‘Old dog’ Peter Senior still has all the PGA tricks
SEASONED golfer Peter Senior believes he's striking the ball with more reliability than ever.
The 53-year-old is one of the favourites to claim victory at the Australian PGA Championship, which gets underway at Yaroomba tomorrow, after winning a windswept Australian Open at Sydney on Sunday.
"I'm probably hitting it more consistently than I did in the late 80s, early 90s when I had a good stretch of tournaments there," Senior said.
"(I'm) definitely more consistent than I have ever been and I have to thank (coach) Gary Edwin for that.
"We have worked pretty hard on certain areas. He has just made my golf a little more long term now."
Senior, who has been plying his trade on the US Champions Tour in recent seasons, admitted he came close to calling it quits in 1997 before Edwin helped him revitalise his game.
"I went to Gary and I was almost ready to give the game away, I was playing that badly," he said.
"We worked a bit on it and turned it around.
"I still go back into the old habits but with modern technology now, he's only a phone call away. You can Skype and you can get hit a couple of bad shots on the range and he can be back in Australia here and send me the results. He has been fantastic. I owe a lot to him and his son Luke who watches over my short game."
A winner in Europe, Australia and Asia, Senior has competed on professional circuits since 1978.
And he won't let age become a barrier, drawing motivation from eight-time major winner Tom Watson.
"I always take heart watching Tom nearly winning the British Open when he was 60 years of age against probably the best field in the world, so there is no real age limit to winning golf tournaments," Senior said. "We are lucky that we play a long-life sport and I am looking forward to the next couple of seasons."
But he admitted he's likely to call it quits on the Champions Tour in two-three years. Senior has won two Australian Opens, two Australian Masters and three Australian PGA Championships, including two at the Sunshine Coast.
"Coolum has been a good hunting ground for me," he said. "It is a course that the longer hitters don't have that great
