Tasmanian senior golf championships: Lester Peterson's upwards flight path

Australia’s most capped amateur golfer regularly pilots QantasLink flights into Launceston, and would have known exactly which baggage carousel to collect his golf clubs from en route to the Tasmanian senior championships at Mowbray.

The Sydneysider is one of a number of scratch golfers competing in the tournament, and looms as one of the biggest threats to what would be local hope Michael Leedham’s seventh title.

“It’s the first time I’ve played in the Tasmanian seniors but I’ve been here lots of times before playing in different tournaments and I quite like coming down here - I had a few days off work and I thought ‘why not come down?’,” he said.

“Hopefully I’ll play well but I haven’t been playing all that much and I don’t really know the course.”

Peterson was joined on the course on day one by a number of other national senior amateur representatives including Brad Dowling and 2017 national champion Greg Rhodes, and was only too pleased to check Mowbray off his list of Tasmanian golfing destinations. 

“At Barnbougle both the courses there are nice to play at, but the courses are pretty varied here.

“Launceston Country Club’s nice, down at Royal Hobart and the Tasmania Golf Club are nice - you’ve got lots of variety so it’s all good.”

A total of 61 golfers aged between 55 and 76 will compete in the three-day championships, which will wrap up after midday on Friday.