Senior plots course return
GOLF great Peter Senior has revealed tentative plans to end his retirement at the Australian PGA Championship – even if it costs him a million bucks and a lost bet.
The 58-year-old, who walked away from pro golf in 2016, will test-drive his results in the coming weeks before potentially making what would be a celebrated comeback on the Gold Coast next month.
The Hope Island resident is taking the early steps towards a return in the two-day Kooralbyn Valley pro-am, fittingly the first pro event at the Scenic Rim course since 2002.
Assuming he rediscovers his mojo, the three-time PGA champion’s next obstacle may be slipping out of a tongue-incheek bet with fellow Aussie great Wayne Grady, also competing at Kooralbyn.
“I was thinking of playing the PGA at the end of the year only because it’s on the Gold Coast and I don’t need to drive anywhere or fly anywhere,” Senior told the Bulletin.
“If I feel my game is good enough then I’ll enter but I’ve got to do some serious work.
“My game is very relaxed at the moment and I’d need two or three weeks of proper practice to get it back into reasonable shape but I’m still enjoying it.
“At the Aussie Open when I said I’d retire Wayne Grady said ‘you’ll be back’ so that’s in the back of my mind.
“I said, ‘I bet you a million bucks that I don’t play another four-rounder’ so I may have to owe him a few bucks.”
Kooralbyn, a course 80km west of Gold Coast that Senior first played in the 1970s and one at which he still holds the record of 61, could prove the perfect springboard to success.
Senior yesterday and today joined Brisbane Lions duo Daniel Rich and Claye Beams and cricket legends Jeff Thomson and Ian Davis at a tournament that officials hope will reinvigorate golf in the region.
“It used to be a weekly thing that seven or eight of us would jump in a car and try and test ourselves against this course,” Senior said.
“It went downhill from there and now it’s getting back to how it used to be.
“If you can play this course you could play anything.”
Senior hailed the dual coup of Adam Scott and Sergio Garcia for the Australian PGA, which runs November 30 to December 3.
Action at the Kooralbyn pro-am tees off today at 7.15am and 12.15pm.