Australian Peter Senior won his second Australian Masters golf championship in Melbourne Sunday, holding off Tom Watson, Wayne Grady and third-round leader Lucas Parsons by a stroke.
Senior, holing a 20-foot par-saving putt on the 18th hole after being urged by a spectator not to "choke," shot a final-round 69 to finish with a 12-under total of 280 over the par-73 Huntingdale course.Senior, who won the Masters for the first time in 1991, collected $101,250 out of $562,500 purse.
Watson, winner of eight major championships, shot a final-round 70 while former U.S. PGA champion Grady had a 67. Parsons, an Australian who held a two-stroke lead after the third round over Watson, Senior and Australian Michael Clayton shot final-round 72s. Clayton finished fifth, three strokes behind Senior.
Senior moved into a tie for the lead with Grady and Watson with a 20-foot birdie putt at the 13th, took the lead at the 14th with another birdie and then scrambled home.
At the 17th, Senior appeared to have opened the door when his second shot to the long par-4 hole went through the back of the green. But he got up and down safely and headed to the 18th with his one-stroke lead.
On the 18th, his second shot drifted left and he had to take a free drop. At the same time, Watson hit the heart of the green and a playoff looked likely.
But Senior played his third shot well past the flag and Watson slid his 24-foot putt over the edge of the hole. Senior then slotted the ball inside the left edge of the hole to take the title.
Senior said a spectator on the 18th fairway said as he hit his approach shot: "I hope you don't choke like you did last time." That was a reference to his three-putt performance on the last hole two years ago when Australian Bradley Hughes won.
At Johannesburg, South Africa, South African Ernie Els shot a 6-under-par 64 Sunday and won the $400,000 Lexington PGA golf championship, his fifth victory in five months.
Els, winner of the U.S. Open last June, finished with a 9-under total of 271 over the Wanderers Golf Club.
Roger Wessels, another South African, also carded a 64 and finished second at 273.
England's Van Phillips shot the day's third 64 and wound up tied for third at 274, with Zimbabweans Tony Johnstone and Mark McNulty and South African Warren Schutte, each of whom had a 67.