Nick Price will be hoping a rest is as good as a change this week as he returns to competitive action to make his Senior Open Championship debut at Walton Heath Golf Club, in Surrey, England, after taking his longest break of the season.
The Zimbabwean will be in prestigious company on Thursday, when he tees off for his first round alongside Barry Lane and Tom Watson, who has just come from a testing week in The Open Championship at Royal St George’s.
But Price will be hoping his contrasting circumstances will give him the upper hand in what are expected to be far calmer conditions on the superb heathland course.
“I’ve probably just come off my longest break of the year, which is three weeks, because we did have a little holiday before we came over here,” said the three-time Major winner.
“But most of the year I played very consistently. Now I'm hoping for some blue skies, and some nice wind, but no rain and no cold!”
Price currently lies third on the Champions Tour Order of Merit, but is yet to claim that elusive Senior Major title. So how much would he like to end that particular hoodoo this weekend in the Surrey countryside?
“A couple of senior Majors before I hang my clubs up would do me very nicely,” he said.
Price is hoping an appreciative crowd can help him achieve that goal this week, when some of the legends of world golf gather for the biggest event on the European Senior Tour Schedule.
He said: “This is a second lease on life for us, and we are very fortunate in that whereas other athletes have retired in their late 30s and early 40s, we are still out here playing against each other and competing against each other and having a ball doing it, so I think that sort of rubs off on to the galleries.”
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