Isaac Molloy and Melanie Cramp win the 2023 City of Wagga Open

The 18-year-old backed up last year's club championships at Wagga Country Club with his first City of Wagga Open victory on Sunday.

Molloy fired an opening round 66 on Saturday to establish a three-shot lead before holding off his rivals and some final hole jitters to win by one.

"It's a pretty good achievement," Molloy said.

"I was pretty happy, there was a few other players from other clubs that came as well, which strengthens the field, so to still be able to come away with the win with a stronger field compared to say the club champs is pretty pleasing."

Molloy backed up Saturday's 66 with a final round 75 to score by one from former Wagga City Golf Club champion Josh Evers.

Former Country Club champion Kurt Pideski was close up in third place.

Both Evers and Pideski piled on the pressure on Molloy in Sunday's back nine. The youngster suffered a double bogey on the par three 14^th before also finishing with a bogey.

MORE SPORT NEWS

"I never thought that I would get too flustered by the nerves but you actually do," Molloy conceded.

"In the second round I played like an absolute dog but anyway.

"I've played a fair bit of golf with Josh through COVID and he's quite the competitor. Kurt got quite close there at one stage as well. It was definitely a dog fight at the end."

While Molloy has his club championships defence coming up amongst other golf events, the talented teen is hoping to make a move to the United States next year through a college golfing scholarship.

"At the moment I'm in the process of looking at a few colleges over in the states, which is pretty exciting," he said.

"If that all goes ahead, it should be pretty good.

"I'm talking to a few coaches and I've got a scout, who is the intermediate and helping me out with it. It's been good.

"It's a once in a lifetime experience."

Meantime, Melanie Cramp grabbed victory in the women's division after a strong opening round effort, where she opened up a seven-shot buffer.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: