South Africa's Darren Fichardt closed out an impressive victory in the Joburg Open, which was reduced to 54 holes due to bad weather, to win his fifth European Tour title. The 41-year-old gained 187,697 points and made a stunning leap in the European Tour's Race to Dubai, moving from 107th to 18th position as he targets a return to the season-ending DP World Tour Championship, Dubai, hosted by Jumeirah Golf Estates from November 16-19, for the first time since 2014.
Fichardt finished 15 under par after carding a closing 68 at the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club, one shot ahead of England's Paul Waring and Welshman Stuart Manley.
A play-off was on the cards after Manley birdied the final two holes to complete a third consecutive 67 and set the clubhouse target of 14 under par, while Fichardt dropped his first shot of the day on the 17th.
However, a superb pitch from just short of the 18th green set up an easy birdie and when Waring's birdie attempt agonisingly lipped out, Fichardt tapped in to become the eighth home winner in 11 editions of the event.
The top three sealed a place in The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale via the Open Qualifying Series, with James Morrison, Brandon Stone and Jacques Kruyswijk finishing in a tie for fourth.
Kruyswijk was leading after his sixth birdie of the day on the 11th, but a double bogey on the 14th after finding a water hazard with his second shot saw him drop down the leaderboard.
Waring and Manley gained 109,065 points each for their joint second place finish as Waring moved from 63rd to 22nd while Manley jumped 189 positions, moving from 231st to 42nd.
Morrison and Stone's shared fourth place earned them 49,658 each as Morrison progressed from 52nd to 35th while Stone broke into Race to Dubai's top 10, moving from 12th to ninth.
The USA's Paul Peterson and George Coetzee of South Africa shared seventh, with each of them winning 28,214 points. Peterson broke into Race to Dubai's top 60 after moving from 77th to 59th while Coetzee moved from 46th to 41st.
England's Tommy Fleetwood remains on the top of the Race to Dubai rankings with a season tally of 566,717. Paraguay's Fabrizio Zanotti is in second with 461,689 points and Korea's Jeunghun Wang is in third, having racked up 436,151 points so far this season.
The DP World Tour Championship is open only to the top 60 on the Race to Dubai rankings.
