Harold Varner III overcame local favourite Andrew Dodt in a thrilling final-day battle to win the Australian PGA Championship on the Gold Coast.
Queenslander Dodt had led since day one and came into the final round with a two-shot lead over fellow Australian Ashley Hall and Varner, but the American carded a brilliant closing 65 to take the title by two shots at 19 under.
World number seven Adam Scott was third at 15 under, a shot clear of Hall and five ahead of another Australian in Brett Rumford.
Varner picked up a birdie on the third and when he made three in a row from the seventh – mainly thanks to some brilliant iron play – he led by one at the turn from Dodt who made a single birdie on the front nine.
An enthralling battle then took place on the way back, with a Varner bogey on the 11th putting Dodt back in a share of the lead before back-to-back Varner birdies gave him a cushion.
A two-shot swing on the 14th levelled things back up but Varner birdied the 15th and 17th to take victory and erase the memory of last season when he lost out in a play-off to Nathan Holman.
“That was pretty awesome, I had a lot of fun out there today,” said Varner.
“I’ve thought a lot about losing the play-off here last year, it was the closest I came to winning last season so it’s been playing on my mind a little bit.
[timg]HaroldvarnerIIIADec4_large.jpg[/timg“I’m now a much better, more mature player than I was 12 months ago and this win is big for me. Winning is hard, I don’t care where you tee it up, so to get it done feels great.”
Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher fired a closing 69 to finish at six under alongside Tom Lewis, two shots clear of another Englishman in Ian Poulter and Wales’ Oliver Farr.
