Boonchu Ruangkit will be looking to put the seal on a sensational maiden campaign at this week’s OKI Castellón Senior Tour Championship, which brings the curtain down on a gripping 2010 European Senior Tour season.
The Thai has been in scintillating form in his debut season, having long since wrapped up the Rookie of the Year title after successive victories in Brunei, Thailand and South Africa at the start of the year and more recently at the Benahavis Senior Masters, where he became the first player to win four times in his maiden campaign since England’s Carl Mason in 2003.
Had Ruangkit’s winnings in Brunei – where he was playing as a sponsor’s invitation – counted towards the Order of Merit his name would already have been engraved onto the John Jacobs Trophy; but as he was not a Senior Tour Member at the time of his victory South African Chris Williams could still pip him to the title with victory at Club de Campo del Mediterráneo in Castellón, Spain, which is hosting the season finalé for the third successive season.
Ruangkit withdrew from the inaugural Sicilian Senior Open – where Williams closed the gap at the top of the Order of Merit by finishing in tied ninth place – after suffering a neck injury; but the Thai ace has now returned to full fitness and will go in search of a second successive win on Spanish soil and with it a place in the history books as the first player to capture five titles in his debut Senior Tour season.
Williams has yet to win on the Senior Tour Schedule, but after an incredibly consistent season which has yielded 11 top ten finishes – including two as runner-up – he currently sits in second place on the Order of Merit with earnings of €215,537.
That is some €39,259 short of the Thai’s total of €254,796, but with €64,433 on offer to the winner of the €400,000 event, Williams could still succeed Scotland’s Sam Torrance as the Senior Tour Number One should he claim his maiden title and Ruangkit finish outside the top three.
Three-time John Jacobs Trophy winner Torrance, who took the OKI Castellón Senior Tour Championship title in 2008, returns to the 6,800 yards, par 72 course bidding to improve on his current Order of Merit position of 14th.
Torrance finished in third place at last year’s event behind runner-up Angel Franco, the big hitter from Paraguay who is currently third on the Order of Merit, and eventual winner Mike Harwood of Australia, whose closing round of 66 meant he became the first former champion of the Volvo Masters on The European Tour to triumph at the Senior Tour’s season finalé.
The giant from Sydney, who won the 2009 Rookie of the Year title thanks chiefly to his three-shot victory at Club de Campo del Mediterráneo, returns to Castellón intent on rescuing an inconsistent season in which he has finished in the top ten on only one occasion, at the Handa Irish Senior Open presented by Fáilte Ireland in June.
Other notable names in the field include Mason, the winner of the Senior Tour Championship in his debut season in 2003.
By his own astonishingly high standards Mason started the season sluggishly, but the Englishman returned to the winner’s enclosure at the Bad Ragaz PGA Seniors Open July, and he arrives in Spain on the back of three successive top ten finishes, at the Cannes Mougins Masters, the Benhavis Senior Masters and the Sicilian Senior Open, which have helped propel him to fifth on the Order of Merit.
Should he repeat his victory of seven years ago, Mason would surpass his compatriot Tommy Horton’s record haul of 23 Senior Tour titles.
Other previous winners of the event include Ireland’s Des Smyth (2005), England’s Gordon J Brand (2006) and Italian Costantino Rocca (2007).
