Overall, this was his seventh DP World Tour title. Despite suffering injury setbacks during his career, Sterne said he is proud to have overcome a turbulent past few years. “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,” said Sterne (via DP World Tour). The South African professional finished the tournament on 18-under-par 266. “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,” he said. Having opened with a 64, followed by rounds of 68 on the second round and moving day, Sterne closed with a 66. On his front nine, he picked up three birdies at holes number one, two and five before dropping a shot at the eighth for an outward 34. After the turn, a birdie at the 16th and an eagle at the 17th for an inward 32 were enough for Sterne to take the lead and eventually claim the championship. Sterne described his shot at the 17th as one of his best. “I thought I was still behind, I thought Zander (Lombard) 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,” he said. Jacob Skov Olesen, Jorge Campillo, Kota Kaneko, Victor Perez, Marcus Armitage and Marcus Kinhult shared second place on 16-under-par 268.