South African Tim Clark's brilliant closing 66 earned him the title of SAA Open champion for the second time.

Despite a final-day charge from Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke, whose second successive 67 gave him a share of fourth place, it was the home hope who prevailed at the Royal Durban Country Club, winning by six strokes.

Clark won this event in 2002, and by repeating that feat he has moved himself back into the world's top 50.

Delighted by his victory, which was secured by playing the last 45 holes of the tournament without dropping a shot, Clark said: "I'm obviously extremely pleased.

"I felt a lot of pressure over here and a lot of people expected me to play well here.

"To be honest I hadn't played a lot of golf coming into this week. My game felt like it was just getting better and better and this was definitely the best I've played this week."

He became the first player to win the European Tour event twice at Royal Durban since Wayne Westner in 1988 and 1991.

Besides his £89,000 first prize, Clark also earns a European Tour exemption until the end of 2007.

He made two birdies on the front nine before exploiting his knowledge in the closing holes to finish on 15-under-par 273.

"I played really well on the back nine. I really didn't look like I was in trouble too much and I even felt that a few more putts could have gone in today," he said.

"To finish strong like that was a great reward.

"It means a great deal to win here, but perhaps my next goal should be to win it somewhere else."

Dunhill Championship victor Charl Schwartzel wrapped up the Sunshine Tour's order of merit title with a four-under 68, to take joint second place and leap to the top of the Volvo European Order of Merit.

"I've won this order of merit, so maybe we can win the Volvo order of merit. I'm playing well at the moment, so we'll see where this year takes me to," Schwartzel said.

Alongside Schwartzel was Frenchman Gregory Havret, who carded a final round of 69 to continue his good from from the end of last year.

"I played well out there but there was just too much catching up to do for me. But I felt great out there today and played well, the only thing I was disappointed about was (bogeys) at the 10th and 11th," he said.

"Those were two big mistakes to make at that time in the tournament and if I hadn't done that, then who knows.

"But I am pretty happy, I was pretty consistent throughout the week and this gives me a bit of confidence for the season now.

"I finished 11th in China and 12th in Hong Kong but then of course we had the break for Christmas and New Year so it is nice to see that I haven't lost any of my momentum."

Clarke was tied for fourth with Englishmen Nick Dougherty, who shot a superb final round of 66, and Graeme Storm.

On Friday, Clarke required an eagle on his final hole just to make the cut, but back-to-back 67s put him in contention.

For a while, David Howell was chasing the eventual winner, but a double bogey on the par-four 16th eventually ended his bid as he sunk back to seven-under and joint eighth.

Collated fourth round scores and totals in the South African Airways Open, Durban CC, South Africa

(Rsa unless stated, par 72):

273 Tim Clark 68 71 68 66

279 Charl Schwartzel 68 72 71 68, Gregory Havret (Fra) 69 69 72 69

280 James Kingston 71 70 72 67, Graeme Storm (Eng) 71 68 69 72, Darren Clarke (NIrl) 72 74 67 67, Nick Dougherty (Eng) 73 73 68 66

281 Tjaart Van der Walt 66 71 70 74, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 75 70 68 68, Titch Moore 65 70 72 74, David Howell (Eng) 73 70 67 71

282 Desmond Terblanche 68 72 73 69, Louis Oosthuizen 69 69 73 71, Paul Eales (Eng) 74 69 70 69, Hendrik Buhrmann 70 67 70 75

283 Marten Olander (Swe) 72 73 71 67, Werner Geyer 71 72 71 69

284 Neil Cheetham (Eng) 70 70 70 74, Bobby Lincoln 71 70 69 74, Lee Slattery (Eng) 73 68 71 72, Bruce Vaughan (USA) 65 73 73 73, Hennie Otto 71 72 71 70, Jaco Van Zyl 70 70 72 72

285 Simon Hurd (Eng) 75 66 73 71, Phillip Archer (Eng) 72 70 71 72, Ian Garbutt (Eng) 71 70 71 73, Johan Edfors (Swe) 74 69 73 69, Kenneth Ferrie (Eng) 72 72 69 72, Jonathan Lomas (Eng) 72 73 70 70, Garry Houston (Wal) 74 68 70 73, Fulton Allem 74 69 72 70, Lars Brovold (Nor) 68 72 73 72

286 Marcel Siem (Ger) 69 77 72 68, Darren Fichardt 70 73 72 71, Richard Sterne 74 71 73 68, Stuart Manley (Wal) 76 67 72 71, Andrew McLardy 69 69 75 73, Leif Westerberg (Swe) 74 71 73 68, Fredrik Henge (Swe) 71 69 76 70

287 Gavin Levenson 74 70 71 72, Scott Dunlap (USA) 71 75 71 70, Trevor Immelman 70 73 69 75

288 Jean Hugo 74 67 73 74, John Mashego 71 72 73 72, Ross Wellington 69 70 77 72, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 72 71 71 74

289 Ashley Roestoff 74 70 75 70, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 71 74 70 74, Warren Abery 73 70 75 71, David Griffiths (Eng) 74 72 73 70, Andrew Butterfield (Eng) 75 71 70 73

290 Ben Mason (Eng) 75 70 70 75, Lindani Ndwandwe 69 72 73 76, Malcolm MacKenzie (Eng) 68 76 77 69, Marc Cayeux (Eng) 72 69 80 69, Matthew Blackey (Eng) 72 72 71 75, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 72 74 72 72

291 Niki Zitny (Aut) 75 69 74 73, Jason Kelly 73 70 76 72, Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 75 71 70 75, Michiel Bothma 70 73 75 73, Martin Maritz 75 68 76 72

292 Michael Kirk (USA) 72 70 75 75, Stephen Browne (Irl) 78 67 74 73, Andrea Maestroni (Ita) 74 69 75 74, Philip Golding (Eng) 69 76 70 77, Thomas Aiken 72 73 76 71

293 Oliver Wilson (Eng) 72 73 76 72

295 David Frost 72 72 77 74, Gary Murphy (Irl) 76 70 81 68, Chris Williams (Eng) 68 78 73 76

296 Chris Davison 72 73 77 74

297 Joachim Backstrom 73 70 78 76

299 Alain Norris 73 72 83 71

301 Jakobus Roos (Rsa) 73 72 79 77

303 Tony Johnstone (Zim) 77 68 83 75

304 Cody Freeman (USA) 71 75 77 81