European Senior Tour members return to the United States this week for the 37th U.S. Senior Open Championship. We take a look at all you need to know ahead of the third Senior Major Championship of the 2017 season…
Rewind
Miguel Angel Jiménez was denied a maiden Senior Major Championship as he was pipped on the 72nd hole by American Gene Sauers at Scioto Country Club.
A rain delay saw the final round completed on Monday, with Jiménez starting the day with a one shot lead. The lead changed hands between Jiménez and Sauers, but a bogey by the Spaniard saw the pair head down the last all-square on three under par.
Jiménez’s third shot from the bunker rolled past the hole, setting up a ten-foot putt to make par which he pushed to the right. Sauers held his nerve with a par putt from six feet, finishing one shot ahead of Jiménez and compatriot Billy Mayfair.
Former Masters Tournament champion Ian Woosnam finished fourth on one under par.
The field
19 European Senior Tour members will be teeing it up this week at Salem Country Club, with German Bernhard Langer going in search of a third consecutive Senior Major Championship victory.
In May, Langer, the dominant force in over-50s golf, won the Regions Tradition by five strokes from Scott McCarron and Scott Parel, and the following week beat fellow former Masters champion Vijay Singh by one stroke to secure the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship – his ninth Senior Major title.
Langer will tee off with fellow former winners Jeff Maggert (2015) and Kenny Perry (2013).
Colin Montgomerie was the last European Senior Tour member to win the U.S. Senior Open, beating Sauers in a play-off to win at Oak Tree National in 2014. This week Montgomerie will tee it up with Jiménez and McCarron.
Singh joins Ian Woosnam and Mark O’Meara on the tee, and Sir Nick Faldo returns to Senior Major Championship action alongside Mark Calcavecchia and Tom Watson.
In 2012 Roger Chapman became the first European in history to hold both the US Senior PGA Championship and U.S. Senior Open titles. He will tee it up with Hale Irwin and Peter Jacobsen.
Bernhard Langer won the U.S. Senior Open in 2010 to seal his second Senior Major title, just a week after winning his first - the Senior Open Championship Presented by Rolex.
2016 Senior Tour Rookie of the Year Magnus P Atlevi is the first Senior Tour member to tee off on Thursday, grouped with Americans Jim McGovern and Lindy Miller.
Peter Fowler and Miguel Angel Martin are joined by John Huston, while reigning Senior Open Champion Paul Broadhurst is grouped with defending U.S. Senior Open Champion Sauers and amateur Dave Ryan.
The course
Salem Country Club plays host to the U.S. Senior Open Championship for the second time in its 122 year history. The last time it hosted this event was in 2001 when Bruce Fleisher secured his first Senior Major Championship.
Designed by Donald Ross in 1925, the course is one of the USGA’s first 100 clubs in the United States after being founded in 1895.
The par 72 layout is described as a ‘fair’ golf course, rewarding good shots and challenging players who run in to difficulty on the fairways.
