Goggin took an incredibly circuitous route to his first win as a “senior” golfer, capped by a stunning final-hole birdie to reach 13 under and see off Peter Lonard and Leon Trenerry.

The Tasmanian has long been regarded as one of Australia’s most complete players, and his resumé includes his lofty position at tied seventh for career victories on what is now the Korn Ferry (secondary American) Tour.

But Goggin, 51, who admittedly hasn’t been full-time on a tour for almost a decade, strangely hasn’t tasted tournament success since 2015.

He birdied the first hole to immediately erase overnight leader and great mate Dave McKenzie’s advantage.

Then by the time he nailed his fourth birdie on the seventh hole, he’d established a handy lead, particularly over his final-group rivals, including Trenerry, who found himself four shots adrift.

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Ahead, Peter Lonard and Mark Boulton remained in touch, but heading into the back nine, appeared to be playing for second place with Goggin’s driver seemingly on “laser” setting.

Then the unthinkable happened.

He actually drove his ball over the par-4 10th green, but found deep rough and took an unexpected bogey.

He then carved his drive into the wilds right of the long 11th hole, took a penalty drop and then hooked his third into the penalty areas way left of the green.

As it turned out, his crazy scrambled bogey proved decisive.

But in that moment, Boulton and Lonard roared past, McKenzie inched closer, and Trenerry – who hadn’t managed to get any of his previous key putts to the hole – suddenly knocked in birdies on 10 and 11, then chipped in for eagle on 14 to explode clear.

Lonard remained in the hunt throughout and was clubhouse leader when he holed a clutch par putt on the last hole.

Boulton made five birdies in 12 holes mid-round and was joint leader on the final tee, but blocked his drive right, then pulled his approach into the weeds left of the green en route to a gut-wrenching triple-bogey.

McKenzie, who put in a stellar defence of his 2024 title, played the back nine two under, but couldn’t find that magical moment when required.

And when Goggin couldn’t believe his tee shot to the par-3 16th went long and induced a bogey, the trophy suddenly seemed headed to Trenerry, a former Sunshine Tour player in his native South Africa, but now a Legends Tour rookie who works at Brisbane’s Oxley Golf Club.

But Trenerry pulled his drive left on the uphill 17th and couldn’t recover in time to avoid a bogey.

And Goggin summoned something special with a monumental – and likely angry – drive that went almost 340m to the foot of the slope that protects the front of the green.

His subsequent birdie eradicated his two-shot deficit in a heartbeat, but still the drama hadn’t finished.

He missed his drive left of the 18th fairway and had to play arguably the shot of the tournament from a hanging lie, over a huge tree and from the first cut of rough.

But a mesmerised gallery couldn’t believe his 9-iron approach from 152m, which almost landed in the hole and trickled out to 4m.

Trenerry had one last shot with his birdie try from the fringe, but when he missed, Goggin calmly rolled in his birdie putt and pumped his fist to celebrate his drought-breaking triumph.

“I was actually filthy about making that bogey on 16 – I couldn’t believe that finished so long,” said Goggin, who splits his time between family, business pursuits and golf in both the USA and his home base in Hobart.

“So I just swung pretty hard at the drive on 17 and Leon sort of let me back into it a bit (with his bogey).

“It changes so quickly, you can be cruising and one thing goes wrong when another guy does something good and it swings really fast – it obviously did it a couple of times today.

“But yeah, I thought I had to make a couple of birdies to have a chance for a playoff, but it turned out to be enough.”

It was redemption of sorts for Goggin, who watched McKenzie thrive late last year when he took bogeys on 16 and 17 as his mate sailed past.

“You don’t really think of that at the time, but I guess it’s nice to put it right a little bit,” said Goggin, whose ball-striking remains elite.

“I still feel like if I play well, I should win tournaments, but it hasn’t happened for a long time.

“I haven’t played well in tournaments I’ve got into in America, so it has been frustrating.

“Physically, my game’s good enough to play anywhere; it’s just doing it. There’s a big difference between being able to do it and actually doing it.

“But yeah, last year I had to sit and watch Dave celebrate because we were staying together at his house, so this year he can maybe buy me a wine,” he joked.