The U.S. Senior Open gets underway at Warren Golf Course in Notre Dame, Indiana from June 27-30. We take a look at five things you need to know before David Toms begins his title defence at the third major of the season.
Can Langer make history?
Germany’s Bernhard Langer will tee it up this week in his 12th consecutive appearance at the U.S. Senior Open. The two-time Masters Tournament champion was the first European to win the title back in 2010 and would become the oldest winner in the history of the championship if he was to emulate that triumph in Indiana this week.
That record is currently held by American Allen Doyle, who was 57 years, 11 months and 14 days old when he claimed back-to-back U.S. Senior Open titles in 2006.
At 61 years of age, the ten-time Senior Major Championship winner remains a dominant force in the over-50s game and despite competing against players over a decade his junior, few would put it past him to make it 11.
Five in a row for Broadhurst?
Paul Broadhurst has won a title on the Staysure Tour in every season since bursting on to the scene and clinching the Rookie of the Year award back in 2015 – winning the Scottish Senior Open on his debut appearance that same year.
The Englishman has yet to secure a win in 2019, but with two Senior Major titles to his name and a top three finish at the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship already under his belt this season he will undoubtedly be counted among the favourites when the championship gets underway. Should Broadhurst win this week, he would become only the second Englishman and fourth European in history to win the coveted title, replicating the exploits of Langer (2010), two-time Senior Major winner Roger Chapman (2012) and European Tour legend Colin Montgomerie (2014).
On the tee
Paul Lawrie, the 1999 British Open Champion, will be making his U.S. Senior Open debut at Warren Golf Club thisweek.
The former Ryder Cup player, who turned 50 in January, is one of24Staysure Tour members in the field, including Farmfoods European Legends Links Champion Jean-François Remésy, recent World Golf Hall of Fame inductee Retief Goosen and fan favourite Miguel Ángel Jiménez.
Twenty years on from his historic victory at Carnoustie, can Lawrie follow in the footstep of compatriot Colin Montgomerie and become the second Scottish player in history to lift the Francis Ouimet Trophy?
An amateur mistake
Should Dave Antill become the first amateur to win the U.S. Senior Open in the tournament’s 40-year history this week, he should count himself very lucky indeed. The 52-year-old American, who secured his place in the field through sectional qualifying, submitted his entry with just three seconds to spare before the deadline.
While no amateur has ever won the tournament, William C. Campbell came closest to do so during the inaugural championship at Winged Foot Golf Club in 1980, finishing in a tie for second.
History in the making
Four players (John Cook, Billy Mayfair, Mark O’Meara, and Scott Verplank) will be bidding to follow in the footsteps of golfing greatness this week as they attempt to join an exclusive group of golfers who have won both the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Senior Open.
There are only three players in history ever to achieve that feat; Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Bruce Fleisher.
Palmer and Nicklaus remain the only two golfers in history to win all three of the USGA's flagship tournaments, with both players also capturing the U.S. Open Championship.
