New South Welshman James Nitties has won the South Pacific Open Championship following a tight final round with Matthew Millar.

Starting the day with a two shot lead, Nitties quickly saw
that disappear spending the day battling it out with his playing partner
Millar.

"I’m yery happy, it was an
awesome week. I really played great golf all week; today I probably played my
best golf of all four days," said Nitties who had 2-under 69 in the final round.
 

"It was a great tussle
between me and Matty (Millar); he is an awesome player, never makes any
mistakes."

However, a very unlucky situation unfolded for Millar on the
par-4 15^th when his ball became stuck in a palm tree causing him to
take an unplayable which lead to a double bogey.

Nitties then went on to cruise to a comfortable six shot victory
with a tournament total of 16-under 268.

"He got a really bad break
on the 15^th hole; his ball got caught up a tree. You never want to
see that," added Nitties.

"It was unfortunate for
him but I was pretty proud of myself for the way I played the last four holes,
in the wind, very solid."

"It was close all day, the
six shots difference, I think, was a bit of wind going out of his (Millar’s) sails
the last couple of holes, it was very tight all day."

Attributing the victory to his coach, PGA Professional Jason
Laws, Nitties hope this will be the catalyst to an even more successful Australian
summer of golf.  

"It’s awesome; I have to
thank my coach, Jason Laws. I came home from playing really badly in the US then
really found something and some great stuff to work on right before this
tournament."

"I didn’t really know what
was going to happen before this event because I didn’t know where the ball was
going and I was working on a lot of stuff."

"So to actually come out
and win a tournament, not actually knowing how well I am playing beforehand is
really awesome for my confidence," added Nitties.

"It’s just a good feeling
to start playing some good golf and turn it around before the start of the
Aussie summer."

Millar finished outright second on 10-under 274 and while
there were plenty of positives to take from the week the bad break on 15 was a
bitter pill to swallow.  

"It was certainly neck and
neck the whole way until 15 where I guess it didn’t go my way," said Millar.

"James played really well,
he controlled it all day long, he was never really in much trouble and nor was
I, I guess until a bad break at 15."

"The ball staying up the
tree, I have had it happen twice now on the 15^th, it happened last
year in round one so what do you do, rip up the hole, no maybe just play it
better."

This continues Millar’s excellent run of results on the PGA
Tour of Australasia in 2015 with six top-10 finishes including a victory at the
Holden NZ PGA Championship.  He is
already looking forward to the Fiji International.

"There are positives, I
played nicely and I guess Fiji will be a bigger version of this golf course, it
will be longer. That will be a good hit out, it is windy there out on the
water," added Millar.

"There are lots of good
things to take I just have to tidy up a couple of things. But I think I am
heading in the right direction."

After starting the final round on even par, Christopher Wood
finished outright third. He fired the equal best round of the tournament a
7-under 64 to finish the South Pacific Open on the same number.

Rounding out the top-5 on 6-under 278 were Matthew Guyatt,
Jason Norris, Michael Wright and 2012 South Pacific Open Champion Brad Shilton.