Ulrich van den Berg won the 2026 Sunshine Legends Championship at Blue Valley Golf & Country Club in Gauteng, South Africa. Across three rounds on 28–30 October, he finished with 204 strokes (12 under par), just one clear of Slenda Sithebe. The Sunshine Legends Tour published its final-round report on 1 November.
A seven-shot advantage almost disappeared
Van den Berg opened with a 64 (−8), taking a four-shot first-round lead. A second-round 67 (−5) moved him to 131 (−13) after 36 holes. Sithebe, who recorded two rounds of 69, was on 138 (−6), seven shots behind Van den Berg at the same point.
The closing round changed the shape of the contest. Van den Berg posted 73 (+1) while Sithebe surged with a 67 (−5), recovering six shots but falling one short. The final scores were 204 (−12) and 205 (−11) respectively. The title was decided in regulation, without a playoff. These figures describe stroke-play totals relative to par, not a count of birdies.
The final leaderboard
1. Ulrich van den Berg — 64–67–73, 204 (−12).
2. Slenda Sithebe — 69–69–67, 205 (−11).
T3. Yngve Nilsson — 70–67–70, 207 (−9); Ryan Dreyer — 69–67–71, 207 (−9).
T5. Desvonde Botes — 69–70–71, 210 (−6); Brett Liddle — 68–69–73, 210 (−6). Andrew McLardy took seventh with 211 (−5).
Why Blue Valley mattered
The Sunshine Legends Tour is a professional circuit for golfers aged 50 and over in South Africa and neighbouring territories. The Blue Valley championship was the ninth of ten events scheduled for 2026. Fifty professionals started, 40 completed all three rounds, and ten missed the cut. Its R600,000 prize fund applies to the tournament as a whole, not to the winner's individual payout.
The season's finale, The Tradition, is scheduled for 9–12 November at St Francis Links in the Eastern Cape. The results above follow the tour's official final leaderboard, which cites Golf Genius scoring. Event photographs credited to Preston Wheatley Photography have not been reproduced without a commercial licence.
