[Photo: Golf Australia]
The great Australian golfer Peter Lonard has enjoyed a full-circle win at the site of his first ever pro-am start, capturing the Mollymook NSW Senior Masters at Mollymook Golf Club’s Hilltop Course.
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Better known for winning at Harbour Town Golf Links on the PGA Tour in April 2005, as well as three Australian PGA titles and two Australian Opens, Lonard started out as a young tour player scrapping around in pro-ams in the late 1980s before heading to the European Tour in the early 1990s.
He played in his first career pro-am at Mollymook’s Hilltop course in 1989 and, 36 years later, won a PGA Legends Tour event there this weekend. After taking the first round co-lead with Andre Stolz, Lonard shot a two-under-par 70 on day two for a five-under-par total and a one-shot win over Terry Price (68).
“I played my first Pro-Am at Mollymook Golf Club; I shared a room down in the bottom corner in a hotel with about eight blokes. Wasn’t a pretty sight,” Lonard said after the win. “After 36 years, I finally actually won something.”
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Lonard negotiated the dramatic hills and tree-lined kikuyu fairways of the Hilltop course while doing his best to avoid three-putting.
“I didn’t really hit in the trees that often and hit a fair few greens,” said Lonard. “The beauty of this course is you’ve got to not three-putt. If you’re playing all right, you can hit a lot of great shots and hit it 10 feet above the hole and you’re trying not to three-putt rather than actually hole them. It’s a totally different game to probably what we play week in, week out.
“I had a three-putt on the 16th – I held on that long – but it finally got me.”
Lonard called his daughter immediately after the win.
“It’s a good day today because my daughter, every time I phone her up, she asks, ‘Did you win?’” Lonard said. “I haven’t won one for a while so today I phoned her up and she said, ‘Did you win?’ and I said, ‘Yeah.’ And she goes, ‘Did you get a trophy?’ I go, ‘I don’t think so,’ so she’s still not happy.”
Scores [courtesy of golf.com.au]
1 Peter Lonard 69-70—139
2 Terry Price 72-68—140
3 Leon Trenerry 70-72—142
4 Andre Stolz 69-74—143
T5 Scott Barr 73-71—144
T5 Mark Boulton 73-71—144
