South Africa's Trevor Immelman used all his local knowledge to claim his first European Tour title with a thrilling play-off victory over compatriot Tim Clark in the South African Airways Open.

Immelman conjured up a superb birdie on the final hole of regulation and repeated the trick on the first hole in sudden death after an approach to within inches of the pin to claim the £79,000 first prize.

The 23-year-old - who carded a closing 67 for a 14 under total of 274 - was a member for five years at the tournament venue of Erinvale, in the Cape Town suburb of Somerset-West where he was born, and said: "It's a dream come true for me.

"I can't tell you how many times I've walked down these fairways dreaming about a chance to do this. There are no words to describe this."

Immelman, who finished second three times last year, added: "For it to happen here at home, in front of people I have known for ever, makes all those second places worthwhile.

"I've birdied the last two holes plenty of times in my dreams, it was incredible. I said to my caddie on the 18th that I'd had that putt so many times and knew exactly where to hit it."

Clark had carded a flawless last round 69 but was left to rue not the birdie chances on the 18th in regulation and the play-off, but a disastrous quadruple-bogey nine on the 16th on Saturday.

The 27-year-old duffed four consecutive chips, the last of them a complete air shot, during his third round when he was 14 under and two shots clear of the field.

"That was it right there," Clark admitted. "It was four shots, even five, wasted on one hole.

"I could have just hit it to 25 feet behind the hole and settled for a par but it's just something I will have to live with. I came second but I am not overly disappointed."

Clark and overnight leader Jean Hugo were locked together for most of the afternoon with Immelman's hopes suffering a major blow when he double-bogeyed the sixth.

Immelman responded with two birdies in the next three holes however and four more on the way home gradually reeled in the leaders.

Clark took the lead outright for the third time when Hugo bogeyed the 16th, and when Hugo also double-bogeyed the next, it was down to Immelman to produce a last-hole birdie to try to force a play-off.

The 23-year-old did so in some style after his drive finished near the base of a small tree off the right edge of the fairway.

"It was the luckiest break I've had since I turned professional," Immelman admitted. "I was 18 inches short of the branches that were hanging over and could get a clean shot. It was meant to be I guess."

A pitching wedge from 180 yards finished 12 feet from the hole and Immelman rolled in the putt as he had so many times before celebrating with a Tiger Woods-style uppercut into the air.

Clark had a chance to win it on the last but saw his birdie putt slip agonisingly wide, and had a similar-length putt on the first play-off hole.

But by then Immelman had hit his approach to tap-in range and after Clark missed, Immelman had the simplest of tasks to seal the win.

South African quintet Hugo, Bobby Lincoln, Bradford Vaughan, Charl Schwartzel and Tjaart van der Walt shared third place three shots behind with England's Justin Rose and Brian Davis, Ireland's Gary Murphy, Welshman Stephen Dodd and Scot Andrew Coltart among those another shot back.

Rose began the day three off the lead but saw his chances disappear with a triple bogey seven on the fourth where he found water twice.

"I had more birdies than I had all week but it was a weird day," the 22-year-old said after a closing 71. "I made a triple bogey on the fourth and obviously that made it hard to win from there but I kept my head up all day and tried to keep battling because there was still plenty to play for.

"The water is right on the edge of the fairway, I didn't hit that bad a tee shot, but then on my two-iron third shot I got put off a little by one of the people in their house right on the fairway. It was just one of those things and I got a little bit distracted.

"But it was nice to be in the second last group and get the atmosphere again after a bit of a lay-off and I'm looking forward to next week (where he defends his Dunhill Championship title.)"

Coltart clearly benefited from a more relaxed approach on the course and carded four birdies in a row from the 13th to be back in 32 in his 68.

The former Ryder Cup player said: "I didn't particularly play the 13th very well but holed a 15 footer, then a 35-footer at the next, from 20 feet at the next and two-putt birdie at the next.

"It came from nothing really but you just have to keep plugging away when it looks like nothing's going to happen and I'm chuffed that I managed it.

"I've just been trying to play with a clearer mind and hoping to enjoy it rather than standing there over every shot working at it. The practice ground is the place to work at it but I've never been able to separate the two.

