Hend’s second win on the European Legends Tour – his first was in his Tour debut at the WINSTONgolf Senior Open shortly after turning 50 in 2023 – came courtesy of a spectacular finish.

One of the most well-travelled players in professional golf history with more than 700 starts worldwide, Hend’s first win was at the 1999 South Australian PGA Championship.

Four shots back at the start of the final round in Barbados, Hend tore through the field with a barrage of birdies.

He played the back nine in 5-under 30 for a round of 7-under 64 and 11-under total to banish the painful memory of last year’s playoff defeat to Peter Baker in the same event.

That is one of five runner-up finishes for Hend on the Legends Tour the past two years – he was also second at the 2024 New Zealand Open – making this latest trophy one to savour.

“Second’s nice, because you get paid, but first is better because nobody really remembers second,” said Hend, typically matter-of-factly.

“I love collecting trophies, whichever tour they’re on. I’ll take a trophy at any point in time and it’s great to be back in the winner’s circle again.”

Sparked by a three-putt from close range for bogey at the par-4 fourth, Hend birdied three of his final four holes on the front nine to turn in 2-under and just two strokes off the lead.

The 51-year-old picked up shots at 11 and 12 but it would be a trio of birdies between the 15th and 17th holes that would ensure a two-shot win from England’s Greg Owen.

“It’s nice to redeem after last year’s loss to ‘Bakes’ in the playoff,” said Hend.

“You can lose a playoff in any tournament and feel like the golf course sort of suits you. This morning, I woke up and thought, It’s a bit windy, if I can try and go out there and get my score to double digits (under par), I might get lucky.

“I looked at the board when we came through nine and saw that I was one or two shots behind through nine holes.

“I thought that if I could get out there and try and post something … funny things happen in golf tournaments in the final round.”

While Hend broke his run of runner-up finishes, the Ripper GC boys had two in one day at LIV Golf Mexico City.

Captain Cameron Smith had led the way the first two days but it was Lucas Herbert who charged to a tie for second with a scintillating 10-under 61.

Herbert’s heroics weren’t quite enough to carry Ripper GC to a second straight team win, finishing second to the Jon Rahm-led Legion XIII.

Trailing by five through 54 holes, Minjee Lee was unable to mount a final round charge at the Chevron Championship in Texas, Karl Vilips partnered Michael Thorbjornsen to a tie for fourth at the Zurich Classic and Harrison Endycott made a welcome return to form with a top-10 finish on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Photo: Marianna Massey/Getty Images

Results

LPGA Tour
The Chevron Championship
The Club at Carlton Woods, The Woodlands, Texas
1          Mao Saigo                   70-68-69-74—281       $US1.2m
Won on first hole of sudden-death playoff
T14      Minjee Lee                   71-69-72-74—286       $104,783
T30      Stephanie Kyriacou      74-71-73-72—290       $48,689
T40      Cassie Porter                74-71-73-73—291       $36,286
T44      Gabriela Ruffels           72-74-70-76—292       $28,741
T52      Lydia Ko (NZ)                73-72-75-73—293       $22,215
T59      Grace Kim                    74-70-77-73—294       $18,639
MC       Hannah Green              73-77—150
MC       Hira Naveed                 78-74—152

PGA TOUR
Zurich Classic of New Orleans
TPC Louisiana, Avondale, Louisiana
1          Andrew Novak/Ben Griffin        62-66-61-71—260       $1,329,400 each
T4        Karl Vilips/M Thorbjornsen      64-70-61-68—263       $347,588
T32      Cam Davis/Adam Svensson     61-72-61-78—272       $38,456
MC       Ryan Fox/Garrick Higgo           64-74—138

PGA TOUR Champions
Mitsubishi Electric Classic
TPC Sugarloaf, Duluth, Georgia
1          Jerry Kelly                     62-67-67—196 $US300,000
3          Steven Alker (NZ)         68-67-65—200 $144,000        
T21      Mark Hensby               70-68-73—211 $22,200
T26      Cameron Percy             71-67-74—212 $17,400
T31      Stuart Appleby             73-72-68—213 $13,800
T36      Greg Chalmers             70-75-69—214 $10,425
T36      Richard Green              74-68-72—214 $10,425
T44      Steve Allan                   72-70-73—215 $7,200
T44      John Senden                70-72-73—215 $7,200
T65      Brendan Jones             73-74-72—219 $2,400
T71      David Bransdon           73-76-72—221 $1,580

LIV Golf
LIV Golf Mexico City
Club de Golf Chapultepec, Mexico
1          Joaquin Niemann         68-64-65—197 $US4m
T2        Lucas Herbert               68-71-61—200 $1.875m
T5        Cameron Smith            64-66-72—202 $750,000
T17      Matt Jones                   68-67-75—210 $255,000
T30      Marc Leishman            69-71-74—214 $162,500
T41      Danny Lee (NZ)            76-69-73—218 $128,800
WD      Ben Campbell (NZ)       73

DP World Tour
Hainan Classic
Blackstone Course, Mission Hills Resort Haikou, Hainan Island, China
1          Marco Penge                68-71-65-67—271       €382,588.89
T16      Jason Scrivener            73-68-70-69—280       €29,763.17
T16      Elvis Smylie                  68-68-70-74—280       €29,763.17
T36      Danny List                    73-70-70-71—284       €15,303.56
MC       George Worrall            72-75—147
MC       Daniel Gale                  78-71—149
MC       Brett Coletta                79-78—157

Korn Ferry Tour
Veritex Bank Championship
Texas Rangers Golf Club, Arlington, Texas
1          Johnny Keefer              63-61-66-64—254      
T10      Harrison Endycott        62-66-65-67—260      
MC       Harry Hillier (NZ)          67-67—134
MC       Rhein Gibson               72-65—137

Epson Tour
IOA Championship
Morongo Casino Resort and Spa, Beaumont, California
1          Briana Chacon              67-71-66—204 $US33,750
T31      Robyn Choi                  69-71-75—215 $1,888
T41      Su Oh                          73-72-72—217 $1,219

Japan Golf Tour
Maezawa Cup
MZ Golf Club, Chiba
1          Takanori Konishi           67-64-65-67—263       ¥40m
3          Michael Hendry (NZ)    63-65-69-69—266       ¥13.6m
T47      Brad Kennedy              70-67-66-73—276       ¥462,000

PGA Tour Americas
KIA Open
Quito Tenis y Golf Club, Quito, Ecuador
Reduced to 54 holes due to rain
1          Jay Card III                   66-63-71—200
T13      Grant Booth                 68-67-70—205
MC       Charlie Hillier (NZ)        73-69—142

Korea PGA Tour
Woori Finance Championship
Seowon Valley CC, Paju, South Korea
1          Taehoon Lee                 69-70-70-70—279       KRW300,180,108
Won on first hole of sudden-death playoff
T37      Changgi Lee (NZ)         69-76-72-72—289       KRW8,284,970
MC       Wonjoon Lee                74-72—146
MC       Sungjin Yeo (NZ)          72-75—147
MC       Junseok Lee                  76-78—154

Legends Tour
Barbados Legends Hosted By Ian Woosnam
Apes Hill, Barbados
1          Scott Hend                   69-69-64—202
T17      Michael Campbell (NZ) 71-75-66—212
T54      Michael Long               81-72-73—226