The 27-year-old South African closed with a two-under-par 70 for a 10-under-par 278 four-round total at El Prat that left him two strokes better than experienced Dane Anders Hansen (70).
“Seve was an inspiration to us all and we were all out there trying to win it for him,” Aiken told reporters, referring to the Spanish five-times major champion who died of brain cancer on Saturday at the age of 54.
“No matter who had won today I think they would have wanted to dedicate the win to Seve,” added Aiken after breaking his tour duck in his fourth full year.
The leader for the second and third rounds, Aiken was never headed as his faultless two-under-par front nine kept the field at bay.
He then stayed cool when he made mistakes coming home, to finally prevail after third, fifth, sixth and seventh places this season and a runner-up finish last year.
His playing partner Hansen, twice a winner of the European Tour’s flagship PGA event at Wentworth, had been expected to be Aiken’s chief threat.
However, the Dane stalled over the first eight holes with pars.
After collecting the trophy and a prize of nearly $500,000, Aiken said he was proud to win the last career title that Ballesteros had claimed.
“To know my name is going on the trophy alongside Seve’s is really special,” he told Reuters.
Aiken was also inspired by the achievements of compatriots Charl Schwartzel, the recent US Masters champion, and last year’s British Open winner Louis Oosthuizen.
“They played great and it definitely spurs you on,” said Aiken. “To follow Louis by first winning in Spain as he did last year, and then going on to win the British Open, would be extremely nice.”
Local favorite and El Prat club member Pablo Larrazabal (71) was another player expected to run Aiken close but the Spaniard’s double bogey on the fourth left him playing catch-up and he had to settle for a tie for third place, three strokes adrift of Aiken.
Rookie Briton Scott Jamieson (71), the first-round leader, shared third place after late birdies, but a closing bogey by last year’s US Open runner-up, Gregory Havret (70) relegated the Frenchman to a tie for fifth place, four behind Aiken.
Byrd up by one at Wells Fargo event
In Charlotte, North Carolina, Jonathan Byrd lived up to his surname Saturday in the Wells Fargo Championship.
In the mix with a half-dozen other players trying to keep in range of Pat Perez, Byrd ran off five birdies in six holes to start the back nine and finished with a 5-under 67 to take a one-shot lead.
The one hole he didn’t birdie might have been his best putt — a 7-footer with a sharp break to the right into the grain. Byrd poured it into the heart, birdied the next two holes and was on his way.
He was at 15-under 201 and will try to win for the third time in the last seven months on the PGA Tour.
Perez had a hard-fought 70. Former US Open champion Lucas Glover (69) and former British Open champion Stewart Cink (68), who have not won since capturing their majors in the summer of 2009, were three shots back.
The top eight players were separated by five shots, which isn’t much on a Quail Hollow course where last year Rory McIlroy closed with a 62 for his only PGA Tour victory.
Missing from the mix is Mickelson, eight strokes back after a 74.
J.B. Holmes had an amazing stretch on the back nine — five shots to play two holes when he holed a 5-iron on the 15th for an albatross, the rarest score in golf, and followed that with a birdie on the 16th. That led to a 65, although he was six shots behind.
