Herbert closed with a final round two-under-par 69 to claw back a four-shot deficit and hold off fast-finishing American Patrick Reed by a stroke.

The 25-year-old's victory comes just four months after he also won the Irish Open and then finished a shot behind at the Scottish Open the following week to surge into the world's top-50 for the first time.

Herbert mixed four birdies with two bogeys on Sunday to post a 15-under 72-hole total as unheralded Canadian third-round leader Taylor Penrith crashed with a horror five-over 76.

“It was a tricky one. You sort of had to be a little bit fluid with it depending on the conditions. I think early it was probably favourable to do some scoring,” Herbert said. “I think once we got to about six or seven, that was when the wind really picked up.

An emotional Herbert with his physio, Luke Thomas, after claiming the win. PHOTO: Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images.

“From then on it was probably more of a survival mode, just try and get yourself into position off the tee and in the fairway hopefully and in the middle of the greens and just, you know, try not to put too much pressure on the short game because, yeah, it was just obviously not easy out there.

“So I knew I was going to have to get help from Taylor be able to win, and thankfully for me he struggled a bit out there and I was able to take advantage of that.”

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Reed reeled off four birdies in the last six holes in a six-under 65 to share second spot with New Zealand's Danny Lee, who couldn't manage better than even par in his final round.

Earning a PGA Tour card via the Korn Kerry Finals last year, Herbert's breakthrough win comes in just his 19th career start on the PGA Tour. And fresh after making an SOS call to coach Dom Azzopardi to head over to America from Queensland recently as he stuggled with his game.

“My first two wins on the European Tour, Dom wasn't here, so to sort of experience a win with him here. Especially we missed the past two cuts before this in a row, my game was really, really struggling and I decided to call in and get him out over here,” Herbert said.

“By the time it looked a bit dicey trying to get him back into Australia once we got him out, so for him to make that commitment to come out and help me out a lot with my golf swing, we hit a lot of balls over the last two or three weeks getting ready for this event. To have it pay off so quickly and to share that win with him, that was really special.”

The victory has secured Herbert a place in next year's Masters field at Augusta National and a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour.

“The next 12 months are going to be really cool. I've never played Augusta, so being able to play the Masters is going to be pretty cool.

“We just talked about Kapalua, getting to play in a few of these events that I've watched growing up on TV, it's just going to be a cool experience. No matter how I play, it's just going to be phenomenal to play in those tournaments. It's going to be lots of fun.

“I don't even want to try to put expectations on anything right now. Too easy when you win to think you're never going to not win again. So I think the next few days we'll sit back and think and celebrate and then, yeah, reset some plans going forward as to what our goals are going to be and how we want to play in some of these awesome tournaments that we're going to get into.”

- Additional reporting by Jimmy Emanuel