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Darren Fichardt

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Darren Fichardt
Personal information
Full nameDarren Clive Fichardt
Born (1975-05-13) 13 May 1975 (age 49)
Pretoria, South Africa
Height1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)
Weight75 kg (165 lb; 11.8 st)
Sporting nationality South Africa
ResidenceCenturion, South Africa
Spouse
Natasha
​
(m. 2000)​
Children2
Career
Turned professional1994
Current tour(s)European Tour
Sunshine Tour
Former tour(s)Challenge Tour
Professional wins24
Highest ranking75 (10 March 2013)[1]
Number of wins by tour
European Tour5
Sunshine Tour18
Challenge Tour2
Other2
Best results in major championships
Masters TournamentDNP
PGA ChampionshipDNP
U.S. OpenCUT: 2007
The Open Championship80th: 2024
Achievements and awards
Sunshine Tour
Order of Merit winner		1999–2000, 2003–04
Sunshine Tour
Players' Player of the Year		2013

Darren Clive Fichardt (born 13 May 1975) is a South African professional golfer who plays on both the European Tour and the Sunshine Tour.

Early life

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Fichardt was born in Pretoria and grew up in Centurion, Gauteng. He attended Sutherland High School from 1988 to 1993, where his talent for golf was nurtured.

Professional career

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Fichardt turned professional in 1994 and he won the Southern Africa Tour (now the Sunshine Tour) Order of Merit in 1999/2000 and 2003/04. He partnered Retief Goosen in South Africa's WGC-World Cup team in 2000.

Fichardt has played on the European Tour since 2001 and has won four European Tour events. His best year-end ranking on the Order of Merit is 39th achieved in 2003.

In 2012, Fichardt ended a nine-year title drought on the European Tour when he won the Saint-Omer Open by three strokes from Gary Lockerbie. This victory earned him his third European Tour title.

Fichardt followed this up in the 2013 season, when he won the Africa Open in his native South Africa in February. He claimed his fourth European Tour title by two strokes over Grégory Bourdy and Jaco van Zyl.[2]

In February 2017, Fichardt won the weather-shortened Joburg Open for his fifth victory on the European Tour and seventeenth victory on the Sunshine Tour.[3]

On 21 August 2020, Fichardt won the Betway Championship. This was the first event in return on the Sunshine Tour after the COVID-19 hiatus. He shot a final round 64 to beat Ulrich van den Berg by one shot.[4]

Amateur wins

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  • 1992 Northern Transvaal Junior Championship (South Africa)
  • 1993 Northern Transvaal Stroke Play Championship (South Africa)

Professional wins (24)

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European Tour wins (5)

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No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory 		Runner(s)-up
1 25 Mar 2001 São Paulo Brazil Open −18 (67-61-67=195)* 5 strokes Argentina José Cóceres, Sweden Richard S. Johnson,
Australia Brett Rumford
2 16 Mar 2003 Qatar Masters −13 (71-69-66-69=275) Playoff South Africa James Kingston
3 17 Jun 2012 Saint-Omer Open1 −5 (68-69-69-73=279) 3 strokes England Gary Lockerbie
4 17 Feb 2013 Africa Open2 −16 (69-67-65-71=272) 2 strokes France Grégory Bourdy, South Africa Jaco van Zyl
5 26 Feb 2017 Joburg Open2 −15 (66-66-68=200)* 1 stroke Wales Stuart Manley, England Paul Waring

*Note: Tournament shortened to 54 holes due to weather.
1Dual-ranking event with the Challenge Tour
2Co-sanctioned by the Sunshine Tour

European Tour playoff record (1–1)

No. Year Tournament Opponent(s) Result
1 2002 Murphy's Irish Open England Richard Bland, Sweden Niclas Fasth,
Denmark Søren Hansen 		Hansen won with birdie on fourth extra hole
Bland eliminated by birdie on second hole
2 2003 Qatar Masters South Africa James Kingston Won with birdie on first extra hole

Sunshine Tour wins (18)

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Legend
Tour Championships (2)
Other Sunshine Tour (16)
No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory 		Runner(s)-up
1 21 Sep 1997 Bearing Man Highveld Classic −16 (65-66-69=200) 1 stroke South Africa Sean Pappas
2 25 Feb 2001 The Tour Championship −14 (66-69-67-68=270) 4 strokes South Africa Hennie Otto
3 25 Nov 2001 CABS/Old Mutual Zimbabwe Open −13 (68-69-69-69=275) 3 strokes South Africa Mark Murless, South Africa Bradford Vaughan
4 1 Feb 2004 Dimension Data Pro-Am −10 (72-69-69-68=278) 2 strokes Zimbabwe Nick Price, South Africa Ulrich van den Berg
5 6 Oct 2006 Vodacom Origins of Golf Final −4 (71-69-72=212) 1 stroke South Africa Alex Haindl
6 15 Oct 2006 Bearing Man Highveld Classic (2) −12 (66-67-71=204) Playoff South Africa Alex Haindl
7 1 Feb 2009 Nashua Masters −17 (66-67-65-65=263) 1 stroke Zimbabwe Marc Cayeux
8 18 Sep 2009 Vodacom Origins of Golf (2) at Selborne −18 (65-66-67=198) 7 strokes South Africa Keenan Davidse, South Africa Jbe' Kruger
9 31 Oct 2009 Platinum Classic −15 (70-65-66=201) 1 stroke South Africa Titch Moore
10 14 Feb 2010 Dimension Data Pro-Am (2) −16 (66-68-71-68=273) 1 stroke South Africa Louis Oosthuizen
11 12 Aug 2011 Vodacom Origins of Golf (3) at Wild Coast Sun −6 (73-67-64=204) 1 stroke South Africa David Hewan
12 22 Oct 2011 Suncoast Classic −13 (70-65-68=204) 6 strokes South Africa Ulrich van den Berg
13 17 Feb 2013 Africa Open1 −16 (69-67-65-71=272) 2 strokes France Grégory Bourdy, South Africa Jaco van Zyl
14 13 Nov 2015 Vodacom Origins of Golf Final (4) −14 (61-71-70=202) 1 stroke South Africa Tyrone Mordt, South Africa Callum Mowat,
South Africa Jake Redman
15 26 Feb 2017 Joburg Open1 −15 (66-66-68=200)* 1 stroke Wales Stuart Manley, England Paul Waring
16 18 Mar 2018 The Tour Championship (2) −17 (68-66-68-69=271) 1 stroke South Africa Oliver Bekker
17 19 Jan 2020 Eye of Africa PGA Championship −20 (65-70-65-68=268) Playoff Chile Matías Calderón
18 21 Aug 2020 Betway Championship −3 (73-70-64=207) 1 stroke South Africa Ulrich van den Berg

*Note: The 2017 Joburg Open was shortened to 54 holes due to bad weather.
1Co-sanctioned by the European Tour

Sunshine Tour playoff record (2–3)

No. Year Tournament Opponent(s) Result
1 1999 Bearing Man Highveld Classic South Africa Bobby Lincoln, Zimbabwe Lyall McNeill Lincoln won with birdie on first extra hole
2 2006 Bearing Man Highveld Classic South Africa Alex Haindl Won with birdie on second extra hole
3 2008 Mount Edgecombe Trophy South Africa Mark Murless Lost to par on first extra hole
4 2018 Sun Wild Coast Sun Challenge Brazil Adilson da Silva, South Africa Hennie du Plessis,
South Africa Vaughn Groenewald 		Groenewald won with birdie on first extra hole
5 2020 Eye of Africa PGA Championship Chile Matías Calderón Won with birdie on third extra hole

Challenge Tour wins (2)

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No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory 		Runner-up
1 17 Jun 2012 Saint-Omer Open1 −5 (68-69-69-73=279) 3 strokes England Gary Lockerbie
2 2 Jul 2023 Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge −15 (68-68-70-67=273) 2 strokes Wales Oliver Farr

1Dual-ranking event with the European Tour

Other wins (2)

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  • 1999 Sun City Pro-Am, PGA's Cup (both unofficial money on the Southern Africa Tour)

Results in major championships

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Tournament 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Masters Tournament
U.S. Open CUT
The Open Championship CUT CUT CUT CUT CUT CUT
PGA Championship
Tournament 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Masters Tournament
PGA Championship
U.S. Open
The Open Championship 80
  Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
NT = no tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic

Results in World Golf Championships

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Tournament 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Match Play
Championship T40 NT1 T59
Invitational
Champions T34 T61 62

1Cancelled due to 9/11

  Did not play

"T" = Tied
NT = No tournament
Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009.

Team appearances

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Week 10 2013 Ending 10 Mar 2013" (pdf). OWGR. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
  2. ^ "Darren Fichardt wins Africa Open despite nervous finish". The Australian. 18 February 2013. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  3. ^ "Joburg Open: Darren Fichardt lands 54-hole tournament". Sporting Life. 26 February 2017. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  4. ^ "Fichardt wins Betway Championship". Compleat Golfer. 21 August 2020. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
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