Simon Hawkes has won the first ever Ladbrokes Pro-Am Series event on King Island with a one-shot victory over Thomas Burt.

The opening round of the 36-hole pro-am was played on the #3 ranked course in Australia, Cape Wickham which has only been open for just over two years, the course is set underneath the Cape Wickham Lighthouse on the North West Coast of the island.

Vocational professionals from across Australia joined their club members for the first Air Adventure event, a charter plane tour company.

Breathless conditions greeted players and the course was stunning for its maiden professional tournament.

Hawkes finished his opening round with 6-under 66 to lead by three heading into the second round which presented drastically different conditions at Ocean Dunes King Island course.

The wind bellowed around 40 kilometres per hour and proved a true test of links golf.

Scottish ex-pat Jody Addison relished the conditions to shoot the equal low round of the day, 5-over 77

Tom Burt kept the pressure on Hawkes and tied Addison for the round of the day with to finish the tournament at 2-over 146 in clear second place.

Hawkes battled the tough conditions all day but his class showed at the end.  His round of 7-over 79, not his best but considering the conditions was excellent.

It was a huge effort from Hawkes who left Kalgoorlie on Monday afternoon at 3:00pm following a third place in the TX Civil & Logistics WA PGA Championship, drove to Perth, caught the redeye to Melbourne and changed airports to Essendon before flying onto King Island.

“I have always wanted to come here, so I was never going to miss this event,” said Hawkes.

“It’s fantastic for our state (Tasmania) to have four of the best golf courses in the country and these two are simply awesome.”

“The Air Adventure team did an unbelievable job pulling this event together and have 100 people visiting King Island, experiencing these two world-class courses has been a great experience for the PGA to be involved in,” said Vic/Tas/SA PGA Tournament Coordinator Heath McLeod.

“The two courses here on King Island (Cape Wickham and Ocean Dunes) have their own very distinct signature and should be a must play on every golfer’s bucket list.

“We look forward to coming back next year; this event will be one the sort after events on our schedule and sure to attract a capacity field again.”