Australia’s Todd Sinnott has secured a groundbreaking Asian Tour win with his triumph in the Myanmar Open today.
Sinnott, 25, played brilliant golf for the second day running at Pun Hlaing Gofl Club to smash the field and grab his first-ever win as a professional in just his second Asian Tour event.
It sets him up for the immediate future after the Melburnian gained access to the Asian Tour through the tour school earlier this month.
He now has exemptions to play in Asia and on the Japanese Tour as well as some World Golf Championship events.
The former Kooringal and Metropolitan member is also a member of Golf Australia’s rookie squad of young professionals.
He graduated through Golf Australia’s elite programs under the guidance of Marty Joyce at the Victorian Institute of Sport.
Sinnott carded a 64 on Saturday to roar into contention and then a six-under 65 today, starting with birdies at the first and third holes, then reaching a three-shot lead by the time he reached the 17th tee. Under the pressure of trying to win his first tournament, he hit beautiful iron shots to the 17th and 18th greens.
He finished with a flourish, hitting a beautiful wedge in close at the par-five 18th and rolling in the birdie putt from inside two metres to reach 14-under overall and a three-shot win.
“I’m super-excited,’’ he said afterward. “I didn’t really expect to win today, so I’m just super-excited, that’s all I can say.’’ Sinnott said he drew on his second-place finish in the tour school a few weeks ago, when he shot 10-under in the final round. “I got a lot of confidence from that, just knowing that I could shoot a low score in the last round. I drew on that and tried to birdie as many holes as possible today.’’
The Australian began poorly with a one-over 72 in round one and was 70th after that round, but he worked his way into the tournament and played superbly on the weekend. Remarkably, he found the water hazards seven times for the tournament, including once today.
His world rank of 706 will soar after today’s victory.
His previous-best result in a professional tournament was sixth place in the WA Open in 2014 as well as sixth in the 2016 Northern Territory PGA Championship.
He tied-eighth in the 2015 Emirates Australian Open at The Australian.
Long-hitting Sinnott has had big expectations surround him since he won the 2009 Victorian boys’ championship.
Sinnott’s winning cheque is $US135,000.