"It's difficult when you start hitting a couple of wobbly shots but it's a little more free in the mind."

Collated scores and totals in final round of the South African Airways Open, Erinvale GC, Cape Town:

(Gbr&Irl unless stated, Par 72)

(x) denotes amateur

274 Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 70 71 66 67 (£79,000pds), Tim Clark (Rsa) 67 67 71 69 (£57,500)

277 Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 75 69 68 65, Tjaart van der Walt (Rsa) 69 76 64 68, Bobby Lincoln (Rsa) 71 68 69 69, Bradford Vaughan (Rsa) 69 71 68 69, Jean Hugo (Rsa) 66 73 65 73 (£22,480 each)

278 Stephen Dodd 71 73 67 67, Andrew Coltart 68 69 73 68, Gary Murphy 71 67 71 69, Rolf Muntz (Ned) 68 70 69 71, Brian Davis 71 69 67 71, Justin Rose 72 69 66 71 (£9,690 each)

279 Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 73 70 70 66, David Howell 69 72 67 71, Ian Hutchings (Rsa) 75 68 64 72

280 Hennie Otto (Rsa) 72 72 67 69, James Kingston (Rsa) 67 72 71 70

281 Bradley Dredge 71 72 69 69, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 72 72 68 69, Alastair Forsyth 73 67 71 70, Per G Nyman (Swe) 69 73 69 70, Phil Golding 71 70 64 76

282 Richard Sterne (Rsa) 74 72 68 68, Brett Liddle (Rsa) 72 72 69 69, Paul Lawrie 72 72 69 69, Steve Webster 72 72 67 71

283 Peter Baker 75 67 70 71, Nick Dougherty 72 66 73 72

284 Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 71 70 74 69, Ryan Reid (Rsa) 72 74 69 69, Simon Hurd 71 68 75 70, Scott Dunlap (USA) 70 74 69 71, Graeme McDowell 75 71 67 71, Mark McNulty (Zim) 74 67 71 72

285 David Park 73 70 73 69, David Drysdale 68 72 75 70, Andre Cruse (Rsa) 76 68 71 70, Scott Drummond 70 76 67 72, Craig Lile (Rsa) 75 71 67 72, Ian Garbutt 69 77 66 73

286 Callie Swart (Rsa) 75 70 73 68, Markus Brier (Aut) 72 73 73 68, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 73 70 73 70, Peter Lawrie 68 69 77 72, Marcel Siem (Ger) 72 70 72 72, Gary Birch Jnr 73 70 70 73, Keith Horne (Rsa) 74 69 70 73, Iain Pyman 68 73 69 76, Steve van Vuuren (Rsa) 71 70 68 77

287 Marc Farry (Fra) 74 68 74 71, Roger Wessels (Rsa) 74 72 70 71, Dean van Staden (Rsa) 73 73 70 71, Lewis Atkinson 71 72 72 72, Matthew Blackey 78 67 70 72, Tony Johnstone (Zim) 73 72 70 72, Des Terblanche (Rsa) 71 71 72 73, Anders Hansen (Den) 71 71 71 74, Ian Poulter 72 70 70 75

288 Simon Dyson 75 66 75 72, Ian Keenan 70 72 74 72, Jaco van Zyl (Rsa) 72 73 71 72, Andrew Butterfield 73 72 71 72

289 Mark Pilkington 73 71 73 72, Ulrich van den Berg (Rsa) 75 71 68 75, Jamie Donaldson 75 67 70 77

290 Sandeep Grewal 75 67 75 73, Lee James 75 70 70 75, David Carter 75 70 70 75

291 (x) Peter Karmis (Rsa) 75 71 76 69, Nic Henning (Rsa) 72 71 70 78

292 Nico Le Grange (Rsa) 72 72 74 74, Titch Moore (Rsa) 74 71 65 82

293 John Bele (Rsa) 73 73 73 74, Grant Muller (Rsa) 70 72 75 76

294 Padraig Dooley 70 76 72 76, Johan Rystrom (Swe) 75 71 70 78, Mark Mouland 75 70 70 79

295 Tim Rice 75 71 72 77

296 Warren Abery (Rsa) 74 68 78 76

300 Benn Barham 77 68 78 77