Luna landing at Stoke by Nayland

Spain’s Santiago Luna evoked the spirit of Seve Ballesteros after eagling the 16^th on his way to a brilliant final round of seven-under-par 64 to win the ISPS Handa PGA Seniors Championship at Stoke by Nayland.

The Madrid golfer revealed he had been thinking of the late Ballesteros throughout the last day which eventually saw him edge out Steen Tinning by two strokes after the Dane had initially carved out a four shot lead in the early part of the round.

Luna picked up four birdies on the front nine and the horse loving golfer reeled in Tinning with birdies on 12 and 14 before galloping clear with that decisive eagle on 16 as he finished on 14-under-par, two clear of Tinning and four clear of Mark Mouland who also had a 64.

Victory secured Luna his second European Senior Tour title after pipping Sam Torrance to the Scottish Senior Open last year and he pocketed a cheque for €46,000.

“I was definitely thinking of Seve over certain shots today,” said Luna.

“It’s unbelievable to win such a prestigious tournament as this. I played great, with few mistakes and tried to be in the right place and make a few putts and that was the key.

“The eagle enabled me to relax a bit. I hit two fantastic shots to the edge of the green but the putt was fantastic with just the right line.”

** More great images can be viewed here.

Luna began the day three shots behind Tinning (pictured above) but refused to look at the leaderboard so it wasn’t until the end that he knew he was in real contention.

“I didn’t take any notice of what Steen (Tinning) was doing. I just concentrated on my own game.

“It is difficult to describe how I feel but I’m really happy because my wife is here with me. Last year when I won last year she couldn’t be there so we will really celebrate.”

Tinning eagled 14 and birdied 16 to get back in the mix after bogeys at 11 and 12 but another dropped shot at the last ended his challenge.

Former champion Andrew Oldcorn and Caser Monastario tied fourth with PGA professionals Paul Eales and Andrew Murray in a share of sixth with Philip Golding and Marc Farry.

England coach Eales signed for a 65 and will celebrate with a trip to New York with his son and a tilt at qualifying for the US Senior Open Championship.

“I’m delighted, it has been a scruffy sort of week but I said all along it is the mistakes you don’t make and when I did make slight mistakes today I made up for them with a good putt or nice chip or whatever. No bogeys on the scorecard is always good.

“Next it’s a week at home and then off to US Open Senior qualifying in New York with my son Josh who has just finished his GCSEs so I thought we’d have a little holiday and combine it with the US Senior Open so we will be doing the sights of New York and try and qualify at same time.”