Senior Open Championship Archives - Golf Digest Middle East

Senior Open Championship: Darren Clarke gets win he most desired in wet finish at Gleneagles

Golf Digest Middle East — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 05:40:52 +0000

By John Huggan
It remains to be seen what Darren Clarke will come up with to celebrate the year 2033. For now, though, it is enough to know that the burly Northern Irishman has added the 2022 Senior Open title to his 2011 Open Championship victory. Closely challenged by a sizeable squad of regular and senior major winners, Clarke’s closing 69 over the endlessly picturesque King’s Course at Gleneagles was just enough to see off all-comers and claim the $432,080 first-place cheque.

Irishman Padraig Harrington shot a 67 to push Clarke all the way, but he was one shot shy — and one shot clear of a six-strong pack including Ernie Els, Steve Alker and Paul Broadhurst in third place.

It took a bit longer to than normal to sort out all of the above though. Clarke’s 72-hole aggregate of 10-under 270 was achieved only after a two-hour delay caused by torrential rain late on Sunday evening. Nine-under and standing on the 14th fairway when play was halted, Clarke (eventually) failed to birdie the almost-drivable par 4 and gave fresh hope to the pushing pack. And soon enough, they took advantage. Within minutes, Alker (at the 15th), Thongchai Jaidee (16th), Els (18th) and Harrington (17th), the recent US Senior Open champion, all made birdies to advance their respective causes.

Significantly, however, only Harrington, who made a second birdie on the par-5 closing hole, did enough to get to Clarke’s nine-under. But it wasn’t really enough. Not quite. When (as more rain poured down) the burly Northern Irishman made a 4 of his own at the 18th, two-putting from long range, he created the edge he needed to become only the fourth man after Gary Player, Bob Charles and Tom Watson to complete the Open and Senior Open double.

That fact clearly meant a lot.

“I’ve made no secret of the fact that I wanted to win this more than anything after I turned 50,” said Clarke, which he did in August 2018. “As a kid I wanted to win the Open Championship. As a senior, this was always the one for me. This trophy will look good sitting beside the other one. I’m humbled and privileged to have my name on both alongside some legends of the game.”

He's done the double! @DarrenClarke60 wins The #SeniorOpen Presented by @ROLEX ? pic.twitter.com/m02iHvqPPz

— Legends Tour (@euLegendsTour) July 24, 2022

And the conditions? Not a problem for an Ulsterman.

“I grew up playing in stuff like this,” Clarke said. “It doesn’t make it any easier though. It was a battle. Pars were a bit of a prisoner out there. But I was cruising until I made a terrible swing on the 10th. All of sudden, an easy birdie became a bad bogey. I hit some good shots from there, but the putter was a bit cold. I didn’t hole much of any note. but getting down in two putts from 70-odd feet on the last was obviously pleasing. It was the percentage play, even if the two-footer I had left still had to be knocked in.”

One thing Clarke will not be doing is repeating the all-night celebration in the wake of his Open triumph 11 years ago, one that saw him turn up for a Monday morning press conference somewhat the worse for wear. “This trophy doesn’t hold as much,” he said with a smile.

Of the challengers, Harrington will have most cause for regret. The two-time Open champion struck the ball with his usual authority but missed an awful lot of makable putts, most of them for birdies. And eagles. Two in his last five holes to be precise, at the 14th and the fateful last.

Clarke though has every right to be pleased with himself. This was a performance of the highest class in trying circumstances and against a chasing pack containing, at various times in the final round, as many as seven major champions, both regular and senior.

One last thing. The winning score even had a touch of irony about it. The last time Clarke played 72-competitive holes over the King’s Course was in the 1994 Scottish Open. Back then, he also shot 270, good enough for only a T-5 finish. Things in golf do change, some of them for the better.”

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Senior Open: Paul Broadhurst and Darren Clarke set for final day battle at Gleneagles

Matt Smith — Sun, 24 Jul 2022 08:34:25 +0000

By Matt Smith
Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke birdied the last to join Paul Broadhurst at the top of the leaderboard ahead of the final round of the Senior Open at Gleneagles.

The 53-year-old entered the third round with a two-stroke lead but, despite giving himself chances, could only post a one-under 69 as England’s Broadhurst went three strokes better to share the lead on nine-under.

The Englishman, who won the Senior Open in 2016, responded to a bogey at the 12th with a trio of birdies from the 13th to card his four under round of 66 and put the pressure on Clarke with the rain getting heavier as the day went on.

