SCOTTISH SENIORS OPEN

SAM TORRANCE WINS FROM BILL LONGMUIR

Sam Torrance proved in the end that Dalmahoy is one of his happy hunting grounds when he won the Charles Church Scottish Seniors Open golf championship over the East Course today.
Coming off a come-from-behind victory in the PGA Seniors Championship, Sam looked to have blown his hopes with an opening round of four-over-par 76 which left about 40 players ahead of him on the scoreboard after Day 1.
But you can’t keep a good man down. Torrance started his comeback with a five-under-par 67 on Saturday and he completed it with a closing effort of 70 for a three-under-par total of 213.
That won him the title by one shot from Anglo-Scot Bill Longmuir who also came from a long way back to claim the runner-up spot. Bill had rounds of 75, 68 and 71.
Another Scot to do well was Mike Miller who finished joint third with a bunch of five players.
Torrance made the perfect Sunday start with an eagle 3 at the 496yd par-5 first hole. Even a bogeys at the third, 12th and 18th plus a double bogey at the 14th could not stop Sam in this mood. He birdied the fifth, seventh and eighth to be out in five-under-par 31 and had further birdies at the 10th and 13th
Longmuir birdied the first, second, fifth and eighth in a flawless outward half of 31 and he moved to five under par for the day with a birdie at the 10th. At that point, he represented a big danger to Torrance writing another page in his success story on the over-50s circuit.
But Bill then bogeyed the 11th and 12th, double-bogeyed the 14th and dropped another shot at the 15th before birdieing the 16th on his way to 40 home for a 71.

LEADING FINAL TOTALS
Par 72
213 S Torrance (Sco) 76 67 70.
214 B Longmuir (Sco) 75 69 71.
215 J Bland (SAfr) 76 70 69, M Miller (Sco) 71 71 73, R Glenn (Eng) 71 73 71, D J Russell (Eng) 74 72 69, B Smith (SAfr) 70 75 70.
217 J Quiros (Spa) 69 72 76, J Rivero (Spa) 69 74 74.
219 D Cambridge (Jam) 73 72 74, N Job (Eng) 70 75 74, C Mason (Eng) 72 74 73, P Oakley (US) 71 76 72.
Other Scottish scores:
220 M Gray 71 75 74 (jt 14th).
221 C Maltman 74 72 75 (jt 20th).
223 J Chillas 77 72 74( jt 35th).