Chris Wood's career as a golf professional on the European Tour got off to a solid start after he finished tied 16th in his first tournament of the 2009 season.

Wood had one of the best rounds on day four of the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa with a four under par 68 to finish the event on 11 under, the same score as Clevedon's John E Morgan and one of the European Tour's superstars Lee Westwood.

A cheque of almost £11,000 was Wood's reward, but he is determined to improve in the next event this week in Cape Town. "It was a solid start to my season and I'm pretty happy with my performance. I shot under par every day and my game wasn't as rusty as I expected after having some time off."

The 21-year-old shot five birdies and only an unlucky plugged lie in a bunker on the 18th brought his only bogey. "My iron play was good this week and my putting was better than it has been recently because the greens here were so good," he said.

"But I was hooking my drives because of poor rhythm and that was the cause of all my dropped shots really. I can work on that now for this week."

The South African Open in Pearl Valley in the Western Cape starts on Thursday and will be Wood's last European Tour event of the year. He is hoping to have learned enough about the conditions in South Africa to have an even better tournament.

"I think you can get used to the heat because that was a factor all week," he said. "You get to the tournament at seven o'clock in the morning when the temperature is as cool as it gets, but you're still sweating. I got sunburned on the first day, but I won't make that mistake again."

The tournament was won by South Africa's Richard Sterne with a score of 17 under par and won £136,000. England's Robert Rock and Sweden's Johan Edfors were joint second one shot behind.

John E Morgan was in the top five at one stage during the final day, but eventually fell away with a two over par 74. Morgan needed a top 10 finish in order to be eligible for the next tournament, but has instead returned home and will pick up his European Tour career in 2009.

Morgan was suffering from a virus all week. "I've been sick once every day during the tournament and could not push too hard, so it wasn't a bad start for me," he said.