Twenty-six years after his first, Queenslander Scott Hend has claimed the 17th win of his professional career at the Barbados Legends event at Apes Hill in Barbados.
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.
Results
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
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
STORY: TONY WEBECK | GOLF AUSTRALIA/PGA AUSTRALIA