Darren Fichardt weathered a tremendous final round charge from Ulrich van den Berg and win the Dimension Data Pro-Am by two strokes at the Gary Player Country Club in South Africa and claim his fourth title on the Sunshine Tour.
Fichardt, winner of two European Tour titles, and Van Den Berg challenged for the honours in a final round which both led at various stages. The turning point came when Van Den Berg bogeyed the 17th to fall one behind and Fichardt seized the opportunity, birdieing the last for a ten under par after a 68 and a two stroke winning margin.
But it was a lesson in patience which Fichardt was given by Mark McNulty shortly after McNulty had beaten him in the 2002 Vodacom Players Championship at Royal Cape Golf Club which gave the young Pretoria professional the edge over Van Den Berg. Fichardt and McNulty were tied for the lead with seven holes to come in that event, but over-exuberance cost Fichardt the title on that occasion.
“Mark told me afterwards just to be more patient in situations like that and not force things,” Fichardt said. “I was a bit upset when he first told me that because he’’d just whipped me. But I never stopped thinking about it. I used his advice when I won the Qatar Masters in March last year, and again today.
“It’’s just a case of keeping the ball in play and waiting for your opponent to make the mistakes.”
