He won the final of the PBA Shanghai singles at the Westpac Indoor Bowls stadium on Saturday and will attend the national final at Hastings in September.
McLean (North East Valley) won the final with 33 points from Marty Kreft (Alexandra) 26 and Dave Hodges (Taieri) 18.
McLean (33), the marketing manager for Otago Cricket, won the qualifying event for the English international open singles last year but could not attend the national final.
He was media manager for the Otago team that played in the Champions Trophy cricket competition at Hyderabad in India and it clashed with the dates for the national PBA bowls finals.
The North East Valley bowler switched his sporting interests from golf to bowls 10 years ago and he has won four Bowls Dunedin outdoor titles.
He has been a member of the PBA for four years and this was his second win in a major tournament. It was the fourth time he has played in the Shanghai tournament. He was second last year.
McLean has won four Bowls Dunedin titles. He reached the semifinals of the pairs with his North East Valley club mate Mitchell Will at the New Zealand championships at Dunedin in January.
The key to McLean's win was his consistency with his first bowl on each end.
McLean started strongly and scored 18 shots on the first five ends to lead with 18 points from Hodges 8 and Kreft 4Kreft then found his weight and line and this put pressure on McLean.
Kreft had a purple patch and scored 17 shots on the next four ends to close the gap to one shot after nine ends. McLean was on 22, Kreft 21 and Hodges 13.
McLean scored a two, three and four on the next three ends to be within two shots of the 31 points needed for the win.
McLean was on 29, Kreft 21 and Hodges 18. But the game was not yet over because Kreft scored five on the 12th end to be within touch of a win.
''On the last end I just needed the first, second or third shot to win,'' McLean said.
''Marty held second shot, which would have taken him from 26 to 31.''
McLean drew the shot with his last bowl but it was down to a measure when Hodges put the jack into the ditch. McLean's back bowl was the winning shot.
McLean played accurate draw bowls throughout the tournament and kept his cool when Kreft came close.
Russell Dawe (Stadium) won the plate final with 23 points, from Murray Wilson (Fairfield) 18 and 15-year-old Jonty Horwell (Kaikorai) on 15.
