Luke Donald took the Scottish Open title at Castle Stuart after shooting a final day 63 to finish four shots ahead of runner up Fredrik Andersson Hed.

The world number one took the £500,000 first prize after coming from behind to stride clear of the pack with the lowest score of his European Tour career.

Rain delays on Saturday had forced the tournament to be cut to 54 holes but the conditions and the stoppages could not halt Donald’s inexorable progress towards top spot even as impressive scores were being posted by those around him.

The Englishman had still to complete his second round on Sunday morning and was three behind at start of play. He cut that deficit to one before returning after lunch to show why he sits atop the world rankings with a calm and composed round that ensured that he stretched the gap in ranking points on number two Lee Westwood and guaranteed that he will remain ahead of Rory McIlroy even if the Northern Irishman follows up his US Open win with success at Sandwich.

Colin Montgomerie suffered disappointment as he failed to secure the top five finish that would have handed him a place at the British open and will miss the tournament for the first time in 21 years. The Scot had started brightly on his final round, taking the joint lead, before slipping down the leaderboard.

There was Open joy for one player in front of the home crowd. Scott Jamieson sank a 10-foot birdie on the last to claim the final spot at Sandwich.

The day belonged to Donald though and the Englishman was delighted with his victory.

"It's nice to get another victory - I can get used to this," he said. "To do it on a links is even better and when I play well I tend to do reasonably well the next week.

"This was perfect preparation. It doesn't get any better than going out and winning the week before. I'm going to be high on confidence."