Darren Clive Fichardt (born 13 May 1975) is a South African

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

who plays on both the

European European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

and Sunshine Tours.

Early life

Fichardt was born in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

and grew up in

Centurion, Gauteng Centurion (previously known as Verwoerdburg and before that Lyttelton) is an area with 236,580 inhabitants (2011 census) in the Gauteng Province of South Africa, between Pretoria and Midrand (Johannesburg). Formerly an independent municipality, wi ...

. He attended Sutherland High School from 1988 to 1993, where his talent for golf was nurtured.

Professional career

Fichardt turned professional in 1994 and he won the Southern Africa Tour (now the

Sunshine Tour The Sunshine Tour is a men's professional golf tour based in Southern and East Africa. For much of its early history it was known either as the South African Tour or Sunshine Circuit; through sponsorship deals, it has also been known as the Vod ...

) Order of Merit in 1999/2000 and 2003/04. He partnered

Retief Goosen Retief Goosen (born 3 February 1969) is a South African professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour Champions. He has won two U.S. Opens, in 2001 and 2004, headed the European Tour Order of Merit in 2001 and 2002, and was in the top ten of th ...

in South Africa's

WGC-World Cup The World Cup of Golf is a men's golf tournament contested by teams of two representing their country. Only one team is allowed from each country. The players are selected on the basis of the Official World Golf Ranking, although not all of the fir ...

team in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

. Fichardt has played on the

European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fift ...

since 2001 and has won four European Tour events. His best year-end ranking on the

Order of Merit The Order of Merit (french: link=no, Ordre du Mérite) is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by K ...

is 39th achieved in 2003. In 2012, Fichardt ended a nine-year title drought on the

when he won the

Saint-Omer Open The Saint-Omer Open is an annual men's professional golf tournament played at Saint-Omer Golf Club in Saint-Omer, France. The tournament was founded in 1997 and was part of the MasterCard Tour a year later, before taking its place on the Challen ...

by three strokes from

Gary Lockerbie Gary Lockerbie (born 15 November 1982) is an English professional golfer. Career Lockerbie was born in Penrith, Cumbria. He had a successful amateur career, including wins in the English Amateur and the Lytham Trophy, before turning professiona ...

. This victory earned him his third European Tour title. Fichardt followed this up in the 2013 season, when he won the

Africa Open The Africa Open was a golf tournament on the Sunshine Tour held in Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was first contested in February 2008, over the Gary Player designed championship course at the Fish River Sun Country Club, near Port Alfred. In o ...

in his native South Africa in February. He claimed his fourth European Tour title by two strokes over

Grégory Bourdy Grégory Bourdy (born 25 April 1982) is a French professional golfer who competes on the European Tour. Career Bourdy was born in Bordeaux. He turned professional in 2003. His cousin Nicolas Beaufils is also a professional golfer, who has playe ...

and

Jaco van Zyl Jaco Phillipus van Zyl (born 23 February 1979) is a professional golfer from South Africa. Career Van Zyl was born in Pretoria. He won the South African Amateur Championship (golf), South African Amateur in 2000 and turned professional the foll ...

. In February 2017, Fichardt won the weather-shortened

Joburg Open The Joburg Open is a men's professional golf tournament that is held in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is an event on the Southern Africa-based Sunshine Tour and co-sanctioned by the European Tour, which attracts a larger prize fund and stronger ...

for his fifth victory on the European Tour and seventeenth victory on the Sunshine Tour. On 21 August 2020, Fichardt won the Betway Championship. This was the first event in return on the Sunshine Tour after the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

hiatus. He shot a final round 64 to beat

Ulrich van den Berg Ulrich van den Berg (born 13 January 1975) is a South African professional golfer. Van den Berg was born in East London. He had a successful amateur career which peaked in 1997 when he won the South African Amateur Strokeplay Championship, the T ...

by one shot.

Amateur wins

*1992 Northern Transvaal Junior Championship (South Africa) *1993 Northern Transvaal Stroke Play Championship (South Africa)

Professional wins (23)

European Tour wins (5)

''*Note: Tournament shortened to 54 holes due to weather.''
¹Dual-ranking event with the

Challenge Tour The Challenge Tour is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European Tour and, as with on the main European Tour and the European Senior Tour, some of the events are played outside Europe. History The ...

²Co-sanctioned by the

European Tour playoff record (1–1)

Sunshine Tour wins (18)

''*Note: The 2017 Joburg Open was shortened to 54 holes due to bad weather.''
¹Co-sanctioned by the

Sunshine Tour playoff record (2–3)

Other wins (2)

*1999 Sun City Pro-Am, PGA's Cup (both unofficial money on the Southern Africa Tour)

Results in major championships

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied

Results in World Golf Championships

¹Cancelled due to

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

"T" = Tied
NT = No tournament
Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009.

Team appearances

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

(representing South Africa):

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fichardt, Darren South African male golfers Sunshine Tour golfers European Tour golfers Sportspeople from Pretoria White South African people 1975 births Living people