Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia had a big smile on his face after he three-putted the closing hole for a bogey on Saturday. When he holed a simple two-foot putt for par on Sunday, the smile was even bigger.  The roar from the crowd was deafening. The Smiling Assassin just doffed his cap and raised his putter in jubilation before walking off the 18th green.

That short putt was enough to give the diminutive Kolkatan his maiden European Tour title, the biggest win of his career. It was a result of a stunning assault on the front nine. In the wake, he left the quality field -- that also had a certain Ernie Els -- behind en route to a two-stroke victory at the inaugural $2.5-million Emaar-MGF Indian Masters.

The ever-smiling 29-year-old Indian shot a brilliant five-under-par 67 on Sunday to finish with a four-day tally of nine-under-par 279. That effort earned him a cheque for $416,660, the biggest of his career.

Ireland's Damien McGrane had an outside chance to force a play-off, but he bogeyed the 17th hole to end to finish sole second on 281. Jose Manuel Lara (283) ended third, while Digvijay Singh made up for his brother-in-law's (Jyoti Randhawa) failure by finishing tied fourth a further stroke behind.

Overnight leader Raphael Jacquelin just couldn't get his game going, finishing tied fourth. Chowrasia's heroics failed to spur his playing partner Arjun Atwal as well. A winner here before, Atwal shot a disappointing 76 to finish tied 15th. Home grown Gaurav Ghei and world No 4 Els finished tied sixth with four others.

But then, it was all about Chowrasia and his brilliant charge. Chowrasia's good two-hour work out on the practice greens before his tee-off time seemed to pay handsome dividends. For, the 29-year-old, still to win an Asian title, putted like a king. He holed some long ones and saved some tough ones. In fact, he took a mere 28 putts for his round, just 16 for the first 12!

Having birdied the opening hole -- set up by a brilliant third shot -- Chowrasia had a chipped-in birdie from the fringe on the third, for the second straight day. The goodly crowd, easily in excess 8,000, sensed that it would be the Kolkatan's day after that stunner and followed him to the finish.

He didn't disappoint them, holing an eight-footer on the fourth to go seven-under for the day, and more importantly, hit the front. There was no looking back after that. On the par-3 third, he sank a monstrous 30-footer to go eight-under for the day.

Winner of 10 titles on the Indian Tour, Chowrasia missed a simple five-footer on the eighth, but saved par with a 10-foot return putt on the next. On the 11th hole, he drained an 18-footer to go nine-under for the day.

Thereafter, he just eased a bit on the gas and concentrated on percentage play.

"All I wanted to do was score pars and kept it going in the second half," said Chowrasia, still in a daze after the victory. "Right now, my mind is totally blank," he added.

He had a chance to put the issue beyond doubt on the 16th, but missed a four-footer. But McGrane, playing a group behind, failed to reduce the two-stroke deficit, finding the greenside bunker to make only a par. The Irish golfer bogeyed the par-3 17th to drop three behind.

Chowrasia wasn't aware of that. He parred the 18th hole to become the third Indian to win an European Tour title. Jeev and Atwal have two wins each.

Final scores (after 72 holes):

279: SSP Chowrasia (Ind, 70, 71, 71, 67); 281: Damien McGrane (Ire, 67, 69, 75, 70); 283: Jose Manuel Lara (Esp, 68, 72, 71, 72); 284: Digvijay Singh (Ind, 70, 70, 74, 70), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra, 69, 69, 72, 74); 285: Gaurav Ghei (Ind, 75, 69, 70, 71), Ernie Els (RSA, 75, 70, 69, 71), Thomas Bjorn (Den, 68, 72, 74, 71), Maarten Lafebar (Ned, 69, 71, 73, 72); Ross McGowan (Eng, 72, 71, 70, 72); 286: Soren Kjeldsen (Den, 74, 71, 75, 66).
Other Indians: 288: Arjun Atwal (70, 70, 72, 76); 290: Jyoti Randhawa (65, 77, 75, 73); 293: Amandeep Johl (73, 71, 76, 73); 294: Randhir Singh Ghotra (74, 73, 70, 77), Shiv Kapur (68, 78, 76, 72); 295: C Muniyappa (69, 77, 77, 72); 296: Shamim Khan (73, 74, 76, 73); 297: Ashok Kumar (72, 73, 75, 77); 300: Ali Sher (77, 70, 78, 75); 303: Harmeet Kahlon (70, 75, 83, 75); 309: Rahul Ganapathy (76, 71, 78, 84).