Peter O’Malley is hoping to capitalise on some home comforts as the Australian returns to the village in which he lived for over 20 years to make his Senior Open Championship Presented by Rolex debut at Sunningdale Golf Club.
The three-time European Tour winner made his bow on the European Senior Tour three weeks ago having turned 50 at the end of June and will next week play in his first Senior Major at a venue with which he is extremely familiar.
Having racked up 459 appearances in The European Tour over the course of 35 years, the Sydney native based himself in the leafy Surrey village of Sunningdale for more than 20 years before recently returning to his homeland.
O’Malley is thoroughly looking forward to visiting a course which he knows like the back of his hand, and he is hoping that his inside knowledge of the famous Old Course will boost him to a successful Senior Major debut.
“I love playing around there,” he said. “It’s a really good golf course. The Old Course is probably my favourite one there. When I saw my first Senior Open would be at Sunningdale, I was very happy.
“I moved back to Australia in 2011, which is a bit of a shame because it would have been nice to have the house there next week.
“I do miss living there. I hadn’t been over here in the UK since the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in 2013, but just driving past there a couple of weeks ago – it’s where I lived for 20 odd years so you do miss it
“I have lots of experience there, which is great. There are a few lines off tees that you need to have a bit of knowledge of and it depends on how firm course the course is. No matter how many times I play there though, I still find it difficult to read the greens.
“Marcus Fraser has let me use his place – he’s got a flat just down the road in Camberley so I’ll be staying there.”
O’Malley certainly has an affinity with the British crowds – all three of his European Tour victories came on British soil, two in England and one in Scotland – and he cannot wait to play in front of the knowledgeable English crowds next week.
Having enjoyed a solid start to his Senior Tour career – following up a tied 11th place finish in his debut at the Swiss Seniors Open with a top 25 at the WINSTONgolf Senior Open last week – he is hoping too, that he can give those fans something to cheer about.
“I loved playing in Britain, you always get big crowds there,” he said. “They’re very knowledgeable fans so it’s always a pleasure to play in front of them.
“It’s my first one in England as a Senior Tour player but I’d imagine the crowds will really come out because they always do for the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. It’s also a really good quality field next week so that will help.
“It’s been great so far playing on the Senior Tour. It was a pro-am format in the last event in Germany and that was quite enjoyable. The two courses I have played so far have been great and they’ve treated us very well.
“It’s a lot more relaxed which is good because that’s how I like playing. I was obviously trying to get back into the swing of competitive golf leading into the Senior Open, so I got some good things out of the last few weeks.
“I do think my game is good enough to compete and win out here. I’ve just had one bad day really in each of the two tournaments, where I had a bad nine holes. But there’s been enough good golf in there to take some positives from it.
“It is inspiring to see Peter Fowler playing so well. It’s great when any of the Australian guys are playing good golf. The next few tournaments I’ll be a lot more positive and try to join them at the top of the leaderboards.”
O’Malley is one of four Australians teeing it up at Sunningdale next week, with Fowler hoping to capture a third Senior Tour title of the season and a first Senior Major.
Peter Senior, meanwhile, has twice finished in the top three at the Senior Open and the four-time European Tour winner is also chasing one of Senior golf’s Majors, while Mike Harwood enters the week off the back of a top five finish at the recent WINSTONgolf Open, his best finish of the season.
