Australian Brendan Jones drew upon his wealth of experience to edge ahead of a packed leaderboard and win the 102nd New Zealand Open presented by SKY SPORT today at Millbrook Resort, in Queenstown.
The 49 year old, a 15-time winner on the Japan Golf Tour, shot a closing five-under-par 66, to finish on 18 under and win by three from Australian John Lyras (64), New Zealand’s Ben Campbell (66), Korea’s Jaewoong Eom (67) and Tomoyo Ikemura (68) from Japan.
Thailand’s Gunn Charoenkul (69) was one of six players to finish one stroke back in a tie for sixth.
It is Jones’ first victory in four years and marked the first time he has triumphed on the ISPS Handa PGA Tour of Australasia, despite a glittering 24-year professional career.
“This is just incredible. I’ve been supporting this event for many years and I’ve always said to myself as long as my bum is pointing to the ground, I’ll never win it,” said Jones.
“I don’t know what to think. When you are out there playing you aren’t thinking about winning, you are just thinking about playing. I hit a lot of good shots through the middle of the round, made some clutch par saves on a few of the holes coming in.”
Jones said he hit “the two best shots of my life” to make vital birdies down the stretch.
Red hot golf was the order of the day despite the surrounding snow-capped peaks that are such an imposing feature in Queenstown.
Multiple players, including Jones, were tied on 15 under over the closing holes but he pulled one ahead with a birdie on 14, went two in front after another gain on the following hole, before opening-up a three-shot lead that would remain with a bird on the 17th.
He had a minor scare on 17, a par five, when he blocked his second shot right, but his ball kicked off a bank and landed safely in a green side bunker, from where he splashed out to four feet.
Jones started the final round four behind overnight leader Shae Wools-Cobb from Australia and played in the penultimate group. Wools-Cobb struggled on the final day carding a 78 to finish equal 26th.
Asian Tour regular Campbell, whose home club is Millbrook Resort and who was part of a dramatic play-off here before finishing runner-up to countryman Michael Hendry in 2017, was in the hunt but stumbled with a double-bogey on the 15th before birdies on the next two holes.
“I really wanted to shoot eight under today. I thought if I got to 18 under it would be a good score. I just had that in mind – Jonesy is a very good finisher and you know he isn’t going to go backwards too fast. Whether I pushed a little too hard – it is what it is,” he said.
Lyras and Eom are both graduates from this year’s Asian Tour Qualifying School and have made the ideal start to their season while for Gunn it was yet another fine week after his second-place finish in the International Series Qatar two weeks ago
The Thai star missed birdie opportunities on 16 and 18 and an eagle chance on 17.
“It’s been an incredible week. To follow up my second place finish in Qatar with a top finish here validates I am going in the right direction,” said Gunn, who was one of 33 Asian Tour members to make the cut this week, in an event joint-sanctioned by Asia and Australasia, in partnership with the Japan Golf Tour.
“And it’s good to be heading home for the International Series Thailand in good form with an opportunity to do well there.”
The Asian Tour heads to the International Series Thailand next week. The US$2 million event is being played at Black Mountain Golf Club in Hua Hin and is the third International Series event of the season, and the fifth stop on the Asian Tour.
*Credit information to www.asiantour.com
