Michael Long’s amazing shot in Victoria Open playoff

Michael Long

New Zealand professional Michael Long was almost apologetic after pulling off one of the greatest winning shots in the history of the Victoria Open.
It came on the first sudden-death playoff hole after Long and Matthew Millar had finished in a tie for the lead at 13-under par at the end of the four rounds of regulation play.
The playoff hole was the par five 18th. It started uneventful with Long finding the fairway from the tee but that was not the case for his second shot. It was pulled well left with the ball almost crossing into the hazard.
The ball ended up in thick rough and was sitting up off the ground.
Said Long: “It was sitting up high, so it was a little baseball shot. I said to my caddy here we go, it’s a wing and a prayer and it came out perfect.”
Long amazingly hit the ball to within eight feet of the hole and was almost in disbelief at what he had achieved.
“What can you say?’’ he said.
“I don’t want to say it was a pure fluke because I had some idea of what I was going to do. But I could not do that again in probably 100 attempts.”
“That was pretty special - that one will live with me for a long time. I feel a little bit sad for Matthew because I had no right to make four from there.”
Long holed the eight-footer for victory and take the winner’s purse of $A45,000 ($NZ48,500).
Long, 47, has been a tour professional for 26 years and is these days living in the Western Australia capital of Perth. It was Long’s third victory on the PGA Tour of Australasia. His previous win had been the Greg Norman Holden International in 1999.
His scores at the 13th Beach Golf Links at Barwon Heads, near Geelong in Victoria, were 69, 70, 67 and 69.
Millar, who is best known to New Zealanders as the winner of last year’s New Zealand PGA Championship in Auckland, would have been disappointed not to have won the Victoria Open but could be satisfied his form continued that of the previous year when he racked up 11 top-10 finishes.