With the first four holes squared, the players headed to the fifth tee knowing the winner would pick up $500 and go a long way towards winning the event.

All four professionals - Kennedy, Tony White, Larry Canning and Kevin Kenny - drove to within 135-metres of the hole and it was basically a one-shot shootout for the loot.

The pros all lined up behind their balls, each of them faced with almost the same shot.

On his home course, White hit first but pulled his ball into the bunker to the left of the green.

In front of an dedicated but damp crowd, Kennedy stepped up and flew a short iron to within a flagstick’s length from the hole, turning up the heat on the remaining two players.

Kenny shot long and ended up on a path at the back of the green while Canning misjudged the shot and left his ball just short of the green.

Kennedy won the hole, backed it up with a win on the sixth and was never headed.

After the round, he said the fifth hole was crucial to the win.

“I played very poorly for the first four holes but then hit two very good shots on the fifth,” he said.

“I was lucky that it was worth five skins - it was the right hole to win that’s for sure.”

With Kennedy up by $600 heading into the seventh, Canning and Kenny started to lift their game.

Canning claimed the seventh while Kenny took the eighth and a $200 jackpot on the 10th to start a run.

But Canning hit back with a win on the 11th, before Kennedy sealed the win by taking the 12th.

Kenny took the 13th before Canning won the 14th, 15th and 16th to move to within $200 of Kennedy with two holes to play.

The 17th and 18th were tied, with White winning a shootout from the 100m mark to take the final $200 on offer.

Canning won the longest drive competition on the 18th to claim another $500.

After the event, each of the golfers said the wet conditions and tricky greens made the course challenging.