Anyone who has followed Steven Bowditch’s career, through this paper and on television, know all about highs and lows.

At just 24 years of age, the Tewantin-Noosa Golf Club product has just about experienced it all in golf – memorable performances as an amateur, a victory as a professional, many missed cuts and a sprinkling of disqualifications.

Yesterday, in the final round of the New Zealand Open, he produced one of those rounds which gives hope that maybe some scoring consistency of the good kind is going to be the pattern of his next couple of seasons at least.

This year had largely been a rotten one for Bowditch until the past four days.

He managed just four top-25 finishes on the US Nationwide Tour to end up in 99th place on the moneylist, well adrift of the money he needed to earn a return to the US PGA Tour – his home for 2006.

A tilt at the Tour qualifying school ended at his first hurdle, but not before he produced a brilliant 64 in the final round.

The 2005 Jacobs Creek Open winner even risked losing his full-time place on the Australasian PGA Tour before arriving in Queenstown, a place renowned for thrills and spills, to play for the Kiwis’ national title.

The TV commentators rated his opening round of three-under-par 69, played in gusty afternoon winds, as the best of the first day even though it wasn’t the lowest score and he had clearly the best performance in the second round, lodging a seven-under-par 65.

Both the third round and yesterday’s final round could have ended miserably for Bowditch, but both times, when a big fadeout loomed as he dropped shots mid-round, he fought back and deservedly finished in a tie for second place.

The cheque for just over $100,000 guarantees his place on the Australasian Tour next year, although that’s not too many events these days.

What counts for more is that he has a new start with new hope that he can build on over the next two weeks – at Coolum for the PGA starting Thursday and the Australian Open the following week.