Peter Lonard's Coast love affair | Golf

Steve Zemek | 2nd December 2008

Peter Lonard at Coolum.

PETER Lonard's career has seen as many up and downs as a rollercoaster, but yesterday he was happy to set foot on the Sunshine Coast, a place he lists as one of his happiest hunting grounds.

He comes into this week's Cadbury Schweppes Australian PGA Championship – a tournament he's won three times – at the Hyatt Regency Coolum in a bout of indifferent form, however, he said he was confident of shaking off the cobwebs at the scene of some of his most famous victories.

Speaking at the Twin Waters Golf Club as part of Holden Scramble festivities, the 41-year-old said he couldn't put a finger on why he was enjoying a love affair with Coolum but was itching to hit the course again.

“I've done alright here the last five or six years,” he said. “If you're a betting man, it's always the same people turning out at the same tournament.

“It's horses for courses and, for some reason, this course suits me.”

Now based in Florida, Lonard has had a disappointing year on the US PGA tour, finishing 72nd on the money winner's list with three top-10 finishes.

He's also coming off a disappointing showing at the Australian Masters at Huntingdale at the weekend, where he finished tied for 39th.

However, he predicted the formguide to be thrown out the window when the Australian PGA gets underway on Thursday.

“My form wasn't very good last week,” he said.

“To tell you the truth, I played pretty good but I putted badly.

“I've done all right here in the past so, you hole a few puts and everything's forgotten.”

The 41-year-old has now hoisted the Australian PGA trophy three times, including once in 2002 when he was declared the joint winner with Western Australia's Jarrod Moseley when play was controversially called short due to bad light.

He was also pipped for the trophy in 2006 when Nick O'Hern hit “that shot” out of the bunker on the 18th to snatch victory.

This year he predicted his main opposition to come from the usual suspects.

“To be honest with you, I have no idea who's playing,” he said.

“I saw a poster somewhere. I'm pretty sure Geoff Ogilvy and Adam Scott are on it. There's two big ones to start.

“And you've got (Rod) Pampling. I think he's a local boy, obviously he's going to have his tail up after winning the Masters.”

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