Australian Marc Leishman cruised to a brilliant victory in the Nedbank Golf Challenge with an impressive five under par 67 in the final round to finish a turbulent year on a high.

"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.

"I knew it was going to be a really tough day, I knew I had to play well. Henrik 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.

The 32 year old’s wife was seriously ill in April – he had to leave the Masters to be by her side – and he lost an uncle, while on the course he was beaten in a play-off for The Open Championship in July.

"I’m pretty happy to have this year over, to be honest. 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."

But, having taken a one shot lead into the last round at Gary Player Country Club in Sun City, he produced a wonderful back nine to hold off World Number Seven Henrik Stenson and win by six strokes with a 19 under par total, afterwards saying the US$1.25million first prize will help pay for his new house in Australia.

Stenson, who was bed-bound with a virus in the build-up to the event, closed with a level par 72, while Englishman Chris Wood rose into third place with a 68.