Defending SSE Enterprise Wales Senior Open champion Paul Wesselingh is relishing the prospect of returning to the Roman Road Course at Celtic Manor Resort in a bid to retain his title.
Wesselingh carded a final round 67 last year to win by two strokes ahead of Peter Fowler and local favourite Ian Woosnam.
With ideal conditions in Newport for this weekend’s tournament, the Englishman knows he will have to be on his guard going into today’s first round as he is joined by Mark James and Peter O’Malley in the draw.
He said: “The course is in great condition, as always. I like it a lot and it really suits my eye. I feel comfortable out there.
“It’s quite bouncy, which tells me there hasn’t been a lot of rain here. It was quite windy for yesterday’s pro-am, but I was playing long into the wind which was encouraging.
“The wind will probably drop a little bit, but it will still be interesting to see how scoring goes out there.
“But golf is a funny game, you can go out there feeling great and shoot a 76 or you could find yourself carding 68 even if you shoot badly.
“On this course you have to hit the fairways, and they are reasonably generous. I had forgotten how much of a slope there is on the greens.”
Although the 54 year old missed the cut in last week’s US Senior PGA Championship, Wesselingh said that getting tournament experience was vital ahead of both this week’s title defence in Wales and next week’s Acorn Jersey Open.
“Even though I missed the cut, I had two practice rounds and then two tournament rounds,” he said. “I played well, but you can struggle if you end up on the wrong side of some of the flags. You don’t have to be that far off form to score badly out there.
“I feel as though I need to play more early in the year. I’ve hit so many balls in practice, but you come out for the first tournament and feel like you’ve never played. I’ve made a mental note to get a card in my hand really early next year. That’s probably more vital to me than practising.
“You really need to be on your toes because the standard at this level is so good, especially when you’ve got the so-called ‘kids’ coming through.
“It’s so important to keep fit. The longer you stay fit the longer you’ll play for. If I can feel like I’m 40 then I’ll hopefully be able to play another 10 or 12 years into my early 60s.
“You look at Denis O’Sullivan, playing his 300th event, and Carl Mason and they have played so many tournaments between them.”
