Nearing the end of April, Brett Rumford was ranked the 237th player in the world. Without a win in his 121 previous starts on the European Tour, he was at long odds with bookmakers to claim the Ballantines Championship in Korea.

The fact he did win it, in extra time with an eagle on the first play-off hole, was a brilliant result for the West Australian who has struggled for good results during the past two years.

“The last couple of years have been very difficult,” he said after the win in Korea. “I had twins two years ago, it's coming up to their second birthday. Go Back to China next week and back to pick them up before I go to Europe, so that's been really testing.

“The last couple of years … trying to be the best father as I can and helping out my wife, Sally, who has been a tremendous support, it's been very, very difficult.

“But you know what, we are through the hard part.  We are sort of through that first six months of having twins, if anyone's experienced that, it's possibly the hardest thing you'll ever do.

Brett Rumford is almost lost in the crowd with the winner's trophy. PHOTO: ONEASIA

“Now I'm just looking ahead, obviously just getting my game back to where it was in 2010 and just try and really kick on from here.  That's what my goal is.”

He didn’t have to look too far ahead … just seven days to be precise.

Rumford, 35, shot a superb four under 68 to close out the Volvo China Open at 16 under and seal a four-stroke victory over Finland’s Mikko Ilonen at the Binhai Lake GC in Tianjin.

It was Rumford's fifth European Tour win since turning professional in 2000 and he earned earned €407,500 ($A523,275), which is more than he had won in the previous two seasons in Europe.

“As with last week I’m kind of speechless at the moment,” he said.

“It’s quite surreal – it’s the first time I’ve actually played the week after a win so I’m more than pleased. It’s hard to get my head around it at the moment.

“I managed to get up and down when I really needed to. There are some very tight lies around the perimeters of the greens, so it was tricky. My putter was also really on song, as it was last week. It puts a lot of pressure on your opponent when you’re saving par all the time.”

Rumford's ball-striking has been at a career high during the past two weeks. PHOTO: ONEASIA

The consecutive wins – the first by an Aussie on the European Tour since Jack Newton in 1972 – catapulted ‘Rummy’ to the No.1 ranking in the tour's season-long Race to Dubai standings and his world ranking will now climb to a career-high spot in the low 70s, which puts him in the top-20 of those International players vying for a spot on the Presidents Cup team for later this year.

Rumford has never played in the Cup, not has he played too many major championships or World Golf Championships. All that is about to change.

He will certainly get a start in the US PGA Championship in August, but will need to move into the top-60 of the world ranking by the beginning of June to get a start in the US Open. He will then have to reach the top-50 to get a start in the Open Championship at Muirfield in July. That said, if he finishes 2013 in the top-30 of the Race To Dubai he will be exempt into the 2014 Open at Hoylake.

He can tick all these qualifying boxes with his next start on the European Tour – the limited-field Volvo World Match Play Championship in Bulgaria starting on May 16.