His par round of 71 had plenty of merit in it and it had to, as he only finished one in front of his brother John, who had the misfortune of losing a ball in the closing stages of his round.

The pair were also part of the Forbes A1 Pennants side which took out the Lachlan Valley Pennants by two shots from the Parkes A1 combination.

At presentations on Sunday evening it was announced that the Lachlan Valley will again be sending sides to the Country Championships to be played over the first weekend in November against other Zones across NSW as well as the ACT.

As well as a teams events, individual competitions will be included and it was felt both the Betland players were a must for selection.

Sunday’s round was a just reward for Steve, who like his brother John, and sister Emma, have spent countless hours on the practise fairway fine tuning their games.

Steve started with bogies on the 1st and 7th holes over the opening nine holes on Sunday which were countered by a birdie at the treacherous par three 4th.

“I three putted at the 7th but went close to a hole in one at the 4th with the ball spinning all the way to hole from the back of the green,” Steve commented.

Another three putts at the short par four 12th saw the only bogey on the back nine before the power game clicked in with birdies at the par five holes, the 13th and 16th.

“This is my first time as winner of the Lachlan Valley which is good as I have working on my game a bit recently.

“Last Sunday was a good lead-up to the weekend of the Centenary of Golf which will have some very good players in attendance,” Steve added.