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.

Photo: Marianna Massey/Getty Images

Results

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

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