“There was a lot of wind this week, particularly cross winds and I love that, because I can make use of the wind, hold it up and use it to my advantage.”

Rice began the day three shots ahead of nearest rival Moriarty and got off to a flying start with birdies at the first, second, third and fourth.

He stretched his lead to six but couldn’t maintain his momentum and Moriarty gradually started to claw back the deficit.

Moriarty produced a stunning eagle at the par five 13th to reduce the gap to just two shots but he never managed to draw level and a bogey at the par three 17th, after he found a bunker off the tee, effectively ended his challenge.

“I kind of felt that after three or four holes ‘right, that makes things less difficult’ but I stopped, I eased up a bit and that was a bad mistake,” added Rice, who had never previously won a PGA in Ireland event.

“Colm is too good a golfer to do that. He hit some great shots coming in and got that eagle.

“At 16 he hit another super shot and if he had holed that I would have had to hole mine just to stay one ahead. If he had holed that putt I think it would have been very difficult.”

This year’s event was sponsored by Moyvalley Hotel & Twin Oaks Golf Resort with affiliated sponsors Thai Airways, Phoenix Gold Golf & Country Club, Pattaya Thailand, Pico Environment Technology Ireland and Bank of Bangkok.