Victorious at the $25,000 event at Roseville two days prior, Stolz was the only player under par across the 36 holes at Cromer, his scores of 70-69 enough to edge Scott Barr by a shot.

With the winner’s cheque for $5,400, Stolz became the first player to accumulate $100,000 in prize money in a single season, a target he set for himself at the start of the season.

“A lot of people were asking at the start of the year how much can you make on this tour,” said Stolz.

“At the start of the year I said we had nearly 80 events and I was sure that there would be at least one or two guys cracking the 100 for the year.
“No one has cracked the 100k on the Legends Tour ever so I had that as one of my goals.

“Unfortunately I didn’t play that good at the Senior Open or Australian Senior PGA but I set in my mind that I would crack the 100 before the end of this stretch before we have a break and go to Queensland.”

Leading by one after a round of 5-under 66 in Round 1, Barr shot 74 in Round 2 to finish at level par, one clear of Neil Sarkies (72) and Mark Boulton (70).

HOW THE WINNING ROUND UNFOLDED

With the tree-lined Cromer layout with perched greens playing to its most challenging, Stolz began the second round four strokes back of Barr.

He dropped a stroke further back with a bogey on 13 but responded with a birdie at the next.

After six-straight pars Stolz then made his move with three birdies on the trot, establishing enough of a buffer that a double-bogey at the par-4 seventh was not fatal to his hopes.

WHAT THE WINNER SAID

“It’s a tough course anyway. Heavily tree-lined, quite demanding. The pin placements the first day were extremely tricky, tucked pretty good over some bunkers and things. Fortunate that we got some rain overnight after the first round so at least the greens were a little bit more receptive on day two.

“To be honest, I’m playing pretty well for the most part but just throwing in a little bit of rubbish every now and again which has been frustrating.

“Sometimes that makes you play a little more cautiously and focus hard on each shot.

“That’s something I’m pretty happy about with my game. Just the fact that we’ve had a lot of golf on and haven’t been able to do any quality practice on a range to tidy things up. You’ve just got to play with what you’ve got and at the moment and that’s what I’ve been doing the last few weeks.”

LEADERBOARD RUNDOWN
1          Andre Stolz      70-69—139
2          Scott Barr        66-74—140
T3        Neil Sarkies      69-72—141
T3        Mark Boulton  71-70—141
T5        Nigel Lane       72-70—142
T5        Mark Gilson     73-69—142
T5        Nicholas Robb 72-70—142

NEXT UP
The PGA Legends Tour completes its swing through Sydney with the Elanora Legends Pro-Am at the pristine Elanora Country Club on Friday.