Given that he’s probably better known for his on course radio work these days, you could say that Paul Eales emerged from the wireless let alone the wilderness to win the Prostate Cancer UK Scottish Senior Open at Archerfield Links.
Despite being seven shots off the pace heading into the closing round, the 53-year-old from Southport clambered his way up the order as the overnight frontrunners slithered backwards to claim his maiden title on the over-50s circuit.
With a robust, westerly wind causing plenty of menace and mischief on a bright and breezy day, Eales harnessed the testing conditions to good effect and posted a fine four under-68 for an 11-under 205 and a one shot win over Peter Fowler and the 2013 champion, Santiago Luna.
A quarter of a century on from his first significant win in the 1991 Audi Open on the Challenge Tour which began his climb up the European professional ladder, Eales has now struck gold among the golden oldies.
In between those successes, the Englishman claimed his one and only victory on the main European Tour at the 1994 Extremadura Open during a sturdy spell of consistent campaigning at the top table. “It’s nice to have won at all three levels of the European game,” noted Eales after completing his own triple whammy of tour triumphs. “I’ve not been challenging at all really over the years on the Senior Tour and this is the first time I really got myself in with a chance to win in the final round.”
This success looked unlikely at the start of the day as Eales faced the kind of sizeable reeling in job not seen since Captain Ahab went after Moby Dick.
Ronan Rafferty, the former European No 1, had taken charge of the event over the first couple of days and when he plonked a 9-iron to six-feet on the first hole of his final round and rolled in the birdie putt, the Northern Irishman had moved three ahead of the chasing pack.
By that point Eales was miles behind but things would begin to unravel at the sharp end of affairs as the day went on.
When Eales missed a short putt for his par on eight, his outside hopes looked like they had perished. Eales may have been left a bit scunnered by that one but his wife and caddie, Sharon, was having none of the doom and gloom. “That rattled me a bit and the head went down but she kept me up and said ‘you’re playing fine’,” he said.
His response to that set back was purposeful and profitable. Eales holed a 15-footer for birdie on the 10th, made another gain at the 11th and knocked a nice wedge into six-feet on 12 to complete a trio of telling birdies.
Behind him on the course, Rafferty was toiling and his lead had evaporated on the front nine as he leaked a series of shots. Luna was still hanging on in there while Australia’s Mike Harwood, runner-up in the Open back in 1991, inched into a one shot lead through 11 only to see his challenge falter with a succession of bogeys at 14, 15 and 16.
Over that same tough stretch, Eales held it together and made crucial par putts from nine-feet at both 15 and 16 before striking a decisive blow on the final green. He dunted a sand-wedge to within 10 feet of the flag and holed the putt for a birdie to lead for the first time. “I knew that was a real chance as I was aware of what was happening so that was a huge putt,” added Eales after earning a cheque for £38,000.
Fowler, playing in the same group as Eales, made a good run at it with a best-of-the-day 67 to finish a shot behind while Luna, needing to birdie the last to force a play-off, watched his putt from 25-feet drift by in a 74.
Rafferty, the former Ryder Cup player, trudged in with a 78 and had to settle for a share of fifth on eight-under while Andrew Oldcorn was the best of the Scots in a tie for 14th on four-under.
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