Doctor Robert Vallis overturned a three-shot deficit to claim his sixth Bermuda Amateur Strokeplay Championship at Port Royal yesterday, pipping talented university student William Haddrell by a single shot in a tight finale.

Vallis finished eight over par for the tournament (292) having carded a two-under-par 69 in his final round ? comfortably his best effort of the four days ? followed by Haddrell on nine over and then David Smith who finished a further three shots back on plus 12.

In the women?s competition, overnight leader Ebonie Burgess finished 19 over par (232) thanks to a final round score of 77 ? her third consecutive round under 80 ? winning the title by a massive 17 shots from her nearest rival and defending champion Laura Robinson.

As well and as relentlessly as Vallis played, meanwhile, the story of the day was undoubtedly the spectacular mental meltdown of third round leader Smith, who looked to be on course for victory when two strokes up on Vallis and three on Haddrell with only four holes to play.

But on the par-four 15, the youngster?s day went cruelly wrong.

Slicing his tee shot into the thick rough on the right-hand side ? which also happened to be a steep downslope ? rather than play it safe and chip back onto the fairway Smith went for broke and hammered his second shot way left, with the ball coming to rest in yet more thick rough beside the 16th tee box.

Forced to take a drop and clearly demoralised, he then stuck his fourth shot over the green and into a bunker, from where it took him three more shots to finish the hole ? resulting in a triple bogey seven and the end of his title ambitions.

To rub salt into the wounds, Vallis birdied the same hole to pull away into a two-shot lead, and though he was pushed very close by the big-driving Haddrell ? who birdied the 17th to cut the lead to one and missed his birdie putt on the last by a matter of millimetres ? the doctor?s experience, consistency and mental toughness under pressure enabled him to hang on at the death with two consecutive pars.

Afterwards, Vallis said he knew he had to shoot under par to win ? particularly after such a disastrous third round on Saturday when he surrendered a commanding six-shot lead with an unusually sloppy 81.

?My target for the day was either a 68 or a 69 so despite a slow start, where I three-putted from about 20 feet on the first, I?m really pleased with the way I played, particularly on the back nine,? he said.

?Coming from behind like I did is never easy and I was hoping that those two would concentrate on playing each other, allowing me to relax and take care of what I had to do.

?Even still I thought David had it won. He?d been scrambling to get up and down through most of the round, and I guess when you?re playing like that there is going to come a time when it doesn?t go right. But I?ve been in these situations many times before and I think that helped me today.?

Reflecting on her win, meanwhile, Burgess dedicated it to her brother who died in February ? a bereavement which has kept her largely away from the golf course since then and made her emphatic win all the more impressive.

?I?m obviously happy that I won, though I still think I could have played better,? she said.

?I thought I hit the ball pretty solidly and considering I haven?t played a full 18 holes of golf since November, I?ve got to be pretty pleased.?