A FINAL round of 70 lifted Waterville's Liam Higgins into joint fifth place in the inaugural Motor City Seniors Classic at The Warwickshire, near Coventry, yesterday. It also took him into the top 20 of the European Seniors Tour rankings.

Higgins has almost come to terms with the theft of his golf clubs in August and the only club he has yet to master in his new set is the sand iron.

"Everything else in the bag is fine and I'm getting the feel of the new clubs at last," said Higgins, whose winnings of £3,000 took his season's earnings to over £20,000.

England's John Morgan landed his second successive win on the European Seniors Tour with a two shot victory.

The 53 year old from West Kirby, who won the Scottish Seniors Open by four shots in Aberdeen a month ago, collected the £13,350 first prize with a final round of 72. It gave him a three under par total of 213.

Tommy Horton, already certain to win the Order of Merit, finished joint second with Australian Randall Vines and Canadian Bill Hardwick and, as a result, took his earnings for the year to £113,195, nearly £48,000 clear of Morgan with one event to come.

Paul Leonard, from Dunmurry, who went into the third and final round in fifth place, struggled on the greens, yet he birdied the final hole for a 74 to finish joint 10th and climbed to 30th place in the rankings. It was an important putt as only the top 30 in the rankings qualify for the big end of season tournament, the Player Championship, at the Buckinghamshire, which is sponsored by Gary Player.

Bobby Browne, the Laytown & Bettystown professional, had a hole in one at the 17th in the second round, using a five iron. There was no prize for the feat and, to make matter worse, he also failed to qualify for the final two rounds.