Playing together in the final group at the Moonah Links Open Course on Friday, Crabtree (70) held a two-stroke lead with three holes to play before a two-shot swing on the par-4 16th.

As Crabtree made bogey, Kobori (69) made birdie, the pair finishing par-birdie to end the 72 holes locked together at 11-under at the top of the leaderboard.

With the winner of Final Stage of Q School earning a better category for the upcoming season, Kobori and Crabtree headed back to the 18th hole, where the 21-year-old Australian Amateur champion came out on top with his second straight birdie on the par 5 finisher.

Winner of the 2019 NZ PGA Championship as a 17-year-old, Kobori will tee it up in the major amateur events in the US from June, represent New Zealand at the Eisenhower Trophy in mid-October and then return to Australia for the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship at Royal Melbourne Golf Club.

Then, barring a victory that would open the door to starts at The Masters and The Open Championship, Kobori intends to start his professional career on the PGA Tour of Australasia.

“Because I’m playing Asia-Pacific and all that I think I miss a few events at the start of the season so I wasn’t sure how that would set me up for re-rank,” Kobori said.

“Hopefully I should be right now.”

Kazuma is the younger brother of Momoka Kobori, who won the Women’s NSW Open at Tuncurry last month and was a two-time winner on the LET Access Series in 2022 to earn promotion to the Ladies European Tour in 2023.

Given his success in professional events to date – he was tied sixth at the NZ Open and tied fourth at the NZ PGA in early March – Kobori says that seeing his sister succeed is another indicator that he will be ready when the time comes to go pro.

“She was always someone that I tried to beat growing up and we used to follow basically the same training schedule,” said Kobori.

“Watching someone who does the same training as you succeed, it gives you more confidence that you’re on the right track.”

Although he missed out on the win, it was a highly successful week too for Crabtree.

Dejected after a poor performance at Asian Tour Qualifying School in January, Crabtree had to first come through First Stage in order to earn a place in the field for Final Stage.

Round 1 began with a quadruple bogey but the former Queensland state team-mate of the likes of Louis Dobbelaar, Lawry Flynn and Charlie Dann showed great resilience to fight back and earn a good category for the 2023/2024 season.

It was an outstanding week for the Kiwi contingent as NZ PGA runner-up Sung Jin Yeo (68) earned outright third, Kit Bittle (74) snared fourth and Rhys Thomas (72) was tied for sixth along with South Australian Jak Carter (72), Carter’s good mate Lachlan Barker (71) solo fifth.

Exactly 30 players earned status for the 2023/2024 season with Darcy Brereton and Scott Arnold both shooting 68 in the final round to play their way into the top 30.

The first chance players will have to earn points in the 2023/2024 season will be the returning PNG Open at Royal Port Moresby Golf Club from May 4-7.

Final scores