Home favourite James Kingston was eventually crowned South African Airways Open champion after a rain-drenched final round in Paarl.

Play was suspended for nearly four hours earlier in the day after persistent rain overnight made the course unplayable.

When the players did get back Kingston managed to maintain his composure, shooting a final-round 71 for an overall score of four under par, one better than overnight leader Oliver Wilson.

Playing together on the final day, the Englishman got off to the worst possible start with a bogey on the par-four first, and he never recovered.

Dropped strokes followed on the sixth and the ninth holes and despite pulling back with two birdies on the 10th and 11th, it was too late as he eventually finished with a 73.

Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke adapted well in weather not dissimilar to Belfast, finishing two shots back on one under par after an excellent final-round 68 - one of the rounds of the day.

Three other players were tied with Clarke including South Africa's Garth Mulroy and Louis Oosthuizen as well as Welshman Kyron Sullivan.

Greg Norman capped an impressive week by finishing in tied seventh, level par for the championship, while defending champion Ernie Els also finished strongly with a final-round 69, enough for joint 16th place.

An emotional Kingston dedicated the win to his mother, who had been there in person to see her son compete.

"It was tough, but it's a dream come true. My mother is here, which is really nice because I lost both my father and my brother on the golf course and I wish they were here too," he said.

"I've come close before in the South African Open and I always think about Glendower in 1993 when Clinton Whitelaw won. We were tied for the lead going down the 11th and I made a stupid bogey and ended up losing by three strokes.

"It boiled down to the same situation today, but I came into today with such a positive state of mind after the physios gave me a video on positive thinking. I've been in these situations before and somewhere I guess you learn from the times you don't finish the job."

Kingston admitted he had struggled to cope with the considerable rain delays.

"I was nervous when I woke up this morning and the delays made it tougher. Your mind plays havoc with you and I'm grateful we were able to finish today. I don't know if I could have faced the 17th tomorrow morning," he added.

Collated final round scores & totals in the European Tour SAA Open Championship, Pearl Valley, Western Cape, South Africa

(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):

284 James Kingston (Rsa) 73 69 71 71

285 Oliver Wilson 76 69 67 73

287 Garth Mulroy (Rsa) 80 70 64 73, Kyron Sullivan 72 71 73 71, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 78 72 66 71, Darren Clarke 72 73 74 68

288 Robert Rock 70 75 71 72, Craig Lile (Rsa) 73 73 72 70, Nic Henning (Rsa) 74 71 70 73, Greg Norman (Aus) 75 70 72 71

289 Simon Dyson 75 76 71 67, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 72 71 73 73, Alan Michell (Rsa) 76 74 68 71

290 Garry Houston 76 73 68 73

292 Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 75 74 72 71

293 Joakim Backstrom (Swe) 76 74 71 72, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 74 74 70 75, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 71 76 71 75, Ernie Els (Rsa) 77 70 77 69, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 74 72 75 72

294 Hennie Otto (Rsa) 77 74 72 71, Magnus Carlsson (Swe) 76 73 74 71, Alan McLean 80 71 69 74, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 80 71 71 72, Miles Tunnicliff 77 74 69 74, Peter Lawrie 74 75 71 74, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 75 74 71 74

295 Ulrich Van Den Berg (Rsa) 71 73 71 80, Anton Haig (Rsa) 75 74 72 74, Gary Boyd 72 76 74 73, Andrew McArthur 72 74 75 74, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 80 73 72 70

296 Lee S James 76 75 73 72, Luis Claverie (Spa) 79 74 69 74, Joost Luiten (Ned) 82 67 75 72, David Frost (Rsa) 73 80 75 68

297 Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 76 75 78 68, Peter Whiteford 81 70 76 70, Warren Abery (Rsa) 76 74 71 76, Neil Schietekat (Rsa) 72 73 81 71

298 Paul Waring 73 76 73 76, David Dixon 76 75 73 74, Tim Clark (Rsa) 75 74 74 75

299 Michiel Bothma (Rsa) 85 68 73 73, Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 79 71 73 76, Adilson Da Silva (Bra) 77 74 73 75, Jean Hugo (Rsa) 78 75 75 71, Keith Horne (Rsa) 77 75 74 73, George Coetzee (Rsa) 73 76 75 75

300 Alex Haindl (Rsa) 71 78 71 80, Richard Bland 76 77 77 70, Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 75 78 72 75, Brett Liddle (Rsa) 77 71 78 74, Birgir Hafthorsson (Ice) 79 73 75 73, Ryan Tipping (Rsa) 74 75 70 81, Euan Little 72 72 78 78

301 Mattias Eliasson (Swe) 79 73 72 77, Jaco Van Zyl (Rsa) 74 77 71 79, Marc Cayeux (Zim) 78 73 74 76

302 Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 80 73 74 75, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 75 71 78 78, Sam Walker 80 73 76 73, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 79 72 75 76

303 Chris Williams (Rsa) 77 74 73 79

304 Mathias Gronberg (Swe) 79 74 74 77

305 Ross Wellington (Rsa) 76 72 76 81, Grant Muller (Rsa) 78 75 73 79

309 Lee Slattery 76 76 78 79

314 Steven Jeppesen (Swe) 74 78 75 87