A multitude of Ryder Cup stars including former captains Mark James, Sam Torrance and Ian Woosnam, will headline the field at the 2016 Acorn Jersey Open.
Torrance, who won the 2005 Jersey Senior Open en route to topping the Senior Tour Order of Merit, is taking part in his first event of the season, having played in six tournaments in 2015.
The trio are joined by a number of former Ryder Cup players, including Paul Broadhurst, David Gilford and Ronan Rafferty. Gilford is no stranger to La Moye Golf Club, host venue for this year’s tournament, having played on the Channel Island during the fledgling years of his professional career.
Gilford, who turned 50 last year, is playing in just his third European Senior Tour event and he arrives in Jersey on the back of a superb final round performance in the SSE Enterprise Wales Senior Open, where he finished third after carding a six under par 64 on Sunday.
At La Moye Golf Club, situated on Jersey’s south-west coast, Gilford recorded one of 43 top ten finishes on the European Tour at the 1992 Jersey Open.
“I’m hoping to play all of the Senior Tour events this year,” Gilford said. “It’s a great Tour with some good tournaments and I enjoy all the courses. This is one I particularly enjoy, and I’m really looking forward to this year’s event.
“I’ve played well here in the past, I finished sixth in 1992. It was always one of the most popular events on the European Tour Schedule and all the top players played here. You can see why it’s so popular on the Senior Tour too.”
In last week’s Wales Senior Open, Gilford went into the final round on two under par after scoring 70 and 68 on the opening two days. He then raced up the leaderboard having gone out in just 30 shots, and after carding three more birdies he eventually finished on eight under par – four strokes behind the winner, Zhang Lianwei.
He said: “I was pleased with last week’s performance – I just wanted to have three steady rounds. I was pleased with my 70 and 68 and was hoping for similar on the last day. But then I parred the first, had an eagle on the second, birdied the third and then the fifth, and all of a sudden I’d moved up the leaderboard.
“I went seven under after nine holes, and I can’t remember the last time I played that well – it’s not often you keep going like that across 18. I had a chance of winning in the end, but I perhaps was too far off. I hadn’t thought of winning, but you never know.
“Zhang started ahead of me and had a great last day, he was quite a way in front and won comfortably in the end by three shots.”
