The 46-year-old was familiar with runner-up territory, having fallen just short of the club’s highest individual honour “seven or eight” times over the past 25 years.

But he showed nerves of steel after a shaky start in the final round of the championships to steady, recovering to post a seven-shot win over Nathan Robinson, while Alistair Gillin finished third.

“I bogeyed the first three holes – I started with a five-shot lead and that brought it back to a two-shot lead,” Fary said.

“They were going sideways the first three holes; I didn’t know what was going to happen.

“But then I was fairly steady after that and I eagled the eighth and got a couple of shots back there.

“I was four in front after the nine holes, and then when Nathan got into trouble on the 12th, that’s when I sort of skipped ahead of him then.”

Fary shot scores of 72, 77, 71 and 72 across the championship’s four rounds.

The Warrnambool-based golfer said it was a relief to finally hold the trophy aloft after coming close on so many occasions, most recently last year.

“I was probably owed one from last year when the weather turned really bad and (I had) a bit of bad luck on the 18th,” he said.

“I’ve had a lot of runners-up, so it’s good to finally get a win. I just putted pretty well, I think. I didn’t hit it very well off the tee, but I didn’t get in much trouble, so I got away with it a bit.”