Dimi Papadatos wins NZ Open   2 Mar 2014

PHIL WALTER/ Getty

Another year, another Australian champion at the New Zealand Open.

Little known Dimi Papadatos has been crowned the 2014 chamption at The Hills in Arrowtown, easing to a four-shot victory this afternoon.

He's the third Australian winner in the past three editions, following in the footsteps of Brad Kennedy (Clearwater, 2011) and Jake Higginbottom (Clearwater, 2012), and stretches New Zealand's winless drought to 11 years.
Papadatos, 22, who held the overnight lead by one shot at 12-under par, made the turn in one-under then fired in five birdies on a hugely impressive back nine to fire a final round of six-under 66 and finish at 18-under.

The margin of victory was four shots from Kiwi Mark Brown, who was in the final group again and couldn't pull through.

Brown played reasonably well all day but, in a familiar story, couldn't hole a putt till he ended a run of 12 straight pars with a birdie at No 13. He also birdied the short par-four 15th and the par-five 17th to card a bogey-free three-under 69 and finish at 14-under.

But it was too little, too late.

On another day such a round might have won the tournament, but Papadatos was not going to lose this one and Brown can only doff his cap to the Aussie.

There were several players within touch of Papadatos for most of the day but he closed the door with birdies at the par-four 11th, the par-five 13th, the driveable par-four 15th, a birdie two at the short but tough par-three 16th, and another birdie at 17.

Te Anau professional David Klein, who carded a five-under 67 today, finished outright third at 13-under, pocketing the biggest cheque of his short professional career.

Auckland's Richard Lee started the day at 11-under and just one shot off the pace but a couple of early bogeys stymied his chances.

He charged late with three successive birdies from holes 15-17 before a bogey at 18, a one-under 71 good enough for a share of fourth with a 12-under total, alongside Australian Ashley Hall (70).

Ryan Fox rallied during the mid-stages of his round with birdies at holes No 7, 9, 10 and 13 to get to 12-under and, at that point, just one shot off the pace.

But he made bogey at 14 and three-putted the 18th to eventually sign for a three-under 69 and finish tied for sixth at 11-under par, with Australian Terry Pilkadaris.

Papadatos was rock solid all day and when he has made a poor swing or a mistake, it was minor enough to not cost him in the $850,000 PGA Tour of Australasia event.

He pockets $153,000 for easily the biggest win of his fledgling career.

LEADERBOARD

-18 Dimi Papadatos (Aus)

-14 Mark Brown (NZ)

-13 David Klein (NZ)

-12 Richard Lee (NZ), Ashley Hall (Aus)

-11 Ryan Fox (NZ), Terry Pilkadaris (Aus)

-10 Adam Blyth (Aus), Andrew Martin (Aus)

-9 Kieran Muir (NZ), Scott Strange (Aus), Cameron Smith (Aus)

- © Fairfax NZ News

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