Not so long ago, Swedish golfers looked deferentially towards their Irish brethren as long-standing aristocrats of the game.

But a recent penchant for departing these shores with the country's premier titles was furthered yesterday at Ballybunion when Patrik Sjoland captured the Murphy's Irish Open by two strokes from compatriot Fredrik Jacobson.

Despite all the talk of murder in the air, the celebrated links emerged relatively unscathed. Indeed the winning aggregate of 270 - 14 under par - was two strokes higher than at Druids Glen last year and a stroke more than the 269 that Bernhard Langer inflicted on Portmarnock in 1987.

"I had never heard of Ballybunion until I saw in on the tournament schedule at the start of this year," said Sjoland after collecting a winner's cheque for Stg £166,660. "And after playing it in practice last Tuesday and Wednesday, I didn't think it would be possible to break par here."

As it happened, his closing 70 was the only sub-par round among the leading challengers. And the course certainly inflicted serious grief on Sergio Garcia, who was widely favoured to retain the title after moving into a share of second place with Sjoland on Saturday, two strokes behind the 54-hole leader Rolf Muntz.

But the Spaniard's challenge began to disintegrate with a ruinous triple-bogey on the fourth. And his problems were compounded by bogeys at the eighth and ninth, knocking him back to nine-under-par for the tournament and five strokes behind joint-leaders Muntz and Sjoland at that stage.

Regulars at Ballybunion will be familiar with yesterday's fourth as normally being the treacherous ninth, with a severely sloping green from back to front, not unlike the same hole at Augusta National. Garcia's approach hit the green and rolled back off the front. From there, two attempts to chip and run it up the slope saw the ball stubbornly refuse to stay up. Eventually, he pitched to safety and two-putted for a seven.

"You try your best but sometimes it doesn't go right," was the mature response from the 20-year-old afterwards. "It wasn't meant to be. I love it over here and there's always next time."

Meanwhile, the search goes on for a home winner to bridge what has now become an 18-year gap back to John O'Leary's triumph in 1982. Still, Paul McGinley battled admirably for a share of third place - his best performance in the championship.

"It was a difficult day and I paid the price for two errors in course-management," he said, referring to a double-bogey at the 12th and a bogey at the short 16th.

"The course presented a really good test of golf today - probably six strokes more difficult than it was on Thursday and Friday," he added.

Recent Swedish successes in this country include Per-Ulrik Johannson's win in the Smurfit European Open in 1996 and 1997 and Matthias Gronberg's victory in the same tournament in 1998. By his own estimation, Sjoland's most telling shot on his victory surge was an 18-foot putt to save par after he had been bunkered at the short 16th.

With the honour at the second last, Jacobson pulled his drive into heavy rough from where he went from a bad lie to worse, en route to a bogey six. Sjoland, meanwhile, sank a six-foot birdie putt for a one-stroke lead heading for the last. That was where Jacobson effectively killed his victory chances by blocking his drive against the boundary fence from where he was forced to take a penalty drop.

The freshening south-westerly, allied to the tension of the climactic round, was evident in the scoring of the leading groups. In fact of the last 15 players into action, Des Smyth was the only one to keep a bogey off his card over the opening nine, which he covered in nine straight pars.

McGinley, meanwhile, compensated for a bogey at the second with a birdie at the long eighth where he actually had an eagle putt from little more than four feet. He also birdied the long 11th to be 11 under par and in serious, challenging position at that stage, three strokes behind Sjoland.

"I felt I could win if I shot three or four under for the round and I became too aggressive," he said afterwards. Still, there was a handsome cushion in a cheque for Stg £56,300 for matching the tied-third finish of John McHenry at Druids Glen two years ago.