Zander Lombard led by three shots with nine holes left to play, and professional golfer Richard Sterne was not even looking at the leaderboard. Then one shot changed the whole tournament.

The 44-year-old won the 2026 Soudal Open in Belgium with a final-round 66, finishing at 18-under par and two shots clear of six players tied for second.

Lombard entered the final round with the lead but shot 74 to finish tied for eighth at 15-under, while Richard Sterne secured his first DP World Tour win since the 2013 Joburg Open.

The biggest moment came at the par-5 17th, where Sterne nearly made an albatross after hitting a 5-wood from 276 yards before tapping in for eagle to reach 18-under.

"I had a five wood in the bag, I don't have a three wood," Sterne said. "It was 276, and I needed to hit a little draw on there to get the distance; it just came out as good as I could. It ended up great, three, four feet away, and it was one of the best shots I've hit."

At that same moment, Lombard was making a double bogey on the 14th. The lead had completely disappeared.

Sterne said he had no idea he had moved in front. "I thought I was still behind, I thought Zander was still on 19-under," he said. "I wasn't really looking at leaderboards, to be honest."

He parred the final hole to finish at 18-under, two shots ahead of Jacob Skov Olesen, Jorge Campillo, Kota Kaneko, Victor Perez, Marcus Armitage, and Marcus Kinhult, who tied for second.

The win ended his 13-year wait for another title, but the difficult years between those wins made the story even more emotional.

Richard Sterne Opens Up About Career-Threatening Injuries

He underwent a titanium disc replacement in his back, along with three wrist surgeries and one hip surgery. He spent many years recovering and trying to play golf again.

"Three wrist ops, a disc replacement, hip surgery I've been through it all," Sterne told Sky Sports. "They were hard times. I didn't think I was going to get through a lot of them."

He said injuries derailed large stretches of his 24-year professional career. The motivation to keep pushing came from somewhere closer to home.

"One of the main goals was to win with my children actually seeing it," Sterne said.

"The oldest is 13. Soon it's been pretty much that long. So it's nice to eventually let them see me win."

He added, "I suppose just to prove to myself that I can still compete at this age, after all I've been through."

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Written by

Sneha Abraham

Edited by

Pulkit Prabhav