But that is exactly what the Duntryleague member did on his home course when he shot -1 over the two days, including a personal best -2 68 on the Saturday.

"I hadn't even contemplated winning, not overall scratch-wise anyway. Possibly handicap-wise I thought I might have had a chance but never even thought about the scratch," he said following his one stroke victory.

He went into the final round tied with Craig Stojanovic after bogeying the 18^th.

He knew going into the 18^th on Sunday that he stood a chance, but a double-bogey to finish left him a little worried.

"I had a brief look at the results before I teed off on the 18th, most of the scores were in because we were one of the last groups off on the Sunday," Thrift said.

"I saw that Wayne Carpenter had 140 which was even, so thought I had three shots up my sleeve going up the last hole, but I hadn't seen what Craig had had on the Sunday, so I wasn't sure how I was standing compared to him. But it worked out that I was one in front.

"I saw the scoreboard when I got in and people started saying to me 'I think you've won', which I couldn't believe."

Asked what went right in securing the "biggest thing" he'd ever won, Thrift simply said "everything."

"I drove the ball really good, I was hitting greens regularly and giving myself plenty of chances for birdies," he added.

"The putter was probably my weakest part of my game. I think I had 26 putts on Saturday and similar on Sunday. The conditions, it was pretty wet under foot and that probably helped because the ball wasn't running as far so you weren't getting into trouble too much.

"Whenever I did get into trouble I managed to either salvage the hole with a par or minimise the mistake with a bogey."

The Orange golfer beat out fellow city compatriots Wayne Carpenter (second) and Stojanovic (third).

The B grade scratch winner was Michael Campbell, while Wentworth's Ian Forrester won in C grade.

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