THERE was a familiar winner of the Bradford Open on Sunday, as Richard Wheatley defended the title he won last year.

Bradford Golf Club's Wheatley won by five strokes, after two rounds of 70 left him two under par for the tournament.

If that wasn't enough, he even hit a hole in one, which did leave him a little out of pocket.

Discussing winning the Bradford Golf Union's most prestigious tournament for a second successive time, after years of near misses, Wheatley said: "It has been like London buses.

"And now I'm on for a hat-trick in the Bradford Open and the (Yorkshire Order of Merit's) Hawksworth Trophy, having won both of them two years in a row.

"I'd say that's not bad for an old man."

Wheatley turned 42 on Saturday, and he said: "It was an alright birthday present and I even got a hole in one going down the last in my first round on the morning.

"Mind that meant I had a bottle of scotch to pay for for doing that.

"In my final round, I wanted to get that last hole in two, to say I'd done a par three in three strokes over two goes, and I put my approach to six or seven feet, but couldn't quite hole the putt."

Wheatley beat Calum Hey and James Darcy by just one stroke to win last year's Open, but he left his opponents for dust on Sunday.

Asked how he had managed to win so emphatically, Wheatley said: "I think just having an old head.

"I used 3-woods everywhere and just kept the ball to the centre of the fairways and greens.

"I didn't really land any putts but I did well on the par fives and the shorter par fours.

"It was mainly a case of fairway, green and then two-putting.

"That's all you have to try and do really and see what happens from there."

As well as his successive Bradford Opens and Hawksworth Trophies, Wheatley won the Bradford Union's Amateur Strokeplay Championship in 2019.

But he insisted: "I don't know about being a big-game player, but I have experience, and I know what I've got to do to win stuff.

"I've won loads of Yorkshire Order of Merit titles, and you do just have to grind it out sometimes."

Sunday's tournament was held at Bingley St Ives Golf Club, somewhere Wheatley is more than familiar with.

He said: "It was brilliant yesterday, and it was set up like Muirfield, with its yellow fairways and thick rough, which was brutal if you landed in it.

"But I grew up there, and only moved over to Bradford Golf Club about 10 years ago.

"I actually got the course record of eight under there 22 years ago, and it was always a great place to play with my dad."

Wheatley's job is as a pilot, but he still has plenty of time for golf over the next few weeks.

He said: "I've got the Oakdale Matchplay this Wednesday, then a 36-hole competition at Bingley St Ives next week.

"There's a prestigious links championship over 72 holes which is held jointly at Hillside and Royal Birkdale, that's an amateur world ranking event, that I'm playing in next month, and then straight after that, there's the Yorkshire Amateur Championship at Fulford."