Mark James will make his debut in the Casa Serena Open from September 16-18, hoping to follow in the footsteps of his former Ryder Cup teammate Bernhard Langer, who won the inaugural title in 2008.
With a prize fund of €400,000, one of the largest on the 2011 Senior Tour schedule, the fourth edition of the Casa Serena Open will play a significant role in the end of season standings.
James, the 1999 Ryder Cup Captain, who will also be looking to add to his haul of two Senior Tour titles, which came in the 2005 European Senior Masters and the Son Gual Mallorca Senior Open in 2009. He has won 18 times on The European Tour.
The 57 year old is a former Ryder Cup Teammate of Langer, the former Masters Champion, who captured the Casa Serena Open title in 2008 at the event promoted and run by Langer Sport Marketing, the company he owns with his brother Erwin.
Indeed Casa Serena Golf, in Kutna Hora, has proved a happy hunting ground for Ryder Cup players, with Ian Woosnam finishing second and fourth on his two previous appearances in 2008 and 2009, while Gordon Brand Jnr was also runner up last year.
Woosnam and Brand Jnr are in the field again this year, along with 2002 Ryder Cup Captain Sam Torrance. Australian Peter Fowler, the only multiple winner so far in 2011, will also head to the Czech Republic hoping to strengthen his Order of Merit claims.
Defending his title will be Englishman Gary Wolstenholme, whose victory last year came on just his second Senior Tour appearance. The former Amateur Champion and Walker Cup player currently leads the race for the European Senior Tour Rookie of the Year, occupying tenth place on the Order of Merit.
Wolstenholme succeeded another Englishman, Peter Mitchell, who will also be back in the Czech Republic, as will Carl Mason, the leading Senior Tour career money winner and record breaking 24-time Senior Tour champion. Mason, who shared 12th place last year, finished fifth in 2009, the year Mitchell captured the title, and was tenth on his first appearance in the Casa Serena Open in 2008.
