Martin LeMesurier feared he had forgotten how to win - until he tasted European Challenge Tour glory in Italy last week.

The 26-year-old from Blackfield near Southampton held his nerve to win a sudden death play-off for the Tessali Metaponota Open and after pocketing the biggest cheque of his career, close to £14,000, he admitted: "That's removed a few nasty gremlins.

"The win meant everything. I had five second places last year on the EuroPro Tour and while that first win eludes you, there are doubts you can actually do it.

"I would have been happy with any win but you never know you are capable of it until it actually happens. It doesn't matter how well you play. Until you finish on top those doubts remain."

LeMesurier was Hampshire amateur champion back in 1996 when the likes of Richard Bland, Matt Blackey and a fledgling Justin Rose were chasing the county crown.

Now the Brokenhurst Manor clubman is pursuing a single-minded mission to join them on the European Tour.

He has missed out twice at Tour School but two or three more good results on the Challenge Tour between now and September, and LeMes, as he is known by his mates, will finish high enough in the Challenge Tour rankings (in the top 15) to avoid the ordeal of having to go back to Tour School again.

In Italy LeMesurier produced four quality rounds of 68 66 69 and 70 to go into the play-off with Sam Walker and the Swiss player Andre Bossert.

He said: "I didn't play that well in the final round and made a couple of mistakes, but I made a ten foot birdie putt at the last green when it mattered."

He got lucky in the play-off when Walker missed a short putt at the first extra hole and Bossert twice strayed into the water down the second. "I was happy to find the green and have a few putts for the victory," he smiled.

It got even better for the youngster on Sunday when he finished in a tie for second place in the Izki Challenge in Spain, to move up into the top five in the Challenge Tour rankings.

It's all coming up roses and no one can deny LeMesurier is due a stroke of good fortune. Two years ago at Tour School he was poised to qualify for the final stages when huge gales, which stopped play at the three other second round venues, blew him off course.

Then last year on the EuroPro Tour he disqualified himself after discovering he'd played a shot from the fringes of a designated nature reserve when he should have taken a drop. He was second at the time and it probably cost him victory but as he said later: "I would never have been able to live with myself if I hadn't owned up."