Richard Sterne rose to the top of a packed leaderboard at the 2026 Soudal Open to claim his first win in 13 years.
Going into the final round, South Africa’s Zander Lombard held the lead over fellow South African MJ Daffue by two shots. Lombard also held a three-shot lead over Ben Schmidt, Jacob Skov Olesen and Tom Vaillant. Lombard started his round well with a birdie on the first hole, but that would be his only birdie of the round. He made two bogeys and a double bogey in his final six holes to drop him out of contention.
With a pack of eight players tied or near the lead, Sterne made his move, making a birdie on the 16th hole and an eagle on the par-5 17th. A par on the last hole sealed his first win since the 2013 Joburg Open, 4,851 days ago.
After the round, Sterne commented on his journey for the last 13 years.
“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…They were hard times; I didn’t think I was going to get through many of them. Three wrist ops, a disc replacement, hip surgery, I’ve been through it all, so I’m pretty happy,” he said.
After facing so many challenges in his career, Sterne completed a few goals of his this week.
“One of the main goals was to win with my children, actually seeing it. The oldest is 13 soon, so it’s been pretty much that long, so it’s nice to eventually let them see me win, which is the main driver. Then I suppose just to prove to myself that I can still compete at this age, after all I’ve been through,” he said.
With his win, Sterne earned €402,686.27 in prize money and 585 points in the DP World Tour’s season-long competition, Race to Dubai. He moves up 124 places to 30th in the rankings.
It has been a successful season for golfers from South Africa. Sterne’s win makes it six wins for golfers from there this season, with Casey Jarvis and Jayden Schaper winning two tournaments and Yurav Premlall’s record-setting win at the Estrella Damm Catalunya Championship.
Belgian amateur Anthony De Schutter finished as the leading Belgian this week, finishing at 9-under par. He defeated fellow Belgian and PGA winner Thomas Detry to earn that honor this week. The delighted De Schutter commented on playing in his home country.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it? Being able to come out here and play in front of your home crowd, playing in front of friends, family – I mean, I can’t even count how many friends and family were out here today – and being able to play four very decent rounds of golf is very nice. It feels good,” he said.
The DP World Tour continues next week at the Austrian Alpine Open presented by Kitzbühel Tirol, which will take place at Golfclub Kitzbühel-Schwarzsee-Reith, Kitzbühel, Austria.
