The hot weather that has been a feature of the PGA Legends Tour swing in Melbourne continued on Friday where Stolz’s round of 6-under 66 gave him a two-stroke win from Chris Taylor (68) with Carl Smedley (69) third a further shot back.

The reigning Order of Merit champion was without a win heading into this latest event, shrugging off near misses in recent events to get his first victory of the year in convincing fashion.

“There’s been a lot of weird stuff happen lately and been a bit frustrated,” Stolz admitted.

“I feel like I’ve been playing all right so it was nice to play properly.

“I felt good about the way I played today and ended winning, which was good.”

HOW THE WINNING ROUND UNFOLDED

Although unable to take advantage of starting his round on a par-5 – the 518-metre 10th – Stolz was in red figures shortly thereafter.

He made his first of six birdies for the day at the par-3 11th and after back-to-back birdies at 14 and 15 made the turn in 3-under par.

There was a run of seven straight pars before Stolz again picked up a shot at the par-4 fifth, building his winning buffer with further birdies at seven and eight for his 6-under total.

WHAT THE WINNER SAID

“It’s an interesting course this. It’s been bashing me up a bit over the last couple of years. It looks like an easy course but it’s not. You’ve got to drive the ball great here. Fairways are tight enough to give you a bit of grief but if you drive the ball well you can make a ton of birdies out there.

“The fairways are perfect – I didn’t get a bad lie all day – and the greens, with the heat we’ve had this week they’ve had to water fairly heavily so that top surface was soft enough that you could go at a few flags.

“The pins were tucked pretty well but if you hit a good quality shot from the fairway it would finish close, which is exactly what you want. I like when you can tuck the flags but be fair about it. If you hit a perfect, well-struck shot you can finish close and if you’re out of position you’re going to struggle.”

LEADERBOARD RUNDOWN
1          Andre Stolz      66
2          Chris Taylor      68
3          Carl Smedley   69
T4        Mark Boulton   70
T4        Martin Doyle    70
T4        Michael Long   70
T4        Guy Wall          70
T4        Peter Fowler     70

NEXT UP

After enjoying the weekend off the PGA Legends Tour will resume on Monday with the Higgins Coatings Portsea Legends Pro-Am at the ever-popular Portsea Golf Club.