Despite the putter shaking in his hands as he stood over a 90cm-long putt on the 72nd hole to close out a one-shot victory, Barron found the bottom of the cup and let out a roar as he finally cashed in after a number of close calls.

The West Australian, who celebrates his 30th birthday next week and spent some months away from the game in 2025 due to illness and injury, finished at 22-under-par thanks to a final round of 2-under-par 69 in the windiest conditions of the week on the Cobram-Barooga Golf Club’s Old Course.

New Zealander Zheng flashed home with a 65 while James Marchesani (66) and Declan O’Donovan (71) shared third spot at 19-under-par.

Barron’s near-misses since turning professional four years ago have included three runner-up finishes, but he made sure this one didn’t become number four by closing with three straight pars after Zheng had set the clubhouse target.

“I kind of just tried to look up at the hole, look back down my putter and just take it away and I just saw the putter head shake side to side,” Barron said of his winning putt.

“It's funny, I've had that a few times. Getting through Q School, I had that as well and somehow always seemed to manage to find the middle. It was just looking longer and longer.”

After starting the final round five shots back, Zheng stormed into the outright lead with five birdies in his opening seven holes, while Barron bogeyed the second and third.

Birdies on the sixth and eighth steadied the West Australian who then chipped in for a birdie on the par-5 10th hole before holing from long range for a three on the par-4 13th.

The win lifts the former Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Rookie of the Year to fifth on the 2025/26 Order of Merit, but he’s going to stand by his decision to sit out the next two events to have a break before the New Zealand Open and ISPS HANDA Japan-Australasia Championship.

“I think I've been going well all year really,” he said.

“I've been up there with plenty of top five and top tens and just kind of really feel like I was ready to elevate myself to I guess the winner’s circle. I'm just so happy with it.”

Barron said previous experience earlier this season when he wasn’t able to prevent Matias Sanchez from winning Webex Players Series South Australia helped him today.

“I just got off to a horrible start. It might've been three or four over and it's been a little bit of a trend," he said of his final day at Willunga in October.

“I think I was actually pretty happy with how I played those first few holes and I just didn't quite pick the wind correctly.

“I played, in my mind, close to a bogey-free round today in terms of the shots I was trying to hit. But yeah, just really happy with the way that I finished.”

Vic Open women’s champion Lydia Hall closed with the low round on Sunday, a 7-under-par 64, to sit alongside the men’s Order of Merit leader, Cam John (70), in a share of sixth.

PLUS...

Australia still suits Lydia Hall

There is a certain ease about Lydia Hall when she’s in Australia. The way she talks about the place, how she moves through tournaments here, how her golf seems to rise, as we saw during her impressive triumph at the Vic Open.

In the All Abilities competition, PGA Associate Tom Ryan (70-69) secured a nine-shot victory over young amateur Noah Schammer from Curlewis Golf Club. The win capped a memorable weekend for Ryan who finished runner-up behind the home club’s Jordan Bovalina in the Australian Long Drive event on Saturday night.

The Webex Players Series Murray River juniors title went to 13-year-old Fuyu Yang, who finished with a 36-hole total of 1-under-par, backing up her opening 67 with a 74 today.