Likely the first professional golf event ever staged on a golf course with 12 grass greens and six sand greens, Warren Golf Club presented the PGA Legends Tour players with a unique playing experience.

Crawford and Victorian Adam Henwood handled the test best, finishing tied at the top with rounds of 1-under 69, one clear of PGA TOUR winner Peter Lonard (70) and Tony Collier (70).

In his second year on the Legends Tour, it served as a reminder of Crawford’s earliest days playing the game.

“It’s a long time ago since I played sand greens; I thought I might have lost the touch,” said Crawford.

“But as soon as I got back onto them it was quite easy to bring back the memories and play them how they’re supposed to be played.

“It was fantastic.”

HOW THE WINNING ROUNDS UNFOLDED

Although they started on opposite sides of the golf course, both Crawford and Henwood did the bulk of their scoring on the front nine.

Henwood was quick out of the blocks with birdies at both one and two, adding a third at the par-5 sixth to be 3-under early in his round.

Bogeys at nine and 10 were offset somewhat by a birdie on 11, a dropped shot at the short par-4 17th dropping Henwood to a 1-under total.

Crawford had to fight back late after starting his round from the 10th tee.

A bogey on 11 and 10 pars in his opening 11 holes had Crawford at 1-over but three birdies in the space of five holes vaulted him to the top of the leaderboard.

The outright win was there for the taking only for Crawford to bogey his final hole, the tough 423-metre par-4 ninth.

WHAT THE WINNER SAID

“It was a great experience,” said Crawford.

“It’s certainly a different golf course to some of the other golf courses that we tend to play on this tour.

“Certainly the back nine was very testing. I basically treated that as though if I could get pars around there and not too damage and then get onto the open paddocks at the back end and pick up a few shots.

“Overall the club and the area was absolutely fantastic.”

LEADERBOARD RUNDOWN
T1        Adam Henwood          69
T1        David Crawford            69
T3        Tony Collier                  70
T3        Peter Lonard                70
T5        Peter Jones                  71
T5        Guy Wall                      71
T5        Brad Burns                   71

NEXT UP

The PGA Legends Tour continues its ground-breaking run in western New South Wales with the two-day Cobar Legends Pro-Am on the sand greens of the Cobar Bowls and Golf Club starting Saturday.