He hasn’t played much on the Challenge Tour, but Darren Fichardt made a rare foray into those ranks this week and pulled off his first win on that circuit by two strokes with a closing 67 in the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge at Golf PGA France du Vaudreuil in France.

He’s a man with five DP World Tour victories in addition to his 18 Sunshine Tour wins, and that experience stood him in good stead as he overcame a two-stroke lead that Oliver Farr of Wales had built up. He reached 15-under-par to relegate Farr to second, while England’s Jamie Rutherford and Italian Gregorio De Leo shared third four strokes behind Fichardt on 11-under-par.

In fact, Fichardt has won on the Challenge Tour before, in a joint European Tour/Challenge Tour tournament in 2012 – coincidentally also in France in the St Omer Open.

This time, it took a flourish down the home stretch after he had made just a single birdie on the front nine, while Farr, who had shared the 54-hole lead with him, had made four and a bogey. A fifth birdie for Farr after the turn, on the 10^th, followed by his second bogey, seemed to light a fire under Fichardt, who made two in a row on 11 and 12, before he bogeyed the 13^th. He responded to that setback with an eagle on 14 and a birdie on 15. That largely put paid to the challenge from Farr, who, although he made two more birdies coming home, made a double-bogey on the 16^th which effectively put him out of the running.

Benjamin Follett-Smith of Zimbabwe, a two-time Cape Town Open winner on the Sunshine Tour, closed with a fine six-under-par 66 to move to seven-under for the tournament and a share of 10^th.

Yurav Premlall had a final round to forget as he slipped to a six-over-par 78 to drop 23 places down the leaderboard to a share of 28^th on two-under-par for the week.

Brandon Stone had a two-under 70 to finish on one-over in 48^th, and Martin Vorster rounded out a poor weekend with a three-over 75 to move to eight-over for the tournament and 68^th.