If there's a reputation you want as a pro golfer, it's that of a winner.
And it's the exact one Jarryd Felton is building as he storms into the world's top 400 for the first time.
The Golf Australia rookie pro yesterday won a thrilling three-way playoff in the New Zealand PGA Championship at the Manawatu Golf Club on the North Island.
Remarkably, since turning pro before the 2015 Fiji International, Felton, 21, has won twice on the ISPS Handa PGA Tour of Australasia – including the 2015 NSW PGA – and finished top five on three other occasions.
"The hard work is really starting to pay off for Jarryd," Golf Australia high performance director Brad James said after Felton beat Victorian Josh Younger and Kiwi Ben Campbell on Sunday.
"He's had great success throughout his young career – firstly in amateur ranks and now already at the professional level.
"Winning wherever he has gone is a great sign of what's ahead on his journey as long as he continues to work hard."
Felton described his victory – sealed with a birdie on the first playoff hole – as "high on the list" of his most important.
"I’ve had a lot of things going on mentally the last few months so to win is really good," said Felton who's now exempt on the Australasian Tour through 2018.
"Obviously we’re trying to keep our job at the end of the year, I finished really well in the money list last year, 18th I think on the Order of Merit, so I got a pretty good exemption category this year.
"Now I can kind of, not necessarily relax, but if I don’t play too well I’ve still got exemption all of next year."
The West Australian's 14-under total included a couple of double-bogeys earlier in the week, but his rounds of 67-68-68-67 showcased his form.
"I came in to the week not feeling so confident but the more rounds I played around this course, I started to grow in confidence and to win is a great feeling," he said.
"I didn’t get too far ahead of myself; I could’ve had some really good scores the first two days but lost a couple of balls up trees early.
"But I didn’t let it affect me because I knew there were a lot of other people walking back to tees.
"I just kept playing my game. I knew there was plenty of birdies out here as shown by the scores so I was able to keep it going."
The Australasian Tour heads to the South Island this week for the New Zealand Open at Millbrook Resort, near Queenstown.