Australian Scott Strange has completed a wire-to-wire win in the Wales Open at Celtic Manor. The 31-year-old from Perth, never previously higher than 10th on European soil and ranked only 164th in the world, showed himself to be a front-runner of real substance on the new course built to stage the 2010 Ryder Cup. Never caught from the moment he opened with a 63 on Thursday, Strange produced a flawless closing 64, the joint best of the day, to win with a staggering 22-under-par total of 262. Birdie bursts from Ryder Cup pair Darren Clarke and Robert Karlsson were not enough to stop Strange. Karlsson, third in his previous three events, also shot 64 but finished four shots back in second place, while Clarke&aposs 66 lifted him from 14th into a tie for fourth, a distant nine strokes adrift of Strange. Clarke, the only player to have two rounds of 60 in European Tour history, birdied five of the first seven holes to be only three behind, but a shocking five-iron into the water on the short 13th was effectively the end of his challenge. Karlsson, lying joint third overnight, was the next to test the leader&aposs character, six successive birdies around the turn making it eight in all for the tall Swede. That cut Strange&aposs advantage to two, but with a matching outward 31 and then further birdies on the 11th and 14th the two-time Asian Tour winner re-established his command and it was pretty much game over. France&aposs Raphael Jacquelin was third on his own and joint fourth with Clarke were English pair Nick Dougherty and Benn Barham, Italian Francesco Molinari and Argentina&aposs Rafa Echenique. Colin Montgomerie&aposs closing 72 dropped him to 58th of the 73 who made the cut and means he has still not had a top-40 finish in strokeplay since January. A ninth Ryder Cup cap looks further away than ever. Final Round Scores from the Celtic Manor Wales Open, Wales -22: Scott Strange (Australia) 63, 66, 69, 64 -18: Robert Karlsson 67, 67, 68, 64 -14: Jacquelin Raphael 66, 68, 68, 68 -13: Benn Barham 69, 64, 79, 68, Darren Clarke 70, 68, 67, 66, Nick Dougherty 67, 69, 67, 68, Rafa Echenique 67, 67, 69, 68, Francesco Molinari 72, 66, 69, 64 -12: Gonzalo Fdez-Castano 67, 68, 70, 67 -11: Robert Dinwiddie 68, 65, 70, 70, Ross Fisher 67, 70, 67, 69, Ross McGowan 66, 68, 69, 70, Jeev Singh 65, 68, 69, 71, Alvaro Velasco 65, 68, 68, 72 -10: Jamie Donaldson 72, 66, 67, 69, Miko Ilonen 69, 70, 66, 69, Pablo Larrazabal 69, 67, 67, 71, Thomas Levet 69, 69, 65, 71, Hennie Otto 67, 68, 71, 68, Marcel Siem 71, 69, 68, 66 Also: -3: b>Gareth Paddison (New Zealand) 73, 68, 71, 69 -1: Peter O&aposMalley (Australia) 69, 72, 71, 71