Hazell went into Sunday's last round with a commanding six-shot buffer after he carded 75 in Saturday's third round, with Russell scoring 77.

But Russell produced the best golf of his life on the final day with a two-under par 70 to finish on 302 overall, with Hazell's 75 enough to hold on by he barest of margins.

It's the second title in four years for Hazell after he ended a series of near misses in 2017.

Hazell said he feared he would have to at least negotiate a playoff to try and seal victory after Russell birdied the final hole.

Russell nailed his birdie putt from around 15 feet, but Hazell's chip shot from just off the green settled close to the hole to hand him an easy par attempt to seal the victory.

"Heath played very well and put the pressure on me, but it's nothing out of the ordinary for him," Hazell said.

"I didn't realise, I thought he had me actually. But it turned out was two up coming into the last hole and a par was good enough.

"I thought he might have forced it into a playoff at least, I wasn't confident.

"That was the first time he'd broken par, so good on him."

Hazell said his driving game was average throughout the tournament, crediting his work on and around the greens for getting the job done.

"The only thing that saved me was definitely my short game. My chipping and putting kept me in it for sure, particularly today (Sunday)," he said.

"I didn't hit many fairways yesterday and today was a bit better, but there was a fair bit of scrambling."

Hazell said conditions were far better on Sunday after players had to deal with stifling heat on Saturday.

"It was a bit more comfortable playing out there today with some cloud cover. We just joked around had a bit of fun, we didn't treat it too serious."

Wagga City Club professional Tim Barlow said the tournament was a big success.

The course sold itself and was in good condition. There was some pretty good scores for this course I feel," he said.

"For Heat to shoot two-under in the last round is a big effort.

"I've been here for six years and that's one of the closest tournaments we've had.

"Mick won his first one in 2017 in a playoff, and we didn't have the club championships last year."

A total of 84 players took part in the event this year, with last year's event not held due to an upgrade of the course's greens.

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