The Vaal de Grace golfer was over the moon after he closed out victory on 14-under 202 on a dramatic final day.

“I am absolutely over the moon to be in the winner’s circle,” said the 29-year-old, who edged out Malcolm Mitchell with a final-round four-under-par 68.

“It was touch and go at the end and I won with a bogey, but I finally got it done. After a hat-trick of second places, lifting the trophy validated all the hard work I’ve put into my game in the last couple of months. This means so much to me.”

Van den Bergh entered the final round two shots behind Mitchell, who was targeting a second victory in the eighth event of the series.

The top six ranked players at the end of the season will gain full cards on the Sunshine Tour, and the top three players on the Transformation Order of Merit for previously disadvantaged competitors will also earn playing privileges for the 2020/21 season.

Allister de Kock currently heads up the rankings on R28 000. Thabang Simon, Dwayne Basson and Shalan Govender are second, third and fourth respectively.

Former Sunshine Tour winner James Kamte, who is targeting a return to the main circuit, tied for 26th and Thabiso Ngcobo tied for 34th to join Yubin Jung in fifth place.

Final result:

[competitors RSA unless otherwise specified, amateurs indicated as AMA]

202 - Desne van den Bergh 65 69 68

203 - Malcolm Mitchell 67 65 71

206 - Albert Venter 69 71 66, Leon Vorster 67 68 71

208 - Otto van Buynder AMA 71 67 70

209 - Nicholaus Frade 72 71 66, Jeff Inglis (ENG) 72 67 70

210 - Marco de Beer 66 76 68, Matthew Spacey 70 71 69, Francois van der Walt AMA 71 70 69, Gideon van der Vyver 70 67 73, Arno Pretorius 68 68 74

211 - Angus Ellis-Cole 71 70 70, Michael Kok 70 71 70, Theunis Bezuidenhout 71 69 71, Jason Smith 68 69 74

212 - Keaton Slatter 69 72 71

213 - Gareth Sargent 71 71 71, Quintin Wilsnach 71 70 72, Reinhardt Blaauw 67 72 74, Luke Trocado 69 70 74, Coert Groenewald 73 65 75

214 - Michael Schutz 71 68 75, Keagan Thomas AMA 69 69 76

215 - Jason Roets 73 70 72

216 - Luan Boshoff 74 70 72, Michael-James Steyn 69 75 72, James Kamte 71 72 73

217 - Clayton Mansfield 72 71 74, Hennie O'Kennedy 72 71 74

218 - Casey Jarvis AMA 76 66 76

219 - Richard Joubert 69 75 75

221 - Dwayne Basson 74 70 77

222 - Thabiso Ngcobo 70 74 78

225 - Paulo Serrao (POR) 70 74 81

Lali Stander