Clarke dropped back-to-back shots on the 12th and 13th but steadied the ship to par his way in before his closing birdie ensured he would take a share of the lead into the final round where he will bid to add The Senior Open trophy to the Claret Jug he won in 2011.

The duo is one stroke clear of New Zealand’s Steven Alker and American Jerry Kelly, both Senior Major Champions, who share third place on eight-under. Eight-time European No. 1 Colin Montgomerie is the leading Scotsman in a share for fifth place on six-under, alongside Australian Stuart Appleby, Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee and major champions Ernie Els and Pádraig Harrington.

Four-time Senior Open winner Bernhard Langer is a shot further back in a tie for 10th place alongside South Africa’s James Kingston.

“I’ve gone out there and I’ve played nicely all day,” said Clarke. “I’ve given myself chance after chance. I’ve hit good putts. They just haven’t gone in. I’ve hit 17 greens leading the tournament and played lovely. At least one decided to go in at the last.

“Everybody has practised and we got some rain today and I lost my speed. It was difficult with the moisture but it’s the same for everybody.

The 2011 Open champion added: “It would be pretty cool to have both of them sitting beside each other, you know what I mean. I would love to win the Senior Open as well as the main Open.

“Tomorrow I give myself an opportunity again. I did it last year, and I gave myself an opportunity. Felt like I didn’t quite play well enough on the Sunday. Doddy came through and played great. Hopefully hit a couple more putts and give myself a better chance coming down the last few holes.”

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Glen Day earns share of Senior Open lead at Gleneagles despite losing clubs

Matt Smith — Fri, 22 Jul 2022 06:37:23 +0000

By Matt Smith
Unheralded American Glen Day eagled the last hole to take a share of the Senior Open lead, despite playing with a new set of clubs after his failed to arrive from the United States.

The American converted an eight-foot eagle putt on the 18th hole of the King’s Course to post a six-under round of 64 and join Stephen Ames at the top of the leaderboard at Gleneagles, following the Canadian’s bogey-free target-setter earlier in the day.

Day’s closing eagle was the final stroke of a red-hot putting performance, for which he credited countryman Wes Short Jnr following a pre-tournament putting lesson in Perthshire after a period of struggle on the greens.

The leading duo are one stroke clear of a star-studded chasing pack, including past winner Paul Broadhurst, 2011 Open Champion Darren Clarke, 2020 Senior Players winner Jerry Kelly and Kent Jones, of the United States, who progressed through a play-off in Monday Qualifying to book his spot at Gleneagles.

Three-time major champ Pádraig Harrington enjoyed a positive start to his Senior Open debut with a four-under 66, leaving him in a share of seventh place alongside six others, including fellow debutant and 2010 BMW PGA Champion Simon Khan and two-time Champion Golfer of the Year Ernie Els.

“I putted great,” said Day. “I really have to, I’ve got to give some credit to Wes Short. We are staying together this week and he gave me a little putting lesson, and for the first time, I made a lot of putts today, so that was it.

“We played late obviously. No wind. Very rarely have I ever played over here, been this calm and easy. So yeah, they are there, but you have to hit good shots. If you hit good shots and make putts, good things happen.

“I have nothing with me. I didn’t even get my golf clubs. I had to get another set of clubs, and this is a new putter and a driver that I didn’t hit very well. Everything is — no. I have no reason to believe I would play good today.”

Harrington added: “I’m happy with that score. I was very tentative. I putted well and my putter saved me most of the day.”

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Brandel Chamblee qualifies for Senior Open for the second year in a row

Golf Digest Middle East — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 05:11:32 +0000

By Alex Myers
For a second consecutive year, Brandel Chamblee’s trip to the UK to cover the Open Championship will include playing in an Open himself.

On Monday, the NBC/Golf Channel analyst swapped his microphone for his golf clubs and qualified for this week’s Senior Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club. Chamblee earned his spot in the field by shooting a one-under-par 72 at Fairhaven. Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch snapped this photo after of his happy friend:

pic.twitter.com/3l85HhZxN1

— Eamon Lynch (@eamonlynch) July 22, 2019

It wasn’t quite the performance as last year when Chamblee shot 69 and was medalist at his qualifier. This time, he finished tied for eighth among the 133 golfers who finished their rounds. And if we’re nitpicking his play—as Chamblee does (well) of others at his day job—he bogeyed a par 5 to finish his round. Not very clutch, Brandel!

All kidding aside, this is an impressive accomplishment for a part-time golfer. Even if Chamblee, 57, happens to be a part-time golfer who once won on the PGA Tour.

Chamblee’s next goal? Play better than he did at St. Andrews last year, where he shot 77-75 to miss the cut. After, he bluntly assessed his own golf game.

“It was tougher than I thought it would be,” Chamblee said following the second round. “Yesterday I wasn’t sharp hitting the ball, and I putted atrociously. Today, I was pretty sharp hitting the ball, but I found my way into a couple of pot bunkers. And continued to putt like a buffoon.”

In other words, no matter how he plays this week, it should be entertaining.

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Pro’s tee shot hits seagull on the Road Hole at Senior Open, causing ball to ricochet out-of-bounds

Golf Digest Middle East — Fri, 27 Jul 2018 22:23:26 +0000

By Christopher Powers
The Road Hole at St. Andrews is among the toughest and most crucial holes in major championship history. Tournaments have been won and lost at the iconic, demanding par 4. Jordan Spieth provided the prime example of the hole’s knack for deciding the Open in 2015, when he made a bogey that kept him out of a three-man playoff and ended his chances of the calendar-year grand slam. That same year, according to Golf Channel’s Ryan Lavner, the 17th was the most difficult hole since the Open began keeping the statistic in 1982.

In other words, the last thing the 17th needed was an added challenge, something 18-time European Tour winner Mark James received on Thursday in the Senior Open Championship at the Old Course. After going out in three-over 39, James fought back and arrived at the 17th tee at two-over par, which is currently well out of contention but still in the mix to make the cut. Those chances got much slimmer when James struck his tee shot and it hit a seagull mid flight, causing the ball to cruelly ricochet out-of-bounds:

Unluckiest golf shot of the year?

Mark James’ tee shot on the famous 17th hole on the Old Course, St Andrews hits a bird before going out of bounds. #SeniorOpen pic.twitter.com/jow7G0YbqN

— Staysure Tour (@StaysureTour) July 26, 2018

We’ll spare you the “not the birdie he was looking for” joke and just say that’s an awful break, and not the first time it’s happened to a professional golfer this year. This past April at Harbour Town, Kelly Kraft’s tee shot on the par-3 14th also struck a bird in mid-air, causing the ball to drop into a water hazard. Although Kraft would end up missing the cut by a shot, he still saved bogey. James was not as fortunate, making a triple-bogey en-route to a five-over 77, which currently has him tied for 122nd, nine off the lead.

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Bernhard Langer cruises to Senior British Open title, his 10th career senior major

Golf Digest Middle East — Tue, 01 Aug 2017 13:12:15 +0000

By Ryan Herrington
To win the Senior British Open and add a 10th major to his already record total on the PGA Tour Champions, Bernhard Langer once again defied convention. This time, the 59-year-old took down the old axiom that you can’t win a golf tournament in the first round, you can only lose it.

With a two-under 69 on Thursday at Royal Porthcawl in Wales, in windy and rain conditions that saw the scoring average come in a 76.8, Langer established a lead that would not be topped. He then spent the next three days toying with the rest of the field, posting scores of 74-65-72 to win by three strokes over Corey Pavin.

It was Langer’s third Senior British Open title, going with wins at Carnoustie in 2010 and Porthcawl in 2014. The victory was also his third major triumph of 2017, letting him join Jack Nicklaus as just the second golfer to ever win three in one calendar year, the Golden Bear accomplishing the feat in 1991.

Langer’s latest triumph came amid his continued frustration over questions about his putting stroke. With the USGA coming out after the U.S. Senior Open earlier this month stating that he was in compliance with the 2016 ban on an anchored stroke, the German golfer hoped things will soon be put to rest. But whispers linger.

Langer was also under the weather in Wales, dealing with a sore throat that left him with laryngitis at the start of the week and limited his practice.

Lastly, there specter of a rare slip-up from Langer two weeks earlier at the Senior Players Championship, when he double bogeyed the 17th hole to squander a final-round lead and lose to Scott McCarron.

“I’m just going to enjoy the fruit of the labor, and to have won three majors in one season is pretty spectacular, and it actually could have been four if I didn’t mess up two weeks ago,” said Langer, who now has 33 career PGA Tour Champions wins, 12 behind all-time leader Hale Irwin. “But when you put yourself in that situation, you’re going to win some and you’re just going to lose some. That’s how it goes.”

