Englishman Richard Finch claimed his first European Tour title 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."

Collated final-round scores (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):

274 Richard Finch 73 65 64 72

277 Steven Bowditch (Aus) 69 65 71 72, Paul Sheehan (Aus) 68 67 73 69

278 Matthew Millar (Aus) 72 71 68 67, Alexander Noren (Swe) 76 69 67 66, Craig Parry (Aus) 68 74 70 66, Steven Jeffress (Aus) 71 68 72 67

279 Peter Fowler (Aus) 69 75 62 73

280 Matthew Zions (Aus) 72 73 66 69, Oliver Fisher 70 69 72 69

281 Robert Dinwiddie 72 72 66 71

282 Adam Bland (Aus) 71 74 67 70, Gary Simpson (Aus) 69 69 76 68, Michael Curtain (Aus) 71 70 70 71, Josh Geary (Nzl) 75 67 70 70

283 Gareth Paddison (Nzl) 70 72 71 70, Rick Kulacz (Aus) 71 69 68 75, Matt Ballard (Aus) 72 70 70 71, Kyron Sullivan 72 68 69 74, Anthony Brown (Aus) 71 70 72 70, Andrew Tschudin (Aus) 70 71 70 72, Scott Gardiner (Aus) 72 72 67 72

284 Tony Christie (Nzl) 71 73 71 69, Peter Whiteford 70 68 75 71, Ewan Porter (Aus) 72 66 70 76, Marc Leishman (Aus) 69 70 71 74, Bob Charles (Nzl) 75 68 71 70, Doug Holloway (Nzl) 72 71 74 67, Michael Wright (Aus) 71 69 72 72

285 Aaron Townsend (Aus) 74 71 67 73, Shane Baxter (Aus) 71 73 73 68, Anthony Summers (Aus) 73 71 70 71, Terry Pilkadaris (Aus) 77 68 69 71, Dave Horsey 74 70 70 71, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 73 69 73 70

286 Matthew Woods 68 74 73 71, Mahal Pearce (Nzl) 71 70 69 76, Damien McGrane 72 72 69 73, Paul Spargo (Aus) 75 70 71 70, Brendan Stuart (Nzl) 69 73 70 74, Didier De Vooght (Bel) 73 70 72 71

287 Michael Long (Nzl) 69 67 76 75, Jamie Donaldson 70 74 77 66

288 Danny Lee (Nzl) 73 71 75 69, Josh Carmichael (Aus) 77 67 70 74, Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 73 70 72 73, Jamie Little 72 73 71 72, Andrew McKenzie 71 69 72 76, Martin Doyle (Aus) 71 72 78 67, Kim Felton (Aus) 71 73 70 74

289 Daniel Chopra (Swe) 70 71 70 78, Marco Soffietti (Ita) 75 70 73 71, Rodney Booth (Aus) 69 73 72 75, Adam Blyth (Aus) 75 68 73 73

290 Ally Mellor 72 73 71 74, Nick Gillespie (Nzl) 78 67 72 73, Michael Sim (Aus) 69 76 72 73, Ben Wharton (Aus) 70 74 74 72, David Bransdon (Aus) 69 73 75 73

291 Paul Marantz (Aus) 69 76 72 74, Richard Lee (Nzl) 70 71 78 72, Peter Nolan (Aus) 71 74 74 72, Craig Scott (Aus) 75 67 73 76, Steven Jeppesen (Swe) 72 72 73 74, Scott Strange (Aus) 75 70 73 73, Steve Jones (USA) 70 73 76 72

292 Luke Hickmott (Aus) 70 73 75 74, Phil Tataurangi (Nzl) 74 71 68 79

293 Jarrod Moseley (Aus) 73 71 75 74, Terry Price (Aus) 73 71 70 79

294 Ricky Schmidt (Aus) 75 70 75 74, David Hutton 75 69 76 74

296 Lucas Parsons (Aus) 73 71 74 78

297 Lee Hunt (Aus) 76 69 79 73

299 Henry Epstein (Aus) 74 69 74 82