KURRI Kurri golfer Matthew Jones led the field all week at Hawks Nest but it was not until the third last hole of the tournament that he knew he had clinched the NSW PGA Trainee Championship yesterday.
Jones held a one-shot lead at two-over 74 over Sydney's Ryan O'Flaherty going into the 16th hole.
O'Flaherty, who had cut back Jones's overnight lead of two strokes to be level after the front nine, appeared to have again caught the leader when he sunk a 12-metre putt for birdie.
But with pressure mounting, Jones responded instantly with an eight-metre putt to birdie and hold the lead.
"That was the turning point in the game, it killed it, because I didn't make any mistakes in the last two holes," Jones said.
"If I hadn't have holed the putt the momentum would have went with him for the last two and anything could have happened."
The victory was the third-year trainee's first professional four-round championship and will probably earn him a sponsor's invitation for the NSW PGA Championships and NSW Open in November.
Standing beside him in his breakthrough victory was his caddy and fiancee, Jenna-Leigh Burke.
Jones carded 69 in round one on Tuesday for a one-stroke lead and he extended it on Wednesday with a one-under 71.
Despite shooting a three-over 75 in round three, Jones maintained a two-stroke lead going into yesterday's final round.
The fourth round began in disastrous fashion for Jones when he bogeyed the fourth and ninth holes and double-bogeyed the fifth on account of poor tee shots.
By the time he reached the back nine he was level with O'Flaherty and the 24-year-old was a bundle of nerves.
"You get that wrapped up in it with the adrenalin and the nerves and everything else and I started to feel quite sick under all the pressure," Jones said.
"I just went back and believed in everything I'd done over the past two months of training and got back to making it real simple."
O'Flaherty dropped a stroke on the 12th hole but hit back with a birdie.
Jones regained the lead with a birdie on the par-five 14th to set up the deciding hole on the 16th.
Robert Stephenson and Stuart Edwards finished equal third on 296, seven shots behind Jones.
Defending champion Andrew McCormack, of Charlestown, struggled with a six-over 78 to finish in 10th place on 300.
Hawks Nest president Lee Rankin said at the presentation that Myall Peninsula course would host the state trainee championship for the next three years.
? For the first time all season, Tiger Woods showed up at a US PGA Tour event knowing his day would not include phone calls from a lawyer or divorce documents.
He is married only to his golf now.
"This is my job," Woods said on Wednesday before the first PGA play-off event. "This is what I do."
Even so, Woods shook his head slowly when asked whether he felt relief that his divorce became official two days ago.
"I don't think that's the word," he said.
"I think it's just more sadness."
As he was teeing off in the pro-am in New Jersey, People magazine published an interview with his ex-wife, Elin Nordegren, in which she spoke openly about how her world fell apart.
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