Birdies give Finch Tour title

Englishman Richard Finch claimed his first European Tour title today with

victory at the New Zealand Open.

Finch, from Hull, who was ahead by three shots going into the final round at

The Hills Golf Club in Queenstown, held the same advantage at the end having led

by six at one stage.

Birdies at the first, third and eighth opened up that gap but three bogeys on

the back nine gave his pursuers hope. However, a 12-foot par putt on the 18th

for a level-par round of 72 proved enough.

His course-record 65 in the second round on Friday put him in contention and

Finch, who only secured his European Tour card in the final event of the 2007

season in Mallorca a few weeks ago, now has his maiden tour title to celebrate.

Finch finished on 14 under par, with Australians Steven Bowditch and Paul

Sheehan tied for second on 11 under.

Two more Aussies, Steven Jeffress and Matthew Millar were in a three-way tie

for fourth with Sweden's Alexander Noren.

England's Oliver Fisher finished in a tie for ninth while Robert Dinwiddie was

11th.

Finch said he took confidence from his three-stroke lead at the start and tried

to build on that advantage - but admitted the pressure started to get to him.

"I felt it was in my hands if I played well," said the 30-year-old.

"I stumbled a bit on the back nine when I started thinking too much about what

I was doing.

"It's the first time I've been in this position and it was difficult to know

how to do it.

"I kept telling myself in the past couple of days not to think about winning.

"I spent too long looking at the leaderboard but it's easy to get a bit lost

with it all.

"I made a couple of mistakes. I was trying to avoid trouble and by doing that

I found other trouble."