Hansen claims Joburg title

The Dane, who was playing in the penultimate group at the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club, was level at 14-under going into the par-five 18th hole, and gave himself a great chance of winning by putting his second shot 25 feet from the hole.

He missed the eagle chance, but made birdie from three feet to finish on 15-under 269 and see off South African McLardy, who blew several chances to pick up shots over the closing holes. Needing a birdie himself on the last, McLardy made a mess of his tee shot, pulling it into the trees to blow his chance after he led the tournament overnight with Charl Schwartzel and David Drysdale.

Scot Drysdale ended his tournament with a 69 - a tournament total 271 - with Danny Willet, Tyrone van Aswegen and Schwartzel ending a further shot back.

Three other players finished the week on 11-under 273, including English pair Richard McEvoy and David Dixon, while the round of the day belonged to South African Charl Coetzee, who carded a six-under 66, to finish his tournament at nine-under 275.

Hansen though did enough through his final round, finishing in five-under 66 to claim the R2.25 million (£150, 480) prize on his way to a third European Tour title.

However, it looked very different on day one when he finished with a level-par 71 to sit eight shots off the lead.

He said: "It means a lot to win obviously - because that's of course what we're here for. Especially after the first day where the first two holes I started double bogey-bogey and I was thinking 'what is this'?

"But I turned that round around and got off to a flying start the second day. I couldn't keep it going, but that sort of helped me put things into perspective thinking about the next day.

"I thought I needed to keep the third round going and again got off to a good start. And then today I thought I had to come out and shoot five under. I thought 15 under was going to be the winning score, so I was right."