A final par round of 70 saw him finish two shots behind world number 421 Fernandez-Castano, who shot a 67 which included an eagle two after his seven-iron 161-yard approach to the third landed in the hole.

It meant the 41-year-old Emerson, who won the BMW Russian Open last August to regain his place on the main tour, finished nine under par and was almost €168,000 wealthier – enough to secure his tour card for next year.

“My card is secured and all the rest of it – so I am now going to try to build from there,” said the Wimborne resident.

In truth Emerson had a dreadful last round, hitting only four of 14 fairways and reaching seven of 18 greens in regulation.

By contrast the 24-year-old from Madrid, who turned professional in September and won in only his 16th event, had an inspired day on the greens as he drained putts from everywhere and was boosted by that amazing eagle which swung the balance in his favour.

“It is difficult to explain it. I just went out to play my best golf and what happened was everything came true and it is a dream. The icing on the cake,” said Fernandez-Castano, whose hero is fellow Spaniard Seve Ballesteros – a former three-time winner of the Dutch Open who lifted his first title in Holland aged just 19.

“It was one of those days when everything came so easy. The putts were just dropping – it didn’t matter where I aimed it just went straight into the hole.”

He holed a two-foot birdie putt on the second to tie the lead after Emerson bogeyed and, after that spectacular eagle, he drained one from 40 feet on the eighth for birdie and another from 25 feet to turn in 31.

A 20-foot par-saving putt on the 11th maintained his four-shot lead after Emerson had failed to get up and down at the 10th but the Englishman chipped in for eagle at the 485-yard 12th to go to 10 under and reduce the lead to two.

However, Emerson then dropped another shot at the 16th to hand a three-shot lead back to the Spaniard and it was too much to overhaul, even at the par-five last, where the Spaniard parred and Emerson birdied.

Fernandez-Castano paid tribute to some of his more established compatriots saying: “I think all the Spanish players have helped me since I decided to turn professional – not just Seve but (Jose Maria) Olazabal, (Miguel Angel) Jimenez - I have had support from all of them.”

Paul Broadhurst finished third at eight under par after a final-round 70, with fellow Englishmen Robert Coles sixth on six under and defending champion David Lynn in a share of ninth.

English trio John Bickerton (five under), Jamie Spence (two under) and David Park (level) shot the rounds of the day with five-under 65s.