Paddison holds on at Vic PGA

New Zealander Gareth Paddison has survived a horror back nine to narrowly take out the Victorian PGA Championship by one stroke on a dramatic finish at the at the Forest Resort course on Sunday.

Paddison started the final round three shots ahead of his nearest rival and extended his lead at the top with a brilliant start with three early birdies.

But things started to go wrong for the 31-year-old on the back nine and he dropped six shots on his last seven holes – including a triple bogey - to allow the chasing pack to close in.

The only thing that saved Paddison from blowing a victory was a similar meltdown from playing partner James McLean, who triple-bogeyed the final hole to eventually finish in a tie for seventh.

Paddison shot a final round three-over 74 to finish the tournament at seven under, just one-shot clear of Australian Leighton Lyle (69).

Pre-Tournament favourite Andre Stolz (71) was one shot further back in a tie for third alongside Peter O'Malley (66), David McKenzie (66) and Marcus Cain (69).

Paddison will now move on to next week's Queensland PGA Championship full of confidence as he aims to defend the title he won there in 2011.

"It was a real dog fight in the end to cross the finish line I am just glad that I did it and you know you can put it all down to experience I guess, it was really encouraging sign that I can still finish off a tournament," Paddinson said.

"Relief would be the only word to describe how I was feeling at the last, just because of how many shots I had dropped and because it really wasn't a true reflection on how I felt I played, so it was just nice to cross the line."

"At the end of the day a win is a win, you only need to get there by one shot and so it was very satisfying."