The evening gloom did not deter from the drama at the Bay of Plenty Men's Open Championship with Hayden Beard claiming the title on the first hole of a sudden-death play-off against Rotorua's Peter Lee.
Beard had earlier blown the Whakatane tournament apart with a course record 61 in the second round to take a four-shot lead into the final 36 holes on Sunday. The Mount Maunganui player, having completed his university degree in 2012, has taken a gap year from his studies to work on his golf.
With this victory, his first in a highly ranked 72-hole tournament, he has shown the Bay of Plenty selectors what he is capable of.
Beard endured a slow first round on Friday after a late tee time and started the tournament with a one-under 69 in tricky wind conditions and on extremely slick greens.
However he took full advantage of an early start on Saturday and commenced his round with an eagle 3 on the first, par on the second then an eagle on the short par-four third by driving the green and binning the putt. He kept his round together and was nine-under on the 15th tee and was a real threat to shoot a sub 60 round but for two lip-out putts.
Having beaten the previous course record of 62, Beard was paired with his nearest rivals, Otago No1 Brent McEwan and Bay No1-ranked player Peter Lee for the final two rounds.
Lee immediately made inroads into Beard's lead with birdies on the first three holes and although Beard could not make the birdie putts, he made several miraculous par saves to retain his position on the leaderboard.
As McEwan battled to maintain his momentum, the final round started with Beard at 11-under and Lee on 10-under. The two Bay players had a ding-dong battle, swapping birdies and bogeys as the lead changed several times.
The ninth hole provided major drama when Lee, who is renowned for his driving accuracy, had his tee shot take a nasty bounce to finish two centimetres out of bounds.
A double bogey 6 gave Beard a two-shot lead going into the final nine holes, however Lee immediately put the pressure back on with birdies on 10 and 12 to square it up. Lee failed to get up and down on the par-three 14th and the lead went back to Beard.
Beard backed that up with a birdie on the 16th after a superb shot into the green left him a 1.5m putt for birdie. He made the putt and it looked all over for Lee going to the 17th two down again.
The 17th at Whakatane is known as one of the toughest par-fours in the Bay. Beard failed to get up and down and made bogey whilst Lee missed a makeable birdie putt to tie it up again but did reduce the lead back to one going to the 18th tee.
More drama was to follow as Beard's ball ended up behind a tree, meaning he had to chip sideways just to get back into play. Lee hit his approach shot about a metre long and it hung up in the back fringe, leaving a very delicate chip to the back pin position. Beard failed to get up and down and Lee played a superb shot to make par and tie things up.
The sudden death play-off meant the players went back to the 18th tee. Both hit superb drives and Lee was first to play into the green but this time he put too much spin on the ball and he left himself a tricky 4-metre putt for birdie.
Beard hit a superb approach shot which finished 2.5m above the pin.
Lee just missed with his birdie attempt but Beard was not to be denied and he found the centre of the cup with his slippery downhill putt to claim his first major tournament victory.
Beard was thrilled to have won the tournament after getting through a challenging final round and a nerve-racking play-off.
"My form was pretty good coming into the Open. I had a couple of months off and then last week at the Waikato Winter Strokeplay I played pretty solid and finished five-under there and carried it through into this tournament. Hopefully I can keep it going at the Cambridge Classic next week and then the North Harbour Classic the week after."
The ladies' draw did not have the same drama but the top New Zealand players put on a great show, especially Wen Yung Keh who fired a four-under 69 on Sunday morning to establish an unassailable lead going into the final round. Last year at the New Zealand Amateur at Mount Maunganui she played second fiddle to her older sister Munchin but at Whakatane, she finished 10 ahead of her sibling and five clear of runner-up Sai Ma from North Shore.
Best of the local girls were Grace Senior and Tyla Kingi. Kingi looked back to her best before taking a 9 on the short par-four second hole in her second round.
Special mention should be made to Waihi's Carol Leary, the oldest player to make the cut, who left a lot of more fancied players in her wake.