Chalk and cheese have got nothing on Peter Senior and Michael Clayton.

Two of Australian golf’s most prominent figures of the 1980s and 1990s, it is safe to say that the pair approached professional golf in vastly different ways.

Senior was the methodical grinder, devoid of emotion as he regularly put away longer hitters with bigger profiles and the egos to match.

Clayton took a more artistic approach to his golf, an uber-talented junior who came into the pro ranks unafraid to either celebrate his triumphs or express his displeasure.

Where Senior’s playing career is now in its sixth decade, Clayton resembled a comet in the sky, a burst of brilliance before pursuing careers in both journalism and course design with great success.

Perhaps it was Senior’s combination of short stature and unassuming ways that endeared him so greatly to the Australian public.

Turning professional in 1978, the first of Senior’s 21 wins on the PGA Tour of Australasia came at the 1979 Dunhill Australian Open; his most recent a defeat of rising American amateur Bryson DeChambeau, John Senden and Andrew Evans at the 2015 Uniqlo Masters.

For those counting at home, that’s 36 years of tournament success.

A three-time winner in 1987, Senior completed a clean-sweep of Australia’s three biggest events in 1989 when he put the broomstick putter in play for the first time, an instrument he would wield to great effect and which would become synonymous with Senior’s play.

He won the Australian PGA Championship, Australian Open and Johnnie Walker Classic in quick succession with a cumulative winning margin for the Open and Johnnie Walker Classic played in consecutive weeks an astonishing 12 strokes.

That performance elevated Senior inside the top 30 in the world and earned his one and only invitation from Augusta National Golf Club to play The Masters the following year.

Senior’s international success came predominantly in Europe where he had four victories and in Japan where he triumphed on three occasions.

Seventh on the European Tour Order of Merit in 1987, Senior did earn a PGA TOUR card for the 1986 season but after struggling to adjust to the American style of play returned to Europe midway through the year.

In the early 1990s Senior was a regular fixture near the top of the leaderboard at The Open Championship, his best finish a tie for fourth in 1993 as he finished inside the top-20 each year from 1991-1994.

Now one of the most respected voices in Australian golf and a prominent figure in architecture around the world, Michael Clayton emerged in the late 1970s as a Melbourne amateur of great promise.

Winner of the 1977 and 1981 Victorian Amateur, Clayton won the 1978 Australian Amateur 1 up over Tony Gresham at Royal Queensland, a course he would go on to redesign some 30 years later.

When he turned professional in 1981 Clayton immediately joined the PGA Tour of Australasia and won for the first time a year later at a star-studded Victorian Open at Metropolitan.

Clayton played for more than a decade on the European Tour with his sole win coming at the 1984 Timex Open, a win that pushed him to a career-high finish of 18th on the moneylist.

Six years later Clayton almost added a second win to his resume but was edged out by fellow Aussie Rodger Davis at the seventh playoff hole of the Bob Hope British Classic.

Like Senior, when Clayton’s confidence was up he could rival anyone in Australian golf, claiming both the 1994 Heineken Classic and Coolum Classic and finishing top three in the opening two events of 1995 to rise to a career-high of 91 in the world.

Peter Senior
Career wins: 34
European Tour wins: 4
Australasian Tour wins: 21
Australian Open: Won (1989, 2012)
Australian PGA: Won (1989, 2003, 2010)

Michael Clayton
Career wins: 8
European Tour wins: 1
Australasian Tour wins: 6
Australian Open: T2 (1993)
Australian PGA: T6 (1991)