The final Senior Major Championship of the season will be contested at Scioto Country Club this weekend. European Senior Tour member Paul Broadhurst is bidding for back-to-back Majors after his success at The Senior Open Championship Presented by Rolex...
Rewind
Last year, American Jeff Maggert took the title, finishing two shots ahead of Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie. Maggert carded rounds of 70-65-70-65 for a winning score of ten under par.
Montgomerie was aiming to become the first player in Senior Major golf to win both the US Senior PGA Championship and US Senior Open two years in a row.
Germany’s Bernhard Langer was one place further back after finishing on seven under par, and Englishman Barry Lane was tied 12th on three under par.
Just 22 golfers across the weekend made par or better at Del Paso Country Club, California.
The field
There are 21 European Senior Tour members competing at Scioto Country Club, with Paul Broadhurst making his first appearance since his historic Senior Open victory at Carnoustie Golf Links last month.
Broadhurst will be joined by compatriots Roger Chapman, the 2012 champion, Phil Golding, Barry Lane and Paul Wesselingh, and Scot Montgomerie, while Welshman Ian Woosnam will be joined by compatriot Stephen Dodd, who is appearing in his first US Senior Open after turning 50 earlier this year. Two further Englishmen came through sectional qualifying, Warren Bladon and Stephen Keppler.
Miguel Angel Jiménez, who tied third behind Broadhurst at Carnoustie, goes in search of his first Senior Major Championship, and Langer will go in search of his second US Senior Open title, after winning in 2010, and his fourth Senior Major Championship.
Among the 156 golfers are 12 US Senior Open Champions and 20 Walker Cup team members (16 from the United States and four from Great Britain & Ireland). Spain’s Miguel Angel Martin is one of 80 sectional qualifiers for this year’s tournament.
The course
Scioto Country Club, celebrating its centenary year, is a hosting USGA championship for the fourth time, but the first since 1986, when Dale Douglass won the US Senior Open by one stroke from Gary Player.
The course hosted the 1926 US Open which was won by Bob Jones, who became the first person to win both The Open Championship and US Open in the same year.
Designed by Donald Ross and opened for play in 1916, the course was renovated by Dick Wilson in the 1960s and most recently reconfigured by Jack Nicklaus and Dr Michael Hurdzan in 2008. This is the course where Nicklaus learned to play the game.
It has the fourth longest par four in US Senior Open history – the 495 yard eighth hole – and the joint-second longest par three in US Senior Open history – the 230 yard 14th hole.
Did you know?
Englishman Roger Chapman is the last golfer to win on his first appearance in the US Senior Open, after his victory in 2012 at Indianwood Golf and Country Club, Michigan.
European golfers have won the US Senior Open three times in the last six years: Langer (2010) Chapman (2012) and Montgomerie (2014).
Since the US Senior Open began in 1980, just three players have successfully defended: Miller Barber (1984-85), Gary Player (1987-88) and Allen Doyle (2005-06).
