COURAGEOUS Spaniard Rafa Cabrera Bello firmly believes he played "the best golf of my life" as he captured the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open title at Dundonald Links on Sunday.

The Ryder Cup hero came from four shots back to edged out Englishman Callum Shinkwin at the third extra hole of playoff at the end of the four-day event, which brought crowds of more than 50,000 to the Irvine course.

Shinkwin had needed a par-five at the final hole to win but ended up with a bogey after messing up a bunker shot.

He said after the triumph: "I really felt I played some of the best golf of my life today. I has an unbelievable Sunday and I really went for it in the playoff. My shot to the green was one of the best of my life. So extremely pleased that everything worked out my way.

"Obviously a playoff is one of those situations. You draw back from those memories."

The victor was impressed with the support he had received and felt Dundonald was a good course, although there were some challenges.

He added: "The spectators have been fantastic and we saw even on a rough day like Saturday having so many people as we had. Golf in Scotland is huge and the venue has been proved to be a very exciting one. It treated me nicely although perhaps some of the greens had a little too much slope to my ideal. But the course has now become one of my special places in the world."