O'Connor's perfect finish

Christy O'Connor Jnr put the ideal golfing finish to what had been a perfect day at Royal Co Down, where he retained the Senior British Open title with a two-stroke win over John Bland. The famous Newcastle links can rarely have looked better as an attendance of 5,490 cheered a famous Irish victory.

To borrow the words of Yogi Berra, it was like deja vu all over again, even down to Bland filling the runner-up role, as he had done at Royal Portrush last year. But for O'Connor, there was a crucial difference: instead of Brian Smallwood, his son Nigel was caddying for him.

Father and son hugged each other on the 72nd green after the champion had holed a five-foot birdie putt when two would have sufficed. But only seconds earlier, he had to endure pulse-quickening tension as a birdie chip from Bland looked like finishing in the cup only to come to rest three inches short.

As it happened, an ambulance siren could be heard in the distance at that precise moment. "The way my heart was racing, it looked as if it might have been coming for me," said the Galwayman with a broad smile when the crisis had passed and he had secured top prize of Stg£62,300.

When Bland walked onto the green, still wondering how the chip had stopped short of the target, O'Connor went over to him and whispered "bad luck." "And I meant it," he said later.

Then came the closing putt. "If there was one putt I would wish for to win a tournament, it would be a right-to-left breaking one, just like that," he said. "In fact it reminded me of the one I didn't have to hole when I beat Fred Couples in the Ryder Cup in 1989."

Looking towards his family - he was congratulated on the final green by his wife Ann and daughter Ann - O'Connor went on: "I'm really thrilled for Nigel. We had a chance of winning in the States about a month ago and this was our last tournament together before he resumes his law studies. It doesn't get any better than this - retaining the Senior Open at Royal Co Down."

These sort of situations are always colourful when they involve O'Connor, a player who never hesitates to show his feelings. But with time applying its own healing, the retention of the title lacked the raw emotion of 12 months ago when he dedicated the win to his son Darren, who had been killed in a motor-accident the previous September.

Though he had talked at St Andrews about quitting competitive golf at the end of next year, this latest success has changed things, understandably. Now, he has an automatic exemption into next year's British Open at Royal Lytham, where his illustrious uncle once held the course record at 65.

"If I could qualify for the Open every year, I'd keep playing for the rest of my life," he said, typically expansively. "I certainly plan to continue playing in this event, but I will probably go ahead with my plan to quit the States at the end of next year." With that, he and his family headed for a nearby helicopter which whisked him down to the Mount Wolseley club in Tullow, Co Carlow. As course designer, he was honoured by the owner, Donal Morrissey, by being named club president this year, with his wife as lady president. Yesterday happened to be his president's prize and he was determined to be there to make the presentation. The fact that he happened to be doing so as winner of the Senior British Open for a second successive year, was a rather nice bonus - for everybody concerned.