Sydney golfer Stefan Albinski has started the senior amateur golf season with a bang with a magnificent come from behind win in the 2008 Victorian Senior Amateur Championship.
Albinski, the current Australian Senior Amateur Champion, fired a final round 67 to make up for a wayward start of a nine over 80.
He improved every day with a 73, 72 and then the final 67 for a one stroke victory over defending champion and fellow New South Welshman Brian Sams.
Albinski was in sizzling form in the final round and with two holes to play was six under par. As fellow competitor Denis Dale says on the AUSOOM website, Albinski “showed he was human’” with a bogey, bogey finish.
Sams recorded a par, birdie finish to narrow the gap to just one stroke.
Albinski won the Australian Senior Amateur Championship at his first attempt at the title in Perth earlier this year and swept all before him during his initial forays on the over 55 Australian senior amateur circuit in the 2007-2008 season just past.
Taking the Victorian Senior Amateur at the Rosebud Golf Course means he has won at his last four starts in Order of Merit events.
Sams put in an admirable performance to fall just short of his goal of making it three Victorian Senior Championships in a row.
Dale says these two are clearly the current standout players in Australian senior amateur golf.
Third place in the tournament went to Victorian Chris Tatt who also broke par in the final round with a one under 70. Fourth place was shared by Victorians Phil Wood and Greg Welsh with ACT golfer Tony Gover and NSW player Denis Dale in a tie for sixth.
The Victorian Senior Amateur Championship is the only Australian 72-hole Championship for amateur golfers aged 55 and over.
It continues to go from strength to strength with a near capacity field of 154 players competing in this year’s event from 91 clubs, including 32 Interstate clubs. The Championship will head to the Wimmera in 2009 when the event will be hosted by the Nhill and Horsham Golf Clubs from Monday October 26th to Thursday October 29th , 2009.