Sterne ends long wait for win with moment of magic in Belgium

Richard Sterne hit one of the shots of his life to snatch his first DP World Tour win in 13 years at the 2026 Soudal Open.

After fellow South African Zander Lombard had led comfortably for most of the day, Sterne timed his move to perfection with a stunning eagle - and almost an albatross - at the 17th.

That took him to 18-under par and challenged the rest of the leading pack to respond over the closing holes - and it proved too much to ask as Sterne won his first title since the 2013 Joburg Open, following a catalogue of injuries since.

He said of that spectacular approach: "I thought I was still behind, I thought Zander was still on 19 (under) - I wasn't really looking at leaderboards, to be honest.

"It was a long way for me, I had a five wood in the bag, I don't have a three wood, it was 276 (yards) and I needed to hit a little draw on there to get the distance. It just came out as good as I could, it ended up great - three, four feet away - and yeah, it was one of the best shots I've hit.

"It's been a tough ride. A lot of injuries, a lot of hard things that I've gone through but to get back in the winner's circle is ... quite unexpected today, to be honest. I thought I was one behind playing the last but then got on to the 18th green and had a quick look at the board and was quite surprised."

Lombard led by three overnight and birdied the first to kick-off an otherwise steady front nine.

Sterne was also off to a good start with successive birdies, including a high-speed chip-in off the second pin and another at the fifth before dropping a shot at the eighth.

As the pair otherwise made par after par, compatriot MJ Daffue birdied the fifth and eighth and perhaps more impressively salvaged par at the sixth with a superb escape from the trees followed by a well-judged two-putt from long range.

Lombard dropped a shot at the 13th, cutting his lead to two as Marcus Kinhult and Marcus Armitage set the clubhouse target at 16-under.

It was all change soon afterwards, though, as Sterne's booming second shot into the 17th was perfectly on line for an albatross - and while it came up four feet short of that rare achievement, the resulting birdie took him two clear as Lombard made a double-bogey at the 14th.

Sterne went close to a birdie at the last as well, tapping in for par to lower the target to a mark that ultimately proved unbeatable.

The 44-year-old has a titanium disc in his back, among a host of other surgeries which have wiped out several years of his career and he said: "They were hard times, I didn't think I was going to get through a lot of them.

"Three wrist ops, a disc replacement, hip surgery, I've been through it all so I'm pretty happy. It's been very tough, the last couple of years but there's been some signs of good things.

"One of the main goals was to win with my children actually seeing it - the oldest is 13 soon, it's been pretty much that long so it's nice to eventually let them see me win. And then I suppose just to prove to myself that I can still compete at this age, after all I've been through."

Sterne's win was the sixth for a South African player on this season's DP World Tour, following two each for Jayden Schaper and Casey Jarvis and Yurav Premlall's romp at the Estrella Damm Catalunya Championship.

"It's great to see the young guys coming through," said Sterne. "There are some exceptional players, I think they're going to be quite dominant going forward. But just to keep them a little bit on their toes, it's nice to do that."

The wait goes on for Lombard, who sportingly congratulated Sterne in the scorer's hut after completing a round of 74.

He said: “There's no words for that emotion. Disappointed in myself.

“I stayed in it, I tried my best. I've achieved what I came out to do, (which) is be in contention and on reflection, it's still a good week.

"I'm doing a lot right, I'm contending again and hopefully I can take this form into the rest of the season. I feel like a win's right around the corner so I'm not going to take this too harshly, but wipe it off and next week's another week.”

Lombard and Daffue finished 15-under, missing out on a share of second in a large group at 16-under.

Kinhult holed a long, straight putt at the last for his seventh birdie in a bogey-free 64 while Armitage was within a couple of inches of finishing with a fourth straight birdie as he too finished two behind Sterne.

Jorge Campillo had two eagles in his round of 68 while also tied for second were Jacob Skov Olesen, Kota Kaneko and Victor Perez.

Ben Schmidt, Nathan Kimsey and Gregorio De Leo were alongside Lombard and Daffue at 15-under.