Louis Oosthuizen won the Telkom PGA Championship after a thrilling final round of 65 at the sun-soaked Country Club Johannesburg in South Africa while fellow European Tour Member Charl Schwartzel topped the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit for the third successive season.
Oosthuizen’s seven under par round for a 22 under par total of 266 left him one clear of Richard Sterne, who closed with a 71.
As well as the trophy and the R356,625 winner’s cheque, Oosthuizen also finished second on the final 2006 Sunshine Order of Merit and secured a place in the field for both World Golf Championships – Bridgestone Invitational and the HSBC Champions later this year.
Oosthuizen and Sterne also came head to head last week at Pretoria Country Club, where Sterne won a play-off on the second extra hole.
And, had Sterne's second at the 18th yesterday carried an extra metre, he could have been putting for eagle and forcing another round of sudden death with Oosthuizen, who had made it all safe with a solid birdie on the final green ahead of his travel-partner for a two-shot cushion and almost certain victory.
"Over the last three weeks my game has really changed," said Oosthuizen, who recorded his maiden win on the Sunshine Tour in the Dimension Data Pro-am at Sun City. "It's changed he way I think on the course and the way I approach a tournament. Pulling that one off really made the difference."
Oosthuizen will have little immediate leisure time to reflect though.
"Tomorrow's my batchelor party," he said - he marries Nel-Mare on Friday, "and it looks like being a tough one. A little like playing the last three holes with a one-shot lead."
Oosthuizen in confident of doing well in Europe, where he will campaign when he comes back from honeymoon.
"I'm looking forward to Europe," he said. "Now I know I can really go out and win tournaments."
Another big winner was Schwartzel, who matched Oosthuizen with a 65 to share joint third with Marc Cayeux. It gave Schwartzel his third consecutive Order of Merit title to match the achievement of Mark McNulty.
"I've had to dig really deep this week," said Schwartzel, who turned down a trip to the lucrative - in both dollar and world ranking points - Accenture World Match Play in Arizona to make his dominance on the South African money list safe.
"I said to myself before I went out this morning that I had so many 65s in my life and this was the time to shoot another. I'm happy with my decision to stay on. I've achieved what I wanted."
GOLF - SUNSHINE TOUR - TELKOM PGA CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL RESULT
Final result from the 2007 Telkom PGA Championship, held on Sunday, 25 February 2007 at the par-72 Woodmead Course of the Country Club Johannesburg, South Africa. All competitors RSA unless otherwise indicated.
266 - Louis Oosthuizen 67 65 69 65
267 - Richard Sterne 66 68 62 71
268 - Charl Schwartzel 69 64 70 65, Marc Cayeux (ZIM) 66 67 65 70 270 - Desvonde Botes 64 70 71 65, Doug McGuigan 70 68 65 67
271 - Des Terblanche 70 66 67 68, Bradford Vaughan 70 65 65 71
272 - Michiel Bothma 67 69 66 70, Justin Walters (ENG) 68 70 64 70
