Matt Ford carded two rounds of 69 to clinch the Southern Open title at the Drift Gold Club in Surrey.

The Maidstone golfer, who plays out of Cobtree Manor Park, was pushed all the way by Steve Cowle and after 54 holes the pair were level going into the final round.

Ford eventually finished on 18-under par, two shots ahead of Cowle to take the win.

“It was a bit of a battle,” admitted Ford. “I’m very pleased and I’ve played nicely all week.

“I was trying to take it one shot at a time and just trying to stay in the moment rather than getting ahead of myself.

“Those thoughts obviously came into my mind but that was where the battle was, you have to keep those thoughts out of your mind and stay in the present and I managed to do it for the majority of the time.”

Ford managed to seal the win despite a miss-hap on the first hole in the crucial final round.

“I managed to play my partners provisional ball down the first hole which gave me an instant two shot penalty,” he added.

“Obviously as soon as that happened I was thinking ‘What have I done now?’ But I managed to come back from that and stick with it.”