The final round of the Legend’s Tour PGA Senior Championship served up a dramatic back nine as long-time leader and local favourite Paul Lawrie suffered a dramatic collapse.
A bruising last three holes on a windy Sunday on Trump International saw him pipped at the post by England’s Robert Coles. David Higgins had a day to forget in the tricky conditions, his six-over final round saw him drop back to finish his week on a tie for 49th.
Lawrie went into the challenging links conditions on Sunday with a four-stroke advantage and seemingly one hand on the title of this flagship event of the Legend’s Tour. All was going to plan for the Scot on his home sod with two dropped shots on the front-nine tempered with one gained back on the par-4 seventh. Another birdie followed to begin his walk home on the par-5 10th before a dramatic late collapse handed the title to Coles. A disastrous run of bogey-bogey-double from the 16th saw Lawrie slip back to finish four-over for Sunday with a 76. He lost out by a single stroke to finish solo second on -3 for the week and one of only three men to break par after the four days around the windy links.
Coles had to battle to keep himself in contention for his final round, a decent run to the 8th of three-under par gave the Englishman a good platform to build his Sunday on before two bogeys stopped his charge. He would turn on one-under and traded one more back and forth on his back-nine to finish out with a 71. Crucially, one of these came on the last, a hole which leader Lawrie would double on. That would prove the difference as Coles clinched his maiden victory on the Legend’s Tour in dramatic fashion.
“It’s amazing, obviously it hasn’t quite sunk in yet, Paul was unlucky at the last and it was a real battle at the end,” reflected a magnanimous Coles after a breathless finish.” “I think my short game’s been exceptional this week. A few weeks ago, a few months ago, I was just not good enough – so, I’ve worked hard at that. To hit those sort of shots, the chip on 16 and I had to scramble my way around today because I wasn’t playing great. It was tough and I leaned on my short game heavily.”
“I’ve been so disappointed with myself, because I felt like I put myself in a few opportunities to win, I was getting really frustrated with myself this season, to be perfectly honest,” the victorious Coles mused about his form. “Patience is a big word that everyone uses, but I was a little bit more patient and that probably helped me this week with it being so tough. Par was actually a good score!”
Next up for the Legend’s Tour, after a week’s hiatus, the circus rolls into town in Lusaka, Zambia for the Zambia Legends Championship. The Bonanza Golf Club plays host from the 16th to the 18th of August. Gary Murphy is set to be the sole Irish standard bearer headed to Africa as things stand and he will look to enjoy the scenery as well as his golf around Bonanza GC.
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