SEVILLE, Spain -- Peter Lawrie made par on the second playoff hole to win the Spanish Open on Sunday after Ignacio Garrido's approach shot rolled into the water.

Garrido (72) forced the playoff with a birdie on the 18th hole to finish at 15-under 273. Lawrie shot a 5-under 67 in the venerable European Tour event.

"I'm not a party person, but I will enjoy this," the 34-year-old Irishman said after his first European Tour win in 175 attempts.

Both players birdied the first playoff hole.

"It just feels unbelievable; I'm lost for words," Lawrie said. "I thought I'd had it won and was telling my caddie Dermott to pack up because we have to catch a plane, when he (Garrido) holed that last putt."

Garrido set a course record with a 63 on Friday.

Soren Hansen (69) finished third at 274. Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (68), Miguel Angel Jimenez (71) and David Lynn (66) tied for fourth, a stroke back of Hansen.

Dubliner Lawrie finally became a European Tour winner in his 175th attempt -- and made it three Irish wins in a row. On a dramatic final day, Lawrie prevented Garrido from creating Tour history when he won the playoff.

Garrido was seeking to emulate his father Antonio, the winner in 1972, and kept his hopes alive when he sank his closing 30-foot birdie putt to tie. He was the one then poised for victory when he pitched to three feet as they went into sudden death.

However, 34-year-old Lawrie made a 25-footer for a matching birdie 3 and Garrido's next pitch to the same green spun back into the water, making Lawrie a winner after Damien McGrane and Darren Clarke won the two previous Tour events.

The closest Lawrie had come to success before was in the same tournament in 2003, when he lost a playoff to England's Kenneth Ferrie. He has now put that firmly behind him.

And though Garrido has captured the Tour's flagship PGA Championship -- that was also five years ago -- it was a massive disappointment to him that to finish a runner-up in the Spanish Open three times.

The former Ryder Cup player led by a massive seven strokes when he signed for a course record 63 on Friday and was still three clear entering the final round.

Lawrie was five adrift then and still four behind after an outward 35, but he birdied the long 13th and then had three more in succession from the 15th, the last of them courtesy of a 40-foot putt.

"I've three bullets to dodge and if I dodge them I'm the winner," he commented as he waited to see what happened to the players still out on the course.

Hansen had a 12-foot chance to tie but missed, then Jimenez -- in front until he put two balls in the water on the 10th and ran up a triple-bogey 7 -- fell out of the running as well.

That left only one bullet, but Garrido was eventually also unable to stop Lawrie.

"It was a one in a million chance and it went in," said Lawrie of his putt on the first playoff hole. "I thought it was going to stop short left and it snuck in. I'd love to see a replay of myself."

Lawrie, normally calmness personified, went into an Irish jig. But there was more work to be done and despite pushing his next tee shot into sand, he found the green, and a par 4 was good enough after Garrido's error.

"It's nice to keep it in the Irish contingent," he added. "It spurs you on -- you play practice rounds with them and think, 'why can't I do it'?"

But now he has, and as a result he has moved from 88th to 12th on the European Tour Order of Merit and into 19th spot in the Ryder Cup race. Hansen and Jimenez would have leapt to sixth in the cup standings by winning, but ended up third and joint fourth, respectively.

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