Doherty beat Wingham's Chad Lenard in a three hole playoff after both were locked on 72 at the completion of the Stack's Finance sponsored event.

Doherty parred the three holes, Lenard had a bogey on the second.

Doherty is the Manning River Times-Iguana Sportstar of the Week, earning a $50 open order at Iguana.

"I was fairly confident going into it,'' Doherty said.

"I've been playing pretty regularly this year - most Saturdays and I get the odd game in mid-week. I've been hitting the ball okay.''

He said he had an advantage over Lenard going into the playoff.

"I'd just finished,'' he said.

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"Chad played in the morning, so I think that was in my favour.''

Doherty's next mission will be the Taree Open in a fortnight.

"I won one a couple of years back, so it would be good to get another one,'' he said.

"I don't usually play in the Manning River Open because it's held at Easter and we go camping. But with everything postponed this year because of COVID I had the chance this year.''

Doherty holds the record for the most club championship wins at the Taree club. He has his name on the honour board eight times.

However, the last was in 2009. Now Doherty wants to add to the list.

He's usually thereabout in the championship, hitting off with the leading contenders in the final round.

"But I just haven't been able to put four good rounds together,'' he explained.

"I'm usually too far behind going into the last round.''

Commitments with a young family impacted the amount of time he could spend on the course after his most recent win.

"I wasn't getting out there much at all,'' he said.

His handicap blew to five. However, with his kids growing up, Doherty's been able to return to golf. His handicap is back to scratch.

Doherty turns 50 next week and says he still has plenty of good golf left, citing Greg Turner, who was runner up in this year's championship.

"Obviously I'm not as flexible as I was when I'm younger. I can't get the distance I could when I was 20,'' he said.

"But what you lose there you make up with smarts.''

Doherty said it's a pleasure to play the Taree course now that it has recovered from the ravages of the drought.

"The green staff did a sensational job to keep the greens alive during the drought,'' he said.

"But there was nothing much they could do with the rest of the course. It was pretty uninspiring.''

So he's targeting the 2021 championship.

"I won't have any excuses if I don't win it,'' he said.