{"id":407053,"date":"2025-09-08T05:34:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T05:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/407053\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T05:34:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T05:34:18","slug":"scott-hend-reigns-in-spain-after-european-legends-cup-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/407053\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Hend reigns in Spain after European Legends Cup win"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Photo: Getty images\/Legends Tour]<\/p>\n

Scott Hend won the European Legends Cup, hosted by Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Olaz\u00e1bal, by two shots after holding off the challenge of Adilson Da Silva and Stephen Gallacher at Basoz\u00e1bal in Northern Spain.<\/p>\n

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The Australian\u2019s final-round 67 and 16-under-par total was good enough for a third Legends Tour title and a commanding lead in the 2025 Order of Merit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels great to win \u2013 every win is a great thing,\u201d said Hend, who claimed victory at the Barbados Legends, hosted by Ian Woosnam, earlier in the year. \u201cAt the start of the day I had in my mind that if I went out and shot four-under then it would be very hard for the guys behind to catch me. I felt I was playing pretty boring golf out there, not going for many pins, just trying to make lots of pars. Credit to Alan, my caddie \u2013 we had a gameplan out there and we stuck to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI flushed it down the first and knew that Adi was three behind me \u2013 so I knew that if I could shoot four-under he would have to play exceptionally well to catch me. It was nice to birdie 15, 16 and 17 to put a bit of space between him and myself. It was a really good stretch there and I said to Alan that I\u2019ve never been able to walk down 18 with a four-shot lead, so that was nice to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brazilian Da Silva, who won this event 12 months ago, birdied the last to card a bogey-free 66 and close to within two and secure second place, but once Hend had rattled off three birdies in a row in the middle of the back nine the result was never really in doubt.<\/p>\n

Scotland\u2019s Gallacher \u2013 the only player in the field to card three rounds in the 60s \u2013 eagled the fifth and added further birdies at the 6th, 8th, 10th and 13th to get to -12. But the 2014 Ryder Cup player was unable to find the putts needed to apply more pressure to Hend and had to settle for third place as he seeks a maiden Legends Tour win in his first season.<\/p>\n

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Having opened with a two-under-par 70 and followed it up with a course-record 63 on day two, Hend started the day with a three-shot lead and was the clear favourite going into the final round.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t all plain sailing early on as the lead was trimmed to just one at the turn as Da Silva made his move. \u201cFor a moment there I felt like I was right in it,\u201d said the Brazilian after a flawless 66 and a 14-under total. \u201cI birdied number eight and was thinking that the 9th, 10th and 11th are good birdie opportunities, but I let myself down a bit on that stretch. I only had gap wedge on nine, sand wedge on 10 and 11 was also close \u2013 but I didn\u2019t birdie any of them and that was my chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Da Silva\u2019s challenge faded, Hend quickly responded, reasserting his authority after the turn with a booming drive just short of the green at 10 that was followed by a deft chip and a short putt for a three that paved the way for another victory. A pin-point approach at 15 was followed by another laser iron at the par-3 16th and victory was all but assured as his rivals failed to match his birdies.<\/p>\n

Tournament host, Olaz\u00e1bal, who despite carrying a shoulder injury that at one stage threatened his participation in the event, finished T-15 after shooting 68-68 over the weekend.<\/p>\n

The man himself was delighted with both his day\u2019s work and the week as a whole. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t pretty, but I fought hard and managed to put together a solid round. There were not many putts because I didn\u2019t play well and missed a lot of greens, but in the end I got through the round without making a single bogey.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m most happy and satisfied about is that we\u2019ve been able to bring a tournament of this calibre to Gipuzkoa, to Basoz\u00e1bal in this case. There\u2019s been a huge effort from so many people, and everyone has been pleasantly surprised by the course and how everything has gone. That\u2019s why I\u2019m really satisfied.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Legends Tour now moves on to Germany in two weeks\u2019 time for the WINSTONgolf Senior Open near Hamburg. Van Phillips won the event in 2024, beating Adilson da Silva and Phillip Archer in a play-off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Photo: Getty images\/Legends Tour] Scott Hend won the European Legends Cup, hosted by Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Olaz\u00e1bal, by two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-407053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115167052860573727","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}