An eagle on the first hole was the hot start Rankin needed at the PGA Pro-Am Series event on his way to victory on the NSW North Coast.

Teeing off in the afternoon field amongst a host of top Australian Professionals including Tim Hart, Michael Sim and Deyen Lawson, Rankin flew through the opening nine holes to post a front-nine score of 6-under, closely followed by Justin Warren and Kade McBride at 3-under.

After making birdie the 10^th hole to go to 7-under, the Queenslander came back to the field on the back-nine where bogeys on 12 and 13 took him to his winning score of 5-under 67.

“I haven’t been playing the best the past few weeks and when I woke up this morning I wasn’t too keen to play,” said Rankin.

“When I started with an eagle on the first hole I got a bit more interested and a bit more excited.”

After taking his maiden PGA Pro-Am Series victory earlier this year, McBride recorded another strong result of second place at Ocean Shores with a round of 4-under 68.

Sydneysider Breanna Gill posted one of the best scores of the morning field, a 3-under 69, to finish in third place alongside Peter Martin, Hart and Sim.

ALPG rising star Karis Davison was one of a logjam of players to finish in a tie for seventh place at 2-under 70.

View the final Carlton & United Breweries Ocean Shores Pro-Am leaderboard at pga.org.au.