In boxing terms, the referee should have stopped the Vodacom Championship, but Hennie Otto had to keep going to deliver the coup de grace on Sunday with his final round five-under 67 to win by nine strokes.

He finished on 28-under-par 260, one shot off the Sunshine Tour tournament record of 29-under-par, set by Mark McNulty in Swaziland in 1987, and equalled by David Frost in the 1994 SA PGA Championship.

He’d set a Pretoria Country Club course record of 11-under 61 in the second round to lead by five, and he had to find some way of keeping his motivation levels up for the final half of the tournament.

“I just went out and approached the round as a match play event,” he said. “Jbe’ Kruger was the only one who could catch me, and, fortunately for me, he and Thomas Aiken were the ones who made the mistakes.”

Kruger’s challenge looked to have petered out on the back of some putts that just wouldn’t drop, continuing a trend which began in the third round.

This time, his woes were exacerbated by some poor work off the fairways and close to the greens. They were perhaps best exemplified on the 444-metre par-four 10^th, where his second was such a poor shot that he ended up a long way for the green. For the umpteenth time, his chip came up short too, and he overshot the green with his fourth.

The resultant double-bogey while Otto made a good par save meant Kruger sank back to 10 off the pace at that stage, while Tjaart van der Walt was elevated into second for a while.

But he fought back and birdies on 16 and 18 saw him into second, one ahead of Adilson Da Silva and Aiken.

Aiken got his final position thanks to a birdie-eagle finish to edge out Michiel Bothma who finished fifth, with Van der Walt sharing sixth with Grant Veenstra.

But for all the jostling for position, the truth is Otto’s opponents were out on their feet after a display of golf that the winner rated as close to the best he’s ever played.

“Maybe my win in the Italian Open in 2008 was better,” he said, “because Oliver Wilson threw a 63 at me, and I only had a one-shot lead down the stretch.”

But there were elements which made this very sweet indeed: A friend who has lung cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy, and who walked all 18 with him on his way to the triumph. “How inspiring is that,” he said.

And Martin Maritz’s mother, who told Otto that he was her ‘son’ for the week. “It gives me goose bumps just telling that story,” he said.

And it was the support in his reborn Christian faith he got from a group of people called ‘Manne van die Woord’ (Men of the Word). “I had something to say about them, but we ran out of time in the prize-giving,” he laughed.

In truth, the goose bumps came from some of the most consistent golf he has ever played, and in the jaw-dropping margin of victory over some of the best players on the Sunshine Tour.

Two weeks on his new farm in the Northern Cape – “I’m going to be doing some real work,” he laughed – before he spends a brief period again on the European Tour is going to be a rest well-earned.

Golf Scores (RSA unless specified):

260 - Hennie Otto 65 61 67 67

269 - Jbe' Kruger 65 66 66 72

270 - Adilson da Silva (BRA) 69 66 69 66, Thomas Aiken 65 66 70 69

271 - Michiel Bothma 66 70 69 66

272 - Tjaart van der Walt 67 66 69 70, Grant Veenstra 70 65 67 70

273 - Alex Haindl 72 66 68 67, Peter Karmis 70 68 67 68

274 - James Kamte 72 65 70 67, Mark Murless 66 68 70 70

275 - Dawie Van der Walt 68 66 70 71

276 - Darren Fichardt 71 70 68 67, Andre Bossert (SUI) 68 68 68 72, Branden Grace 64 69 70 73

277 - Keith Horne 72 69 68 68, Jake Roos 69 69 70 69, Doug McGuigan 66 66 75 70

278 - Divan van den Heever 66 75 70 67, Ulrich van den Berg 69 67 73 69, Andrew Georgiou 69 70 65 74

279 - Clinton Whitelaw 70 70 71 68, Richard Sterne 70 68 72 69, Darren Blair 66 73 70 70, Chris Swanepoel 71 71 67 70

280 - Shaun Norris 71 67 74 68, Andrew Curlewis 71 69 71 69, Grant Muller 71 70 67 72, Justin Walters 72 70 66 72

281 - Henk Alberts 73 69 74 65, Hendrik Buhrmann 71 68 72 70, Tyrone Ferreira 70 70 71 70, Brandon Pieters 71 70 70 70, Wallie Coetsee 74 69 67 71, Anton Haig 67 66 73 75

282 - Albert Pistorius 73 69 70 70, Lindani Ndwandwe 69 73 69 71, Dion Fourie 71 71 68 72

283 - Matthew Carvell 72 69 71 71, Josh Cunliffe 74 67 66 76, George Coetzee 68 70 68 77

284 - PG van Zyl 70 71 74 69, Theunis Spangenberg 71 72 67 74

285 - Dean Burmester 72 71 76 66, Ryan Thompson 67 71 78 69, Merrick Bremner 72 70 74 69, Charl Coetzee 70 73 70 72, Christiaan Basson 71 70 70 74, Louis Oosthuizen 74 66 69 76, Warren Abery 70 67 70 78

286 - Louis de Jager 67 74 73 72

287 - James Kingston 69 73 74 71, Kevin Stone 72 69 74 72, Ryan Tipping 67 70 77 73, Attie Schwartzel 71 72 71 73, Don Black 72 69 72 74, Francois van Vuuren 75 68 69 75

288 - Sean Farrell (ZIM) 69 73 75 71, Irvin Mazibuko 70 73 73 72

289 - Andre Cruse 71 72 76 70, Des Terblanche 73 69 75 72, Willie van der Merwe 72 70 75 72, Chris Williams 72 71 74 72, PH McIntyre 70 71 73 75

290 - Omar Sandys 73 70 72 75

292 - Dewald Smit 70 70 76 76, Jacques Blaauw 71 70 73 78

293 - Garry Hill 73 69 76 75, Michael du Toit 71 72 74 76, Stuart Clark (WAL) 67 72 71 83

294 - Adrian Ford 72 70 75 77

295 - Mohamed Tayob 69 71 78 77

297 - Louis Calitz 72 71 76 78

299 - Deane Pappas 74 69 81 75

301 - Heinrich Bruiners 72 70 79 80

RTD - Jaco Van Zyl 74 69 71 RTD