By John Salvado, AAP
New Zealander Michael Hendry never gave the chasing pack even a whiff of victory as he claimed a dominant four-shot triumph in the men’s Vic Open at 13th Beach.
Hendry started Sunday’s final round with a three-stroke lead and that ballooned straight out to seven when he birdied the first and his nearest challenger, Australian Justin Warren, began with a disastrous triple bogey.
Hendry barely needed luck on his side after that but he still got a good slice of it on the par-3 third hole when his errant tee shot cannoned into a spectator and rolled back onto the green, allowing him to complete a straightforward par.
The 43-year-old closed with a level-par 72 for a four-round total of 21-under 267.
Fast-finishing David Micheluzzi birdied three of the final four holes to vault into outright second at 17 under, three shots ahead of fellow Australians Andrew Martin, Tom Power Horan and Warren, who rebounded admirably from his horror start to the day.
But none of them got close to challenging Hendry, who became the first New Zealander to win the Vic Open title since Michael Long in 2016.
“It’s been a while,” said Hendry.
“The last time I won on the Aussie tour was the 2017 New Zealand Open, so it was great to get across the line again.
“Just nice to be feeling fit and proving to myself that I’ve still got it.”
Hendry noted that growing up in New Zealand stood him in good stead when the wind got up, as it did on Sunday at 13th Beach.
“I”m not going to beat the golf course up; I don’t have the length any more,” he said.
“Just being a pretty accurate golfer and pretty good at controlling my ball flight maybe gave me an advantage today because I knew I was going to be able to keep it under the wind more then the guys who hit it long.”
And getting the fortunate break early in the day when his ball bounced off the spectator was the icing on the cake.
“If you’re going to win golf tournaments you’re going to get a bit of luck at some stage,” he said.
“Golf is one of those sports where you have to accept that luck is part of the game.
“It went my way today and I’m obviously very happy about it.”
