Ritchie who won the Cape Town Open a week prior won the co-sanctioned event by six-strokes on 26-under-par.

Christopher Mivis of Belgium finished in second on 20-under, while Iceland's Haraldur Magnus was a further stroke back on 19-under-par.

Following his second win in a row Ritchie conceded that he had no idea what was happening on the leaderboard until after the 14th hole.

“I had no idea what was going on until we finished playing the 14th hole. That’s when my girlfriend Sarah came up to me and asked if I’d like to know the scores and I said, ‘Yes’. I was surprised. But I never felt like I was in trouble.

“I always knew somebody was going to shoot maybe seven-under-par, and that would still be three short of where I was. I knew I just needed to be level par or under par.

“I was hitting the ball well enough to not shoot over par. I was a bit nervous but once I settled in to the final round, I was one over par and still had the lead by a couple of shots, so that made it easier coming down the stretch to make a couple of good swings and find birdies on the last two holes.”

He added that he has his eye on the bigger picture and he is chasing a DP World Tour card in order to play in Europe more often.

“That’s what I’ve been dreaming of and I’m glad I’ve managed to get a step closer than I was last year.

“Hopefully I can close it out before these Challenge Tour events in South Africa finish.

“I’ve always felt my game is good enough to win in Europe and I’m good enough to take the step. In golf it comes down to one tournament for everything to change, and it sort of has.”

The players head to the Free State now for the inaugural Mangaung Open that will tee-off Thursday and the Bloemfontein and Schoeman Park Golf Clubs.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport