Darren Fichardt battles the elements to lift St Omer open title

Darren Fichardt survived a rough final round to clinch his third European Tour title as he won the St Omer open by three shots from Gary Lockerbie.

As high winds in Lumbres pushed the scores up once again, Fichardt closed with a two over par 73 and found himself under pressure from Lockerbie and Simon Wakefield as a lead that, at one stage yesterday stood at eight shots, almost blew away.

“To win is awesome. The last four years I’ve had injuries and missed out at the Qualifying School a couple of times, and you wonder if you’ll ever make it back” the 37-year-old told the European Tour website.

Wakefield, despite a double bogey on the fifth, had looked the most likely to catch Fichardt as he made the turn two under par. However, four bogeys on the back nine saw him slip away with a final bogey on the 18th costing him a share of second place as Lockerbie birdied the 16th and 17th.

Lockerbie said: “I haven’t had much luck in the past here, so this is a welcome change. I’m delighted with my performance.”

Fichardt finished five under par for the weekend with Lockerbie three shots back and Wakefield four.

They were the only three in the field to finish under par for the tournament with Charlie Ford, Adam Gee, Pelle Edberg and Wil Besseling tied for fourth at two over par. Fichardt had begun the day with a five-shot lead, and admitted he used his experience to hang on as he began to falter.

“I’ve been in the lead before going into the final round, so I was familiar with the feeling,” he said.

“But this golf course has a lot of trouble and, if you try to play safe, you can just end up in even more trouble, so I was happy to get the job done in the end.”