By Jimmy Emanuel

Hosting the jewel in the over-50s Tour crown for the eighth time, Richmond will welcome some very well-known names in Australian golf, with the likes of Peter Lonard, Peter O’Malley, John Senden and Peter Fowler teeing it up in the $150,000 event.

Joining those players are some of the “newbies” to senior golf in 2002 ISPS HANDA Australian Open champion Stephen Allan and David Bransdon, who will be hoping for a hot start to his PGA Legends Tour like last year’s winner at Richmond, Richard Green.

The Victorian is not in town to defend his Australian PGA Senior title, but instead will be teeing it up at the final event of the lucrative PGA Tour Champions season in the United States.

“It’s a good bunch of guys, exciting again,” Bransdon said of joining the Legends Tour.

“It’s almost like a kid in the candy store. The last six months, it has just been ‘Let me at’.

“It’s been fun playing Tour events, but I am a competitive beast, and not being near the pointy end of leaderboards, I’m making cuts and stuff, the juices don’t get flowing.”

Those competitive juices were on immediate display when the Victorian-based Bransdon made his first start at the Cowra Lamb Legends Pro-Am and finished in a tie for a second, a result he followed up with a share of third at Moss Vale this week.

Given his birthday fell during the second round of the NSW Senior Open at Thurgoona, Bransdon wasn’t able to contest one of the PGA Legends Tour’s other big events, one that Adam Henwood claimed in impressive fashion and where Allan made his own senior debut with a T3 finish.

Henwood will be hoping his form has travelled north, as he seeks to follow Green’s example of winning both the NSW Senior Open and Australian PGA Seniors titles in succession.

Bransdon is also looking to emulate his fellow revhead Green overseas later this month.

“I’m heading to the U.S. Senior Q School at the end of this month. The immediate plan is to do the next few weeks here, a couple of weeks here in Sydney, including the PGA here at Richmond,” Bransdon said.

Already enjoying the comaraderie that leads Legends Tour players to call the circuit a “family”, Bransdon is like the members at Richmond playing in the pre-tournament pro-am and coming out to watch the three rounds of action that kick off on Friday, November 10.

“Some of these guys I idolised growing up, they were winning the Aussie Opens, the Aussie PGAs, the Aussie Masters back in the day. You talk about all the Peters. The Lonards, Seniors, O’Malleys,” he said.

“They’re legends of our sport in Australia and it’s still exciting to play with those guys.”

Believing his length off the tee will be an advantage as one of the “young guys”, Bransdon is also thankful that he set a plan for when he did reach golf’s magic number for career rejuvenation. Not that he believed he had any other career options after a life in golf.

“Anytime I have thought about quitting, I realised I couldn’t do anything else,” the 2015 Queensland Open champion joked.

“I’ve been doing this as a full-time pro since I was 21, and I played full time amateur golf from 18 to 21. So I’ve known nothing else. Every time I thought about it scared the crap out of me, so I went to practice.”

Photo: David Bransdon in action at the WA PGA Championship last month.

HOW TO FOLLOW

For live scoring and the latest news visit www.pga.org.au Exclusive content and tournament updates will also be posted regularly on the PGA Tour of Australasia’s social media channels.

Instagram: @pgaofaustralia

Twitter: @PGAofAustralia

Facebook: @PGAofAustralia

Official hashtag: #AusPGASeniors

HOW TO WATCH

Catch the action of the second and final rounds on Saturday and Sunday, broadcast live, on Foxtel (Channel 503) and Kayo Sports.

Round 3: Saturday, 1pm-4pm AEDT

Round 4: Sunday, 11am-2pm AEDT

FORMER CHAMPIONS

2022: Richard Green

2021: Guy Wall

2020: Andre Stolz

2019: Peter Senior

COURSE RECORD

63 Michael Harwood (Round 1, 2018)

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Adam Henwood, 2023 NSW Senior Open champion

Guy Wall, 2021 Nova Employment Australian PGA Senior champion

Andre Stolz, 2022 Nova Employment Australian PGA Senior runner-up & 2020 champion

Peter Lonard, Three-time Australian PGA champion, two-time Australian Open winner

Jason Norris, 2023 WA Open runner-up

Peter O’Malley, Three-time DP World Tour winner

John Senden, PGA TOUR winner