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They had 13 birdies and an eagle between them but it was Brett Rankin who edged Tim Hart to take the Dougherty Property Grafton Pro-Am.
Rankin and Hart took the rare opportunity to play together in the same group to put on a show for their amateur playing partners at Grafton District Golf Club.
Starting from the fourth tee it was Rankin who landed the first blow, making birdie at the par-4 fifth.
Hart hit back with birdies of his own at six and nine before Rankin made three straight birdies from the 10th hole to assume control.
After a dropped shot on 13 Rankin made further birdies at 15 and 17 and an eagle on 18 in his round of 7-under 65 and a one-shot win.
Hart finished in a share of second at 6-under 66, Dillon Hart and Bailey Arnott also ending the day one shot shy of Rankin’s winning total.
A winner at Grafton in 2015, Rankin said that playing in the same group as Hart helped to drive him to go low.
“It helped me and Tim today,” said Rankin, pictured with Andrew Brien (Dougherty Property Centre) and amateur winner Henri Arnold.
“We got to feed off each other and you get a bit of a feel for what clubs to select on par 3s and stuff like that. If one of us goes first, you get a sense of how far it is actually playing.
“Having someone else in the group hitting good shots too is good for your own visualisation.
“You start seeing good shots you start hitting good shots. It definitely helps us for sure.”
Hit hard by floods in recent years, the Grafton layout has proved to be a happy hunting ground for Rankin.
Not only does he enjoy the layout but praised the greens as among the best he has played on the adidas PGA Pro-Am Series circuit.
“I just remember always playing pretty good here and if I didn’t win I was always top five and might have even had a couple of runner-ups,” he added.
“The course suits my eye and the greens are really good. I find that when I’m putting well it’s on greens that are really quick and these greens are quite quick.
“I think that really suited me today and kind of fell into my hands.”
Michael Wright put up an excellent defence of his 2022 title, finishing in a tie for fifth with Chris Wood, James Conran and Andrew Campbell.
The adidas PGA Pro-Am Series moves south on Saturday for the two-day Ray White Yamba Pro-Am.
