It was appropriate after the Arctic conditions that prevailed in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Fife on Friday that the man who has a house in Lapland and, as a result, probably spends more time nearer to the North Pole than anyone else should have won the event at St Andrews yesterday. Robert Karlsson's powerful and elegant swing has worked well all season and although the Swede had to endure a play-off with Martin Kaymer, of Germany, and Ross Fisher, the Englishman, he won his second title this year at the first extra hole.

Karlsson's victory moved him ahead of Padraig Harrington to the top of the Order of Merit and because he is playing one more event than the Irishman before they contest the Volvo Masters at Valderrama, he should hold on to his lead. “My goal is not to beat Padraig but to play good golf,” Karlsson said. “If I play good golf and win the Order of Merit, then so be it.”

It would be a fitting end to an outstanding season for Karlsson. The 39-year-old is one of a number of players who have had memorable seasons. Harrington, the Open and USPGA champion, is another and Kaymer a third. Karlsson has had an average finishing position of ninth in the four major championships, as well as victory in the Mercedes Benz Championships the week before the Ryder Cup. He was once known as a man who could not finish off when a tournament victory beckoned. In May and June he had three thirds, a second and a fourth, for example.

That is all gone now. He has become a world-class player, as he demonstrated at the Ryder Cup last month, and now he has won his second successive strokeplay event. “I played better golf in May and June than I did here,” Karlsson said. “But golf is so much more than merely hitting a golf ball. It is strategy. I am a stronger player now.”

The trophy Karlsson won is a big silver one, a wide bowl that could hold a lot of champagne, which is what Karlsson was planning to put into it. He sat on the steps beneath the Royal and Ancient's clubhouse and let the occasion and the size of his victory sink in. He remembered the first time he had come to this historic part of Scotland, seen the Old Course and vowed that he would be back to play. “You fall in love with it because it is so different,” Karlsson said. “The more I play here, the more I like it.”

On a benign and sunny afternoon, Fisher was the first to take the lead when he covered his first 14 holes in eight under par to move to ten under, this purple patch being capped with an eagle on the 14th, where he chipped in from 35 yards. Fisher failed to birdie any of the remaining holes, however, leaving a putt for a birdie three on the 72nd hole on the edge of the hole. “I can't be too disappointed with a 65,” Fisher said, though he could be at hitting into the Swilcan Burn, on the first play-off hole.

Kaymer might have felt that this was a tournament that he let slip. The German moved to 11 under par with a wonderful birdie on the 16th, getting out of a fairway bunker, and needed to stay on that mark to record his third win of the season. He is a strong and promising golfer, but his frailty is his putting. It cost him this event, when he missed from six feet for a par on the 17th to fall back to ten under, then failed to hole from seven feet for a birdie on the 18th.

He should not berate himself too strongly. Everything that has happened to him lately has to be seen in the light of the fact that his mother died in July and he has been knocked sideways by that sad loss. His time will come.Karlsson's victory has moved him to the top of the Order of Merit. He has overtaken Padraig Harrington and because he is playing one more event than Harrington before they contest the Volvo Masters at Valderrama, he should hold on to his lead. “My goal is not to beat Padraig but to play good golf,” Karlsson said. “If I play good golf and win the Order of Merit, then so be it.” It would be a fitting end to an outstanding season.

He will have plenty more chances to win in the months to come.