Queenslander Norris became the first person to complete the NSW Open-Senior Open double – and did so in style with a grandstand final-hole birdie.

His closing round of two-under-par 70 would normally be nothing to write home about.

But given that he’d begun the third and final day with a four-stroke lead, the score itself does not tell the story.

Norris was still three up when he made a two-putt birdie on the seventh, but began to show signs of nerves when he drove out of bounds on the ninth and endured a double-bogey.

By the time Norris nervously took three shots from the front of the short 12th for another bogey, 2024 champion McKenzie had drawn level as their playing partner Matt Millar (71) fell by the wayside.

McKenzie then had chances to take the lead outright with birdie putts on 13 and 15, split by an eagle chance on 14, all narrowly missing.

 But Norris, having hit two nervy driving irons in the preceding half-hour, stepped to the tee of the difficult par-3 16th and struck a laser inside 1m to steady the ship and regain the lead.

McKenzie answered with a quality birdie of his own up the 17th, leaving Norris exactly where he’d been four years earlier – tied for the lead on the final tee and in an effective match play situation.

On that day, Norris suffered a brutal triple-bogey to hand the crown to Richard Green.

So how would he handle the moment at his second opportunity?

McKenzie heaped the pressure on, drilling a 3-wood down the middle.

But Norris kept faith in his driving iron and followed suit, passing his mate by 12m.

McKenzie tugged his drive to the fringe at front left of the green, leaving Norris to nip a tidy 129m approach to about 20 feet and firmly with the upper hand.

The Victorian lagged down to five feet right of the cup, clearing the stage for the storybook finale.

And Norris duly delivered.

He rammed in his birdie putt – it was travelling when it fell – and thrust his clenched fist to the sky as the huge gallery roared its approval.

The moment was extremely cathartic for Norris, who had tears in his eyes as he revealed thoughts of his seriously ill mother Lynn had inspired his late revival.

 “It hasn’t been easy at home lately, (but) when I was back to (sharing the) lead, I thought, you know, Mum would love for me to do well, and that's what I used,” said an emotional Norris, who also was glad to bury his 2022 disaster.

“That's always in the memory, isn't it? One thing my psychologist said is you've got to acknowledge the past to move past it.

“So I did exactly that. I thought, 'This is what I want to do,’ and then did it.

“I hit a pretty good 3-iron and not a bad 9-iron in, but the odds of that putt to go in when you really wanted it to – and I smashed it, so it was gonna be a good six foot past – and for it to go in, it's doubly as good.

“It's awesome. That’s the stuff you dream of on the last hole to win a tournament is rare. You don't get many of them, and… those crowds were awesome – it felt like I was back at the Aussie Open last year, with Rory (McIlroy) in front of me.”

Remarkably, it was the third successive year that the NSW Senior Open champion had been determined by a final-hole birdie (Mat Goggin last year and McKenzie in 2024).

Norris’ birdie capped a rollercoaster round of 70 that vaulted him to 13 under, one clear of McKenzie, whose second successive 67 was full of merit and without much luck on the greens as he followed his win in 2024 and fourth last year with another runner-up finish.

“Yeah, I’m a bit of a Thurgoona specialist,” the affable Melburnian said.

“It was a task (to catch Norris today), he had to give us a bit of leeway, which he did there for a couple of holes.

“I probably struck it as well the last couple of days as I have in a long time, but I just didn’t make a couple of putts when I needed to.

 “But Jase was great – and what a way to finish!”

Millar fought off pain from a nagging back injury – and an uncustomarily cold putter – to finish third at eight under, one clear of Murray Lott, who shared the day’s best round with McKenzie.

Chris Campbell fired a closing 69 to finish three under and leading amateur.