Darren Fichardt’s closing four-under-par 68 on Sunday gave him a share of fifth in the DP World Tour’s BMW PGA Championship at the Wentworth Club in Virginia Water, England.

While his bogey-free round, which took him to 15-under for the tournament, four strokes out of the play-off, may seem somewhat prosaic, the reality is that the 50-year-old veteran is riding a wave of form which might just give him full DP World Tour status at the end of the season – which is one in which he has launched an already successful Legends Tour career.

The play-off was won by Swede Alex Noren after the first extra hole after he finished on 19-under-par together with France’s Adrien Saddier. Noren’s birdie on the play-off hole gave him his second victory in three weeks, and the non-playing Ryder Cup vice-captain outplayed all 10 of the European Ryder Cup players who played in the tournament.

Fichardt was projected to rise 54 places to 93rd in the Race to Dubai rankings, and with the top 110 certain of retaining their card for the 2026 season, he seems set to play his trade amongst the youngsters for at least another year, instead of trying to win as much as he can on the Legends Tour.

He shared fifth behind Patrick Reed and Aaron Rai in third place on 16-under with seven other players, including Ryder Cuppers Tyrrell Hatton, Viktor Hovland and Matt Fitzpatrick. Behind him were the likes of Jon Rahm, Ludvig Aberg, Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry, Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose.

He also finished ahead of fellow South African Erik van Rooyen, who closed with a three-under-par 69 for a share of 24th on 11-under.

Brandon Stone, Dylan Naidoo and Casey Jarvis were on nine-under in a share of 38th, after closing rounds of 70, 70 and five-under 67 respectively. Shaun Norris shared 54th on seven-under after he signed off with a 70, and Jacques Kruyswijk battled to a closing five-over 77 to slip to a share of 70th on three-under-par.