Former champion Carl Mason tees it up in this week’s Handa Irish Seniors Open presented by Fáilte Ireland with two European Senior Tour records firmly in his sights.
Mason, who finished joint runner up with Bobby Lincoln behind Gordon Brand Jnr in last week’s Matrix Jersey Classic, needs to win just €2,719 at Carton House, in Co. Kildare, to become the first player to pass the €2million mark in career earnings on the Senior Tour.
The 56 year old Englishman also needs just one more victory to match compatriot Tommy Horton’s record of 23 Senior Tour victories.
Mason won the Irish Seniors Open in 2004 at Adare Manor Hotel and he will also attempt to join Japan’s Seiji Ebihara (2001 and 2002) and Australian Noel Ratcliffe (2003 and 2005) as the only other two time winners of the tournament.
“I played well in Jersey last week, as I did in the previous tournament at Stapleford Park, so I’m hoping to carry on from that,” he said. “The object of going to Jersey was to get some match practice but it went better than that.
“The Irish Seniors Open is only my third event of the season really (he was forced to withdraw due to injury in the Berenberg Bank Masters) and we have a good run of events coming up so it would be nice to carry on the form.
“Passing the €2million mark here this week would be another record achieved but Tommy’s record is the one I’m after. It is possible the way I’m playing. It feels good at the moment and hopefully I can progress from the way I played last week.”
Standing between Mason and a place in the record books will be two former Ryder Cup Captains in Sam Torrance, the 2006 Irish Seniors Open champion, and Ian Woosnam, who gets his first opportunity to defend a Senior Tour title this week.
Woosnam produced one of the most remarkable final day displays of the 2009 season at Ballybunion Golf Club 12 months ago, coming from six shots back to tie with Bob Boyd on two under par 211 before defeating the American on the third extra hole.
That was the 2008 Order of Merit winner’s third Senior Tour victory, following the Parkridge Polish Seniors Championship and the Russian Seniors Open in his rookie campaign, but this will be the first chance he has had to defend a title on the Senior Tour.
Woosnam is an ambassador for new title sponsors International Sports Promotion Society (ISPS)and its Chairman Dr Haruhisa Handa, as is another Torrance who pipped him to last year’s Order of Merit crown, and two-time Major Champion Sandy Lyle.
They are among a number of former Ryder Cup players in the field this week, including Irish trio Des Smyth, Christy O’Connor Jnr and Eamonn Darcy, Italian Costantino Rocca, the 2007 champion, and Scotland’s Brand Jnr, who captured his maiden Senior Tour title in last week’s Matrix Jersey Classic.