As Langer’s list of superlatives grows, they’re worth repeat if only to help convince people that they’ve actually happened.

This is his fifth senior major victory since turning 58; only three other players in history had one a single senior major at that age (Tom Watson, Irwin and John Jacobs).

He has won his 10 senior majors in 48 starts, giving him a win percentage of 20.83. Meanwhile, for his career he has led or held a share of the lead after 42 of 192 rounds (21.88 percent).

That rate increases to 42.5 percent at the Senior British, where Langer has now led after 17 of 40 rounds. His worst finish in the event in 10 career starts is a T-12.

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Bernhard Langer sounds fed up with the cheating accusations surrounding his putting stroke

Golf Digest Middle East — Thu, 27 Jul 2017 20:26:16 +0000

By Joel Beall
Bernhard Langer is enjoying another dominant season on the Champions Tour, winning three times with nine top-10 finishes in 12 events. Alas, 2017 has bestowed its share of issues as well, as Langer’s putting stroke — one that many believe is in violation of golf’s anchoring ban — has begat a wave of cheating accusations.

While the USGA has come to Langer’s defense, many prominent voices continue to cast aspersions on Langer (and to a lesser extent, Scott McCarron). Speaking at Royal Porthcawl ahead of this week’s Senior Open Championship, the two-time Masters champ sounds fed up with the matter.

“I personally don’t understand it because I’m a man of integrity and the last thing I want to do is break rules and be known as cheating or something,” Langer said. “I mean, that’s the very last thing I want.

“What’s even stranger is that I have conferred with the USGA rules officials, with the Champions Tour officials, on a regular basis…And then you have a few people that come up on whatever it is, Twitter or somewhere else, and questioning my integrity, which is really hurtful. “

But Langer said he plans on continue to employ his current stroke, and offered his thoughts on why this vendetta is aimed his way.

“It’s human to be jealous,” Langer said. “If I was No. 180 on the Money List, I don’t think anybody would be talking about it. But I’ve been No. 1 the last few years on a regular basis, and now McCarron has a lot of success, as well. We’re actually No. 1 and 2 on the Champions Tour. So you’re going to have people, you know, being jealous or whatever you want to call it.”

Langer is shooting for this third career Senior Open title this week.

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Gary Player insists that they’ve got the career senior major count all wrong

Golf Digest Middle East — Sun, 28 May 2017 06:50:12 +0000

By Jaime Diaz

There’s a good chance Bernhard Langer will win the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship on Sunday. If he does, he’ll officially pass Jack Nicklaus for most career majors on the PGA Tour Champions.

It would also give Langer 32 career senior victories. At a very youthful 59, he has a chance to surpass Hale Irwin’s long-considered unsurpassable career win record of 45.

But as to the major record, there will be a dissenting voice, one familiar for its clipped syllables and fervent conviction. It will belong to Langer’s golfing idol, Gary Player, who it’s safe to say scrutinizes the record book and his place in it more closely and critically than any all-time great.

The 82-year-old South African strongly believes he won nine major championships in senior golf, because while official totals don’t count the three Senior Open Championships he won as majors, he does. It bothered Player when Langer’s victory at last week’s Regions Tradition was widely reported to have brought the German into a tie with Jack Nicklaus for the most career senior majors with eight. And according to friends, Player was downright dejected two weeks ago when, on the first tee of his one-round exhibition with Nicklaus and Lee Trevino, he was announced as having won six senior majors.

Getting credit for nine senior majors is important to Player. Not only would it give him the most, his claim to achieving the career senior Grand Slam is based on having won the Senior Open Championship in 1988, 1990 and 1997. And the symmetry of equaling the nine majors he won on the regular tour allows Player to more easily make a point about the example that he sees as a big part of his legacy.

“My nine majors and career Grand Slam on the senior tour outrank my nine majors and career Grand Slam on the regular tour,” he says. “It took the world a long time to realize how tough the competition was on the senor tour, and so winning all the majors in a shorter window of time is a great accomplishment. The reason I was able to do it was because at 50, I was within 10 percent of being as fit as I had been at 25.”

Player has always been about doing things others haven’t. It goes beyond being the greatest international golfer in the game’s history, a record that is probably safer than Irwin’s 45 senior wins. Player could once say with certainty that he had flown more miles as a passenger than anyone in history, and he wonders how many men his age can still leg press 400 pounds, do 