Twenty six years after winning the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award, Paul Broadhurst has achieved a notable double by scooping the Senior Tour equivalent.
Broadhurst won the 1989 Cannes Open on his debut campaign on The European Tour, eventually finishing in 42nd place to succeed a certain Colin Montgomerie as Rookie of the Year.
Fast forward 26 years, and the Englishman has claimed the European Senior Tour Rookie of the Year award after a top ten finish in the season-ending MCB Tour Championship secured 12th place on the Order of Merit.
He therefore follows Carl Mason (1974 and 2003) as the only other player to win the Rookie of the Year on both The European and Senior Tours.
Going into the season finale, Broadhurst and Zhang Lianwei had been neck and neck for the coveted award, but the former Ryder Cup player pulled away from his nearest rival with another impressive performance in Mauritius.
The achievement is even more noteworthy given that Broadhurst, who had a 100% winning record in The 1991 Ryder Cup, only became eligible for the Senior Tour after turning 50 in mid-August.
The Englishman promptly won on his maiden outing in the Prostate Cancer UK Scottish Senior Open, becoming only the tenth player to celebrate victory on his debut in the over-50 ranks.
Having holed a 25-foot putt to force a play-off with Gordon Manson, Broadhurst saw off the Austrian with a birdie on the second extra hole to seal an emotional triumph, nine years after his last European Tour victory in the Open de Portugal.
Broadhurst followed that up with a solid display in the French Riviera Masters, where he finished in a tie for fourth place, and the €10,856 he earned for coming tied tenth last week took his winnings to €85,509 in just four appearances.
You can only win the rookie of the year once on each Tour, so I’m pretty happy with that.
Paul Broadhurst
He said: “It’s always nice to win any award, and it’s very nice to do the double after winning it on the main Tour in 1989. You can only win the rookie of the year once on each Tour, so I’m pretty happy with that.
“Obviously winning in Scotland was the dream start. I came in expecting to do well, which is always dangerous, but I probably hadn’t expected to get my first win quite so soon. So it was fantastic to win first time out, but the three events since then have proved to me that you have to be right at the top of your game to win out here. So whilst I’m pretty happy with how it’s gone this year, I know I’ll have to improve and be much more consistent next year to compete week in and week out.”
Broadhurst succeeds Argentina’s Cesar Monasterio as the winner of the award, which is given to the rookie who finishes highest on the Senior Tour Order of the Merit.
