CORHAMPTON’S Scott Gregory claimed the second biggest title of his amateur career by landing the New South Wales Amateur crown with a narrow one up victory over his England team-mate Marco Penge.

No sooner had the 2016 British Amateur champion claimed the trophy than he was heading for the airport for the long flight back to the UK, touching down at Heathrow on Sunday.

Within 24 hours his mind was already focused on the next two months of his life before he makes the famous drive down Magnolia Lane and tees it up for his debut in the 2017 Masters at Augusta.

Gregory, who admitted he was still struggling to get his body clock back on UK time, said: “Any win is a good win. You can never knock a win.

“It was good to go out to Australia and get one early in the season and hopefully use it as a springboard going forward. It was a real battle in the final. Marco and I traded shots all day.

“I had a bit of a wobble in the middle of the second round, but I holed a couple of crucial putts in the end.

“Augusta might potentially be my next start, this is a good way to go into it really,” he smiled.

Although not in the same league as his British Amateur triumph, Gregory, who has dropped down four places in the World Amateur Rankings to number ten while Down Under in January, was thrilled to win a trophy bearing the name of 2005 US Open winner Michael Campbell, who won the New South Wales title back in 1992.

After hitting the front on the first hole in the final, Gregory didn’t expect the 36-hole contest to go the distance.

Gregory was four-up after the morning 18 holes, but Penge put Gregory under pressure after lunch. After 27 holes the lead was still four, but Penge made it all square with four to play. With the next two holes halved Gregory went for the flag on 17, with Penge, in the fairway bunker, forced to lay up. When Penge missed his par putt, Gregory needed to find the fairway and green in regulation to force Penge to make birdie to take the match into sudden-death.

Gregory said: “I should’ve been closing it out, but I was playing against a great player in Marco – someone who knows my game very well. I had a couple of things frustrate me mentally and I had to stick in there.

“When it was all square with two to go, I had to win the 17th. I flagged it from 225 yards and thought it was going to be a nice putt for birdie but the ball ended up very close to a drain and I didn’t think it was right to take a drop as it did not interfere with my stance. I am a bit superstitious and I don’t think I would have holed the par putt from 15ft otherwise.”

Victory in the final meant Gregory became the fourth English winner of the New South Wales Amateur crown since 2007.