A 6-under-par 66, including birdies on his final two holes, gave the 48-year-old a one-shot margin over fellow Queenslander Dillon Hart and NSW Northern Rivers local Sam Brazel.

Although he doesn’t play competitively as much as he used to, and couldn’t quite remember his last pro-am victory, Jeffress had shown that a win might not be far off when he finished T4 at Kooralbyn Valley last month and then claimed a share of second at McLeod in Brisbane on Tuesday.

“I haven’t played a lot the last couple of years but the last month and a half I’ve actually started to do a bit of work on my game,” Jeffress said.

“I’ve been putting some hours in and it’s good to see it working.

“I want to keep playing because my overall goal is, at the end of next year, to go to Champions Tour Q-School in the States.

“Looking at how some of our Aussies like David Bransdon and Michael Wright have done it, you need to keep playing and competing before you hit 50.”

National Pro-Am Order of Merit leader Brett Rankin, who won at Grafton last year, finished in a share of fourth.

HOW THE WINNER’S SCORE UNFOLDED

Jeffress’s winning round featured seven birdies and the solitary bogey.

He started fast with a three on the par-4 third before dropping a shot two holes later.

Birdies then arrived with regularity at the sixth, ninth, 11th and 14th to move him to 4-under before the win was secured with back-to-back birdies on his final two holes.

An eight-metre putt secured a two on the 135m par-3 first and a two-putt after hitting the green with a 5-iron approach produced the winning birdie on the 462m par-5 second

WHAT THE WINNER SAID

Jeffress said: “The plan was that there was no plan apart from hitting good shots and the shots I wanted to hit.

“I figured 5-under wasn’t going to be enough. When you’ve been out here a while you get a sense of what’s needed.

“I thought I had to get to -6 to win outright. I wouldn’t get beat at six.”

LEADERBOARD RUNDOWN

66: Steven Jeffress (Qld)

67: Dillon Hart (Qld), Sam Brazel (NSW)

68: Brett Rankin (Qld), Jayden Cripps (NSW), Jack Pountney (NSW)

69: Sam Slater (Qld); Jack McLeod (NSW)

NEXT UP

There’s two 36-hole events coming up in New South Wales in the adidas Pro-Am Series. The Ray White Yamba Pro-Am will be held this weekend at Yamba Golf Club followed by the PSC Insurance Brokers Wagga Wagga Pro-Am at Wagga Wagga Country Club on Wednesday and Thursday next week.