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Golf marvel Peter Senior has switched his attention to this week's Australian PGA Championship as he eyes an historic double.
Having mastered savage winds at The Lakes to become the oldest Australian Open champion, 53-year-old Senior will return to a favourite stomping ground at Coolum believing he can defy the odds once more.
Read the story: Senior masters weather to win Australian Open
No player in more than a century of trying has completed the Australian Open-Australian PGA double on two occasions.
Some of the legends of Australian golf - including Norman Von Nida (1950), Kel Nagle (1959), Peter Thomson (1967) and Greg Norman (1985) - have achieved the rare double act.
Greg Chalmers also pulled it off last year, while Robert Allenby during his triple crown season in 2005 and Peter Lonard in 2004 are others to have gone back-to-back at the Open and PGA in modern times.
But no one has ever done it twice, something Senior has the opportunity to do after first winning the Australian Open and Australia PGA titles back in 1989.
The Queenslander candidly admits he probably would not have raised the Australian Open's Stonehaven Cup for a second time had weather conditions not deteriorated badly on Sunday.
But Senior says his accurate game and percentage plays are ideally suited to Coolum, where he has already won the PGA twice - in 2003 and 2010.
"It is a course that suits me," he said.
"It is fairly tight and the longer hitters don't have a huge advantage at Coolum because you have to lay up short of the water.
"I have more chance of winning around a course like that than any other."
Apart from overcoming wind gusts of more than 80 kilometres per hour on Sunday, Senior conquered world number four Justin Rose down the stretch after seventh-ranked Adam Scott's challenge faltered on the front nine.
"Winning golf tournaments, you need to have a good week at the right time," Senior said modestly.
"Justin Rose and the other guys are great players. Not for one moment do I think I am as good as those guys.
"I've had a good week where I got it done ... if the conditions were good, the really good players would have shone.
"These are the conditions I thrive in, where I just battle it out."
Senior estimated he only missed three fairways in four rounds at The Lakes, while he putted like a demon.
Such consistency will have him in the mix for a fourth PGA Championship when the final event of the year gets underway on Thursday.
Chalmers, though, vowed to mount a stubborn title defence after finishing tied 23rd at the Open, eight shots behind Senior.
"My game is actually in decent shape," Chalmers said after closing with a 77.
"It's hard to tell when the breeze blows this strong but, in all honesty, I saw some really good signs.
"It didn't really come to fruition with this weather, but I'm looking forward to seeing a little less breeze.
"I had a couple of good things that I liked in my golf swing I saw over the last couple of days, when I got to hit some normal shots, so I'm really looking forward to it."
AAP
Topics: golf, sport, coolum-beach-4573, qld, australia
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