South African Darren Fichardt claimed his maiden European Tour title with a five-stroke victory in the Sao Paulo Brazil Open. A final round of 67 gave him an 18 under par total of 195 after the tournament was reduced to 54 holes with José Coceres of Argentina, Sweden’s Richard Johnson and Australian Brett Rumford sharing second place.
With massive thunderstorms causing suspensions to play on each of the first three days and the same forecast for the fourth day, it became unrealistic to play 72 holes and the decision was taken to reduce the tournament to three rounds.
Fichardt therefore started the final round three ahead of Rumford after racing to the top of the leaderboard with an outstanding ten under par 61 in the second round. That lead was down to one when first Fichardt dropped a shot on the second and then Rumford birdied the fourth before Fichardt re-established his lead with a run of four birdies in the next five holes to the reach the turn in 32. A back nine of 35 took him five clear and earned the 25 year old from Pretoria a winner’s cheque of 125,000 euro (£78,242).
"This is a big breakthrough for me,” said Fichardt, who was narrowly defeated by Sweden’s Mathias Grönberg in the Mercedes-Benz South African Open last year. “I thought I had the South African Open title in the bag last year and lost by one shot. I also won the Tour Championship in South Africa last month which was a big win for me with Ernie Els and Mark McNulty in the field. That was a stepping stone. But this is huge.”
After opening with a four under par 67, Fichardt charged into the lead when he posted a flawless 61 on Friday lunchtime but had to wait almost two days to play his next and final round.
“I was a bit nervous. I’ve never had a lead in a tournament and had to wait two nights to go and play. I didn’t know what to expect. But once I made the birdie on the fifth I started to get more relaxed and then birdied the seventh, eighth and ninth. Once I birdied the ninth I was very relaxed.
“I just wanted to not get too aggressive out there. Don’t make big mistakes. The safe way worked well. I was putting well so made birdies playing the safe way.”
Rumford, trying to emulate the feats of Adam Scott and Aaron Baddeley as an Australian winner on The European Tour this season, started the final round as Fichardt’s nearest challenger after opening with rounds of 66 and 65. But his hopes of victory faded following a double bogey on the par five eighth where he hit his second shot out of bounds. Nevertheless, the 23 year old fought back with three birdies in his last three holes to claim a share of second place on 13 under par 200.
“The last three birdies were important,” he said. “I got off to a scrappy start and double bogeyed the eighth. That was my title charge over right there. After that it was just a matter of consolidating and re-focusing. Trying to get it back on track. It is very hard to do when your heart is set on winning.
“But second is good. It’s a case of keeping myself up there. I guess the law of averages means it will be my turn sometime. I’ve just got to be patient. It might take a year or whatever but I’ve got to stay positive and stay focused.”
With Rumford faltering it was Coceres who took up the challenge with a birdie, birdie, eagle run from the sixth to put pressure on Fichardt. But Coceres, the highest ranked player in the field, was unable to narrow the gap and closed with a 68 to finish on 13 under par 200.
Sweden’s Richard Johnson finished strongly, holing a 20 foot birdie putt on the last to join Rumford and Coceres in second place. Starting the final day on seven under par, Johnson picked up five birdies with just the two dropped shots in an outward half of 32. Three more birdies coming home gave the 24 year old a round of 65, six under par, and equalled his highest finish on The European Tour.
“The birdie on the last was tremendous,” he said. “I’ve been playing well all year but haven’t been scoring well. I haven’t been driving that well this week but managed my game really well. I had two new wedges in my bag which were superb. Today I hit a lot of good eight and nine irons.
“My goal today was to shoot 63 or 64 but once I saw Darren get to 18 under it was just a case of playing for second. I’m very impressed with the scores he is shooting. I played well and finished five adrift.”
Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin also closed with a 65 to share fifth place with South African Nic Henning on 12 under par while England’s Anthony Wall shot an equal best-of-the-day 64 to claim seventh place a further shot adrift.
