The 32-year old Stellenbosch pro signed off on a final round 73 at the Royal Swazi Sun Country Club, which was worth just a single point under the Modified Stableford format.

But he nevertheless walked away with the top prize of R110,950 and his 6th Sunshine Tour victory to celebrating a six-point triumph over Kwazulu Natal's Neil Schietekat with a winning total of 56 points.

Schietekat added nine points to take his total to 50 points and edge out first round leader Desvonde Botes for sole second.

Trevor Fisher Jnr picked up 14 points to move up into third on 48 points, while Christiaan Basson from Cape Town finished alone in fifth on 47 points.

Hugo missed the cut at the season-opening Joburg Open, but has since been dominating the leaderboard with ominous frequency and it was hardly surprising to see Hugo shoot into contention at the end of the second round.

He broke into the top-10 for the first time at the Dimension Data Pro-Am, followed by a tie for third at the Africa Open. After another top-10 finish at the Vodacom Championship, Hugo launched into the top-20 at the Telkom PGA Championship.

With ties for fourth, second and sixth in his last three starts, a move to Pretoria and intensive coaching from former caddie and player-turned coach, Graeme Francis, has finally paid off.

"It's a different kind of stress when you are leading by such a margin. You know under this format the guys can catch you, especially if they start making eagles,"said Hugo, who turned in one-over and had two birdies and two bogeys apiece coming home.

"Yesterday was still okay, but today was really tough. I missed a helluva lot of short putts, 3-to 8-footers, and it was very frustrating. I just couldn't get birdies on my card.

"I kept my eye on the leaderboard and I could see some guys starting to make a move on me. It was only after that second birdie at the 15th that I knew I would be okay.

"Winning is great, but to tell you the truth, right now it's more of a relief after the pressure of staying ahead today."

Hugo, who has campaigned regularly on the European Tour over the last couple of years, says his immediate plan is to stay in South Africa until later this season.

"Nicky (Hugo's wife of six months) and I are going to the UK for my brother Jacques' wedding in July and the Sunshine Tour has no tournaments scheduled at that time, so it may be worth teeing it up once or twice while we are over there.

"The aim this year is to work on consistently finishing in the top-10 here and I hope to win a few more before I go to (European) Tour School in October."

The Nashua Golf Challenge at Sun City from May 15-17 is the next stop on the The Sunshine Tour.

From Lali Stander

ALL THE FINAL SCORES
(RSA unless stated, Par: 72)
Format Modified Stableford. Players earn eight points for an albatross, five for an eagle, and two for a birdie. Pars count for nothing, but one point is deducted per bogey and two for a double bogey

56 Jean Hugo 16 26 13 1

50 Neil Schietekat 8 13 20 9

49 Desvonde Botes 21 5 13 10

45 Trevor Fisher Jnr 10 12 9 14

44 Christiaan Basson 13 14 3 14

43 Peter Karmis 5 14 15 9

41 Adilson da Silva (Bra) 7 6 9 19

40 Warren Abery 9 10 11 10

35 Chris Williams 9 0 18 8, Steve Basson 4 11 7 13

33 Tyrone van Aswegen 5 10 4 14, Tyrone Ferreira 10 12 7 4

32 Thabang Simon 10 7 4 11, Nic Henning 9 2 6 15, Louis de Jager 16 5 7 4

31 Wallie Coetsee 7 4 7 13

29 Josh Cunliffe 11 10 0 8

28 Michiel Bothma 5 5 7 11, Mark Murless 10 7 8 3

27 David Hewan 8 0 3 16, Brandon Pieters 4 11 5 7, Mohamed Tayob 2 10 7 8, Heinrich Bruiners 4 6 9 8

26 Bradford Vaughan 1 7 3 15, Gerlou Roux 0 10 9 7, Jbe'Kruger 11 4 2 9, Tongo Charamba (Zim) 4 11 9 2

25 Meshack Zwane (Swe) 9 0 8 8

24 Reggie Adams 6 5 1 12, Grant Veenstra 3 7 15 1, Titch Moore 17 6 2 1

23 Omar Sandys 4 5 6 8

22 Divan van den Heever 8 4 9 1

21 Steve van Vuuren 5 3 9 4, Neil Cheetham (Eng) 15 1 4 3

19 Theunis Spangenberg 6 4 6 3

18 Jaco Ahlers 9 9 1 1

17 Willie van der Merwe 5 7 5 0

15 Darren Holder 2 6 4 3

13 Bobby Lincoln 2 7 3 1

12 Vaughn Groenewald 7 4 2 1

8 Darren Fichardt 5 4 6 5

Disqualified: Andrew Odoh (Nga) 4 4 1