Champions Tour Insider: Senior a proven winner

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Peter Senior was the medalist at Champions Tour q-school in Scottsdale, Ariz., last week.

It's time for Peter Senior to move on to the next chapter in his career and, quite frankly, this is one he's been looking forward to for quite some time.

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From his home in Australia, Senior has closely followed the Champions Tour. He has watched on TV and studied the skill sets of the most successful golfers. Now he's ready to dive in.

Senior, a veteran winner of titles in Europe, Japan and his homeland, claimed medalist honors at the 25th Champions Tour q-school in his first try. Senior celebrated his 50th birthday in July and what happened last week at the TPC Scottsdale topped his expectations.

"The Champions Tour is something I've been looking forward to for some years, sitting at home for the past six or seven years now," Senior said. "I've been still practicing hard with hope one day to get on the Champions Tour.

"To come out first year and get on, that's just a blessing."

Senior is a respected veteran whose contributions to golf Down Under go well beyond his successes on the golf course. In December 2007, he was named chairman of the combined PGA of Australia and PGA Tour of Australasia. The term is about to expire, and it will allow Senior to concentrate on the resumption of his playing career.

And he's perfectly amenable to swapping the administrative chair for the first tee.

"This is unbelievable -- I'm really excited," said Senior, who has played limited tournament golf in recent years.

The playing schedule has basically consisted of six events in Australia and a couple of European Tour starts.

"That's not a lot," Senior said. "I've been practicing pretty hard the last couple of seasons. I'm still a good long iron player. My short game is my weak point at the moment. It's not seriously bad. Tee-to-green has been good."

Senior demonstrated just how good it has been at q-school.

A winner 18 times in Australia, four more in Europe and three times in Japan, Senior shot a final-round 5-under 66 to charge into the lead. He had to survive what he called "a shocking" double-bogey seven to win by three strokes over Steve Haskins of El Paso, Texas, Ronnie Black of Tucson, Ariz., and Japan's Joe Ozaki. Jim Roy of Syracuse, N.Y., also qualified.

The top five earned fully exempt status for the 2010 season, while the next seven have conditional status.

Haskins, who had the burden of leading for most of the first 54 holes, is the son of legendary basketball coach Don Haskins. For the first time in his career, Haskins made it through a national qualifier. He had missed 14 times in 17 years at the final stage of PGA TOUR q-school. Senior is the first Australian to win medalist honors at the Champions Tour's q-school, and the eighth international player to do so.

In the final round, a couple of holed birdie putts early got him off to a rousing start before the double-bogey at the ninth. After a good drive, he had 236 yards left to the front with the pin tucked far left on the green. What followed was "a shocking shot, in the water, and I three-putted to add insult to injury."

If the shot was shocking, Senior's ability to gather himself was inspiring. Senior knows he'll need more of that on the Champions Tour, where he intends to play a very busy schedule.

"I watch a lot of it on TV at home," he said. "I know how good the guys are.

"The guys who have been really dominant over the last 10 years played all the way through their career. The guys who have a few years gap have to sit down and reassess. It's another learning curve and you have to be hardened again."

Senior's success at TPC Scottsdale came on the 20th anniversary of his greatest career achievement.

In 1989, he swept the triple crown of Australian golf and, for the man using a broomstick putter, "swept" is the fitting description. Senior won the Johnnie Walker Classic, Australian Open and Australian PGA. For those 12 rounds, he shot a combined 43 under.

Senior said that stretch of golf was accomplished with a feeling unlike any he's ever encountered. He's been trying to rediscover that zone since. Today, he believes he's as good a ball striker as he has ever been.

The next chapter in his career might be quite interesting, indeed.