Triple scotch, tartan special?
Whatever you want to call it, Jack Senior certainly enjoys his moments in Scotland. "Maybe it's the Irn Bru?" he said with a triumphant grin. The man from Morecambe savoured his third notable success north of the border last night when he claimed the honours in the SSE Scottish Hydro Challenge at Macdonald Spey Valley in Aviemore.
The day had started with a deluge and a delay but come the early evening it was Senior who was being showered with praise and £28,000 in prize money. A booming batter off the tee at the fourth play-off hole set up a title-winning birdie as he edged out countryman Robert Coles and Thailand's Prom Meesawat after the trio had finished locked on 16-under aggregates of 268.
For Senior, it was another successful foray in the home of golf. Four years ago at Royal Aberdeen, he was part of the Great Britain & Ireland side that beat a Jordan Spieth-led USA team in the Walker Cup while, last season, he emerged from another three-man play-off at Montrose to win on the PGA EuroPro Tour.
Senior may have lost 3&2 to Spieth in the singles of that Walker Cup contest in 2011 but the burly Englishman did overcome him on the final green during the quarter-finals of the US Amateur Championship 11 days earlier. "I remember my brother and me both saying at the time that he'd be world No 1 in seven years," said Senior of the two-time major winner who is now second on the global order.
Spieth may be operating in a different stratosphere these days, but Senior is making his own strides up the golfing ladder. Now third on the Challenge Tour rankings, promotion to the main European Tour is very much in his hands.
This maiden win on the second-tier circuit was earned the hard way but he went on the offensive and was rewarded for his bold sense of adventure. His title tilt was given a sizeable shot in the arm when he birdied the eighth and then clattered his drive to within five-feet of the flag on the 330-yard ninth for an eagle-2.
As long time leader Coles slipped to a damaging bogey on the 17th, Senior's 15-footer for birdie on the last for a 66 moved him into a three-way tie at the top. The trio couldn't be separated when they played the 18th three times in the play-off but when they moved to the first, Senior seized his chance and prised himself apart.
A huge drive over the brow of the hill had his rivals wheezing on yards behind him and from just short of the greenside bunkers, Senior flicked a delightful chip onto the down slope and watched it roll to within tap-in distance.
"This win is massive," he said. "It catapults me up the rankings and just confirms that I am good enough to compete at this level."
While Senior took home the bounty, his on tour room-mate, Ross Kellett, came in as the leading Scot after a level-par 71 left the Motherwell man in a share of 13th on an eight-under 276. Kellett received the Douglas Lowe Trophy, the prize set up in memory of The Herald's much-missed former golf correspondent.
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