Kiwi Michael Long wins NSW Senior Open at Thurgoona

Playing his maiden tournament on the Legends Tour, Long fired an eagle and four birdies in a six-hole stretch from the 9^th hole to turn a four-shot deficit to a two-stroke lead.

Senior cut that to a shot after Long bogeyed the par-four 15^th, but when Senior took three from just off the green on 17, the debutant was within sight of victory.

“Pete gave me a little cushion coming down the last, he made bogey on 17, it was a narrow fairway and he just caught the rough and hard to control the ball, so quite happy with a two-shot lead down the last,” he said.

However, there was one last twist.

On the final hole, Senior had a nine-metre putt for birdie, but it finished agonisingly close to dropping in.

Long had put his eight-metre putt for birdie around 120cms from the flag.

He missed the short putt, meaning if Senior’s had fallen as it looked like doing approaching the hole, the players would have been tied.

Long finished with a five-under par 67, while Senior posted his second successive par round after firing a blistering 11-under 61 in Friday’s opening round to set up a six-shot lead.

Senior also finished runner-up in last year’s inaugural Border event.

“Look, I pinch myself at this stage of my career, I’m following what they’ve done for us,” Long said in reference to some of the greats of the game like the 59-year-old Senior.

“It sounds corny, but it’s a privilege to play with these guys, I really respect what they’ve done for golf.”

Long only qualified for the seniors tour after turning 50 in August.

An eight-time tournament winner, including two on the US PGA secondary tour, Long will look to return to the States next year when he contests tour school.

“I just want to play as much as I can leading up to going to tour school, so it’s all about tour school for me,” he said.

“So to do something like this is pretty cool, I’m rapt, one from one, it’s a pretty hard record to keep up now, isn’t it?.”

Long claimed $18,000 for the victory.

Mike Harwood, who finished runner-up to Ian Baker-Finch at The Open Championship in 1991, finished third on eight-under, with Richard Backwell (seven) and Peter Fowler (six) rounding out the top five.

Players raved about the course, while a bumper crowd of hundreds followed the final group.