Olé, Olé, as Olly on ticket to Ryder

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL took a big leap towards a seventh Ryder Cup cap by ending more than three and a half years without a victory at the Mallorca Classic yesterday.

The 39-year-old, only one ahead overnight, charged four clear with a superb front nine of 31, stretched that to six after 11 holes and ended up taking the £170,744 first prize by five shots.

Olazabal, who took added satisfaction from the fact he is in the process of re-designing the Pula course, finished with a round of 66 for a 10-under-par total of 270.

Second were defending champion Sergio Garcia, fellow Spaniard Jose Manuel Lara and England’s Paul Broadhurst, whose level-par final round of 70 cost him the chance of a second win of the season.

Garcia said of Olazabal: “Yes, it’s his course and he has a little more knowledge of it than most of us, but at the end of the day you still have to hit the shots and hole the putts.

“It would be great if he made it back into the Ryder Cup. He’s always a guy you like to have on the team.”

Olazabal is now fourth in the cup standings - Garcia is second to Colin Montgomerie - and on course to return to the team next September after a gap of six years. His last match was the hugely controversial singles with Justin Leonard at Brookline in 1999.

His last title was the 2002 Buick Invitational in California and the last of his 22 European Tour victories the 2001 Hong Kong Open.

After a slump in his fortunes he has stormed back to prominence this year, losing a play-off to Phil Mickelson on the US Tour and finishing third in the Open at St Andrews.

His win made amends for what happened in this event two years ago. He led by two with two to play, but drove out of bounds on the 17th, double-bogeyed and then bogeyed the last to lose by one to Miguel Angel Jimenez.

The day also decided who stayed on the European Tour for another year - and there was delight for England’s Sam Little and bitter disappointment for Scot David Drysdale.

Drysdale and Frenchman Gregory Bourdy went into the tournament holding the last two exempt spots, but both missed the halfway cut and lost control of their situation.

When Miguel Angel Martin made it through Bourdy was done for, but Drysdale then had to wait to see if he was pushed out as well.

With a round to go Martin, who needed only to finish 70th, and Little, who required 24th spot, were in position to send Drysdale back to school.

Others who failed to save their places on tour included former Ryder Cup Swede Jarmo Sandelin and Drysdale’s fellow Scot Raymond Russell, fourth at the 1998 Open and until this year always in Europe’s top 100 since he last went to the qualifying school 10 years ago.

Sandelin, a team-mate of Olazabal’s in Boston six years ago, vowed to fight his way back after never getting near the fourth-place finish he had to find to survive.

The 38-year-old, one of golf’s most colourful characters, will attend the qualifying school for the first time since 1993.