solo second when Stenson bogeyed the last.

"It was a good effort, but all credit to Darren," McGinley said.

"There are only two picks, so it's a tight situation, but I'm going to have to win (in Scotland) to give myself a chance."

Three automatic spots are still up for grabs and by finishing only 34th, eighth-placed Justin Rose must also head to Gleneagles rather than return to America.

AFP