Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Tiger Woods? The best losers the game has had. Walked away defeated more often than triumphant. And they're still the greatest.

Jason Scrivener has been losing for the best part of a decade since turning professional, but doing it so well he's made a healthy living out of the sport and he's got himself to No.274 in the world.

He's quietly chiselled away in every pocket of Europe in the last couple of years, always coming up short but never by much. Just waiting for his day. He's lost more times than he'd care to remember, around 150 professional starts by his estimation. But he'd never won, which he's always remembered.

The thing about the understated Perth-based 28-year-old is look at him and you'd never know there's always been that "0" in the wins column. Thursday morning or Sunday afternoon, it's always the same for Scrivener.

Having walked off the 18th green on Saturday evening leading the NSW Open by one shot and on the cusp of ending that torturous chase for a trophy, Scrivener didn't seem to care.

He said it was a matter of "when", not "if" he'd win. If not on Sunday at Twin Creeks Golf and Country Club in Sydney's west, it would come another time. Then he shrugged his shoulders, went home and came back the next morning.

Well, Sunday was his time. And how. He didn't just fall over the line as he joked he might have to do, he charged through it to hoist the Kel Nagle Cup.

A nerveless final round seven-under 65 ensured Scrivener (-24) walked down the 18th already knowing he was finally a winner, accounting for his Victorian playing partner Lucas Herbert (-18).

"It was a weird feeling those last couple of holes because the first 16 were brutal," Scrivener said. "I had to stay so focused. I obviously thought it was going to be harder than it was, but it still looked a lot easier than it was. It's hard work. It's hard to win. I knew that.

"It's funny because I've been in this position a few times and you still get the same emotions. It's never easy to sleep and all that sort of stuff. I just kept telling myself, 'if I keep doing it it's going to happen eventually'. Thank God it's actually happened."

During a painstaking front nine in which Scrivener's final group crawled through in two hours and 40 minutes - even left stranded for more than 10 minutes to hit a tee shot at one stage - it was only the leader's scorecard that kept moving in the right direction.

He had shared the lead after the first round, trailed by one after the second, led by one following the third and then made it a one-act affair on money day.

Herbert added spice to an otherwise lacklustre final day when he eagled the 309-metre par-four 12th to slash Scrivener's until then commanding buffer to three shots.

But that was close as it got on the back nine as the South African-born Scrivener eased to victory.

"I've known I was good enough to win at the top level, but it's a matter of doing it," he said. "Until you do it under pressure you don't really know 100 per cent if you can get across the line. Next time I'm in that position I'll look back at this and take confidence from it."

Scrivener, who finished in a tie for fourth at last year's Australian Open, will skip a clash with Jordan Spieth and Jason Day this week to head to Hong Kong, where he has had top-10 finishes the last two years.

Herbert, 21, will head across town for the national championship.

"I'm pretty proud of myself," Herbert said. "I just said to Jason, 'it's probably some of the best golf I've ever seen in those conditions with last under pressure'. It was phenomenal. He didn't miss a shot.

"I'm not too unhappy with second and it's going to be a nice little bonus to the bank balance over summer."

NSW OPEN (after final round)

-24: Jason Scrivener

-18: Lucas Herbert

-16: Ben Eccles

-14: Blake Windred (am), Chris Crabtree (am)

-13: Kramer Kickok (USA), Jamie Arnold, Jarryd Felton, Min Woo Lee (am), Daniel Nisbet