Lucas Parsons won the first co-sanctioned Greg Norman Holden International by four strokes in Sydney to claim the biggest first prize ever offered in Australia, €243,118 (£146,456), with a superb final round of 67, six under par, for a 19 under par aggregate of 273 at The Lakes GC.
Parsons, 30, a Sydney resident who lives just a ten minute drive from The Lakes, fed off the encouragement from the big galleries cheering him on and his 67, jointly the best of the day with Gary Orr, ensured a victory stroll over the closing holes.
Fellow countryman Peter Senior, a previous winner, was second and Ryder Cup Scot Andrew Coltart joint third with Swede Per-Ulrik Johansson. Welshman David Park, joint overnight leader with Parsons, managed only a 74 and dropped to fifth. Masters champion José Maria Olazábal, who had moved menacingly into joint second with a third round 66, also shot only 74 and was tied eighth.
Parsons, a former Australian and New Zealand Amateur champion, claimed the biggest single pay cheque of his seven year professional career and once again underlined the strength of the European Challenge Tour.
In 1998 he missed his European Tour card by one shot at the 1998 Qualifying School and played a limited schedule on the Challenge Tour in 1999, winning two tournaments – the Challenge de Sablé in France in May then the Finnish Masters in Helsinki in July. He went on to finish tenth on the Challenge Tour Rankings from just eleven starts with two missed cuts.
Now, after only three starts on the European Tour, he sits behind his best friend on the Tour, New Zealand’s Michael Campbell, in second place in the Volvo Order of Merit with €252,840 (£152,312) to his name and a two-year exemption on the European Tour.
Parsons began the final round in a share of the lead with Park, who had been the clear leader at halfway after two composed rounds of 68 and 65. However the Australian produced a near flawless display, and capped off his victory with a superb birdie at the last.
One of the first to congratulate Parsons was Campbell, winner of the previous two events on the Australasian Tour. The pair first met in New Zealand more than 15 years ago and have remained friends ever since. In fact, Parsons last year stayed at Campbell's London residence while playing on the Challenge Tour.
Campbell, who won the Heineken Classic in Perth but missed the cut in Sydney, had given Parsons a pep talk over dinner on the Wednesday before the opening round at The Lakes. He told him: “Stay in the present. Don’t fret, don’t cast your thoughts too far ahead, just stay focused.”
It had worked the oracle for Campbell. It proved to be a pivotal moment for Parsons also. Afterwards, the delighted first-time winner said: "This is just huge to win in my own home town. It is sensational to win on the European Tour and I'm looking to playing on the Tour again this year.
"It was hard work, but I loved every minute of it. To win is an immense relief. I've had my ups and downs over the last few years, but this sets up everything for me."
As a teenager, Parsons was runner-up in the Australian junior diving championship and won four New South Wales titles. However he said: "I gave it up because I didn't like being judged by others. In golf you're the boss - I'm in charge of my own destiny."
He turned professional in 1992, but after three early wins he started to struggle, went through a marriage break-up and allowed his weight to go up to more than 18 stones. Now he is down to just over 14 stones and he states: "Fitness didn't used to be part of our game, but it is now. Tiger Woods has set an example and if you want to beat him you have to match him. It's as simple as that - you can't be five or six stones overweight."
The key, according to the slimmed-down Parsons, was his birdie at the par five 11th hole, one of six birdies in his final round and one of 26 over the duration of the tournament. On the tee, he was four shots ahead of Coltart and five in front of playing partner Park.
He did not play the hole especially well, but managed to sink a 15 footer for a birdie after Park had missed from 25 for his. At that juncture, Parsons had the title in his back pocket and he commented: “It was the key putt. To get a four there really gave me a bit of a gap in the tournament and allowed me to keep doing what I was doing”.
Coltart sensed it was not to be his day when, after an outward 34 left him four behind, he three-putted the 577-yard 11th for a par and missed from five feet on the next. After sharing third place with Johansson he said: "I hit only one poor shot all day, but I didn't take any chances, particularly on the back nine. I'm disappointed not to win, but at the end of the day you have to be philosophical and in my second tournament of the year I've finished third.”
