Australia's Marc Leishman cruised to victory in the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City to claim his first European Tour title and complete an Australian double - but Shane Lowry endured a frustrating final day as he finished 21 shots behind the winner.
Following compatriot Nathan Holman's win in the Australian PGA Championship earlier in the day, Leishman carded a closing 67 at Sun City to finish 19-under-par, six shots clear of Henrik Stenson.
England's Chris Wood was a distant third on nine-under with defending champion Danny Willett, Victor Dubuisson, Robert Streb and Branden Grace joint fourth on eight under.
It was a disappointing end to the year for Lowry, who hit his best round of the weekend, a two-under-par 70 that left him in outright 23rd place, on Saturday and looked poised to haul himself back up the leaderboard on the final day.
However the Offaly man bogeyed two of his first three holes to hinder any hopes of gaining early momentum, and double-bogeyed the eighth and ninth as he went round in 75 to finish in a tie for 26th.
Leishman began the day with a one-shot lead and found himself three ahead when he birdied the seventh and playing partner Stenson bogeyed the same hole after failing to get up and down from a greenside bunker.
World number seven Stenson bounced back with a birdie from 15 feet on the eighth and both players two-putted the par-five ninth for birdie to give Leishman, who lost a play-off for the Open at St Andrews in July, a two-shot lead heading into the back nine.
Leishman and Stenson also two-putted the par-five 10th for birdie before Leishman extended his lead thanks to a superb approach to the 13th which span back to within inches of the hole.
Stenson saved par from over the green to keep his hopes of a second title alive, but the 2008 champion could not repeat the feat after a wayward drive on the 15th, where another birdie from Leishman took the 32-year-old five clear.
Leishman, who defeated world number one Jordan Spieth in the singles in the Presidents Cup in October, moved further ahead with a birdie on the 16th and although Stenson chipped in on the next, the result - and destination of the first prize of £825,000 - was never in doubt.
"I'm pretty happy to have this year over, to be honest."
Leishman pulled out of the Masters in April after his wife Audrey fell seriously ill with toxic shock syndrome, a rare but life-threatening bacterial infection during which she was put into an induced coma.
She is now recovering but Leishman feared the worst and was prepared to give up golf to care for their two young children.
"I'm pretty happy to have this year over, to be honest," the 32-year-old said. "Audrey got very sick and I lost an uncle who I was very close to.
"This tops off what was otherwise not a great year. Three weeks ago we moved into a new house, so this will help pay for that.
"It's amazing. I'm so happy," added Leishman, who could reach a career-best 26th in the world when the rankings are updated on Monday.
"It's not very often you can walk up 18 with a good cushion and enjoy it.
"I knew it was going to be a really tough day, I knew I had to play well. Henrik (pictured above) is an awesome player and I knew he'd make me earn it, which he did.
I'm really pleased that I could play as well as I did and have a little bit of a buffer there at the end.
"Golf's a lot easier when you don't have to make up lost ground, especially on this golf course where there's trouble everywhere.
"I was really happy to not have too many bogeys. I definitely found out where the trouble was in the practice round!"
