Fifty-three year old Peter Senior became the oldest winner in the history of the Emirates Australian Open this weekend.  He turned professional in 1978 and has won 21 events on the Australasia Tour.

Senior has been playing fulltime on the Champions Tour for the last three years.  He has not won on the Champions Tour, but has had 5 runner-ups and 25 top-10 finishes.  He has also won over $3 million on the senior circuit over the last three seasons.

He has been a world class player for thirty years and is always a factor in any event held in his homeland of Australia.  He has never won a major championship but he was sixth in the 1988 Open Championship and T-4 in the 1993 British.

High winds of over 50 mph forced a suspension of play for over three hours.  When play was resumed the winds were still peaking at over 35 mph..  There were only four players in the field that could break par on Sunday and five players failed to break 80.  Three players shot 71 and Tom Watson turned in a phenomenal 69.  It was a very difficult day for scoring and took a veteran like Senior to battle the tough conditions to pick up the win.  Senior’s even par 72 gave him a one-shot victory over fellow Australian Brendan Jones.

John Senden had led the Australian Open by two shots after 54 holes at the Lakes Golf Club.  He was runner-up to Greg Chalmers and finished one spot ahead of Tiger Woods in 2011 at this event.  He was not able to close the deal again this year and turned in a final round 82 to fall to T-18.

The field included some big names.  Justin Rose posted a 76 on Sunday and finished T-4.  Stuart Appleby who has struggled of late finished T-7.  Adam Scott was T-14 and Geoff Ogilvy was T-23.