FORMER Thorpe Hall and Basildon tournament professional Bill Longmuir produced a stunning success to win the first of the British tournaments on this season’s European Seniors Tour.

Longmuir produced another stunning run of birdies to win the Handa Senior Masters, presented by The Stapleford Forum, by a commanding seven strokes. It was the 56-year-old golfer’s eighth Tour title and netted him more than 71,000 euros in prize money.

The Anglo-Scot shot a final round 66 for a superb wire-to-wire victory to deny Order of Merit leader Boonchu Ruangkit a record-equalling fourth consecutive win.

Longmuir started the final round at Stapleford Park, in Leicester-shire, with a four-stroke advantage over Ruankgkit and Senior Tour qualifying school winner John Harrison, and he showed no signs of nerves in coasting to victory, opening with four straight birdies.

He dropped a shot on the fifth, but picked up another birdie on the eighth to reach the turn in four under par 33.

Longmuir added another birdie on the 10th and, when Roger Chapman closed the gap at the top of the leaderboard with an eagle on the 15th hole, Longmuir hit another birdie before posting his eighth birdie of the day on the 17th to seal a commanding victory.

Longmuir said the win, his first since the DGM Barbados Open in 2008, was his best in eight years on the Senior Tour.

“It was just my week,” he said. “It’s my most comfortable victory yet and I have never played so well. I had an unbelievable start. To birdie the first four holes just took all the pressure off.

“I was pretty nervous the night before night and didn’t sleep too well, so to do that was fantastic.

“With Boonchu, no lead is big enough, his record speaks for itself. So those birdies put me on the road and then I played steady and putted so well. It’s been a long 18 months since I last won so this has really got the juices flowing again.”

Longmuir’s display, which secured him a place in the US Senior PGA Championship in a fortnight, rounded off a turnaround in fortunes after he carded rounds of 87 and 84 in his last event, the Berenberg Bank Masters in South Africa.

He went to the America last week to work on his game with former European Tour professional Mich-ael Wolseley and it paid dividends as he stormed to the second lowest 54-hole score to par in Senior Tour history, only bettered by Ruangkit’s 21 under par 195 in this year’s Chang Thailand Senior Masters.

“I was pretty low after shooting 87 in South Africa,” Longmuir admitted. “That was the joint highest score I’ve had as a professional. So to come here and finish 20 under par is pretty amazing.

“Michael knows my game well and knows me well. We worked on my short game but it was more about working on me than being too mechanical.

“I don’t think I had more than 26 putts in any of my three rounds so it certainly worked! I don’t think I could have played any better than I have this week. It went perfectly.”

>Thorpe Hall tournament pro Richard McEvoy, 30, had rounds of 70, 75, 70 and 72 for a seven over par total in the Mallorcan Open in Spain to finish on 287.

He was joint 32nd in the Euro-pean Tour event and collect 5,620 euros in prize money. Having played 12 events on the Tour this campaign, McEvoy stands 123rd on the “Race to Dubai” rankings.