McKenzie Holds Day-One Lead at NSW Senior Open

The afternoon pack closed with fervour, but they couldn’t reel in Thurgoona specialist Dave McKenzie on a pulsating first day of the NSW Senior Open.

Defending champ McKenzie momentarily gave off potential course record vibes when he raced to seven under early in his second nine.

But he “settled” for a superb seven-under-par 65 that was good enough to leave his fellow morning players at least four shots adrift at Albury’s Thurgoona Country Club Resort.

It took a while for the afternoon challengers to emerge; they came hard late.

Crowd favourite Peter Lonard came within a centimetre of holing out for an eagle on his last hole – the ninth – to finish at six under.

And his mercurial playing partner Euan Walters struggled early before he caught fire with five birdies in his closing six holes, including a curling downhill bomb on the ninth to finish at five under.

In the surrounding groups, West Aussie Brendan Chant and emerging Legends Tour powerhouse Terry Pilkadaris also signed for 68s.

Earlier, the chase had been headed at 69 by a group including legendary Peter Senior and evergreen Terry Price.

And in a great day for promoters, they were joined by drawcards Paul Gow and David Bransdon, who each showed flashes of their scoring power en route to their share of sixth.

But they’re still chasing McKenzie, who began on the 10^th hole with a birdie, but really got going when he rifled a 3-iron in close on the uphill par-5 14^th and rolled in his eagle putt.

As he did last year to seal victory on the final day, McKenzie birdied the 18^th, then turned and almost holed his second shot on the 1^st for another.

He missed a shortish chance on the second, then birdied the third and fourth from close range to roar away from the field and momentarily set in train thoughts of a course record chase.

But he three-putted the sixth for his only bogey, his only blemish of a fine round.

“I haven’t been playing as much this year, and sometimes that’s good, because you don’t have any demons in your head, you haven’t hit as many bad shots,” the Victorian said with a giggle.

“Nah, I hadn’t been playing super well, but I’d had a lesson with (long-time coach) Dale Lynch, and it was feeling OK, but I still wasn’t hitting as well as I’d like.

“Then today, all of a sudden, I made a couple of putts and hit a couple of good ones when it needed to be hit and all of a sudden, I look like I’m playing super well.

“So it’s good, but we’ve got another 36 holes and a lot of legends of Australian golf out there playing, so we’ll see how we go.”

Lonard played the day’s only bogey-free round and appeared rock solid throughout, and could have joined the lead bar an errant short birdie try on the seventh hole – his 16^th.

“I hit a lot of greens and really only had that one bad putt on that hole, and it could have been a pretty good score if a couple more had dropped, but that’s golf,” said Lonard, who was third in this event last year.

“Yeah, I like the way this course sets up for me, and I’m playing pretty solid, so hopefully we can give it a run.

“I’ve still got that fire to compete, so hopefully I can keep playing like that.”

Related Links:
NSW Senior Open – Full Leaderboard
McKenzie Storms to Early Lead at NSW Senior Open

There were a couple of remarkable scorecards during the first day’s play – two in particular with vastly different trends.

Veteran David Diaz looked to have played his way out of the tournament when he made four early bogeys, having started on the 10^th and turning in 40.

But remarkably, Diaz reeled off six birdies on the front nine and came home in 30 for a two-under-par 70.

Conversely, Thurgoona amateur Richard Delmenico, playing against some of his heroes, looked right at home with three early birdies from his start on the 10^th hole and brushed off a couple of bogeys on 16 and 17 with another birdie on 18.

But there is a sneaky chance Delmenico had a quick peek at the leaderboard passing the clubhouse before it all fell apart on the front side.

He carded three double-bogeys and two other bogeys to have the unfortunate 34-44 card in sharing 100^th place after day one.