Herman claims Moonah Classic

another shot at the 4th to increase his lead, with Herman dropping a shot at the 5th hole.

But Herman responded immediately with a birdie at the next hole and when he added another at the 9th he was back within a stroke, with the margin staying at one shot until Kirk finally holed another birdie putt at the 14th after several near misses.

Kirk made it successive birdies when he repeated the effort at 15 but Herman matched him to stay in touch and after going 34 holes without any blemishes Kirk's consecutive bogeys at 16 and 17 brought Herman back into it.

Colombian Manny Villegas also carded a 67 that included six birdies to claim outright sixth place on minus eight, one clear of Australian Andrew Dodt (70), who backed up his second at the NZ Open with another top-10 finish and two ahead of Americans Jeff Brehaut (68) and Martin Piller (68).

The top 10 was rounded out by Victorians Steve Allan (67) and Steve Jones (71), Americans Trevor Murphy (67) and Jin Park (67) and Kiwi Martin Hendry at five under, with Hendry's 66 including a hole in one at the par-three 5th.

Defending champion Alistair Presnell (73) had a disappointing final round and shared 15th place on minus four with fellow Aussies Scott Laycock (72) and Anthony Brown (72), Americans Scott Stallings (71) and Doug LaBelle (72) and Canadian David Hearn, another who shot 66.