Matthew Ford put in a battling performance in ferocious winds to win the Brooks Brothers 2008 Classic at Five Lakes in Colchester.
Ford (Marriott Tudor Park) led the IvoBank PGA Europro Tour event by one shot overnight at seven under from playing partner Alan Murray (Greystones GC) but his slender lead didn't last long and after four holes, the pair had swapped places - Ford bogeying the second and third, Murray birdieing the fourth to go two shots clear.
After Ford bogeyed 12, Murray was two clear but from the 13th the tide shifted towards Ford. The 2004 PGA Assistants champion birdied that hole with another at 17 while Murray fell away with bogeys at 14, 17 and 18 in the trying conditions to fall to five under, eventually finishing three shots behind the winner in a share of second place with Jacques Blaauw.
"It hasn't sunk in really," said Ford, whose first win on the Europro Tour earned him the £10,000 first prize. "I've been working on achieving this win for a while and as much of a cliché as it sounds it was really a case of taking it one shot at a time.
"The conditions were unbelievably tough - you had to aim about 30 yards right on your shots with the winds and putting was very difficult," said the 30 year-old.
"We were seesawing a bit throughout the day and I think I might have suffered a bit from nerves but I finished nicely and I felt like it was my time out there."
This time last year, the Maidstone man lost in a play-off to Elliot Saltman at Stonebridge and he highlighted the good timing of his first ever win on the Europro Tour with just two events left.
"It's really important to play well at the business end of the year - I move up the Order of Merit and one more good finish should see me in the top five so if I keep it going I'm in good shape," said Ford, who is now in fifth spot in the Order of Merit with £17,937.76.
Blaauw put the leaders under immense pressure after going through the first seven holes level - holing his second shot at the par four eight from 160 yards then birdieing the ninth and tenth holes to move to seven under.
Back to back bogeys at 12 and 13 halted his run though, and although he registered a birdie at 15, he dropped another shot at 17 to card 69 to follow 70 and 69 for a five under tournament of 208.
Matthew Richardson and Francis McGuirk finished tied in fourth spot at four under (209) with Tom Haylock and James McLean sharing sixth place at two under par (211) and Alistair Presnell eighth at one under (212).
The Ivobank PGA Europro Tour heads over to La Cala in Spain for the Ladbrokes Masters on September 23, the final event before the Tour Championships at Les Bordes in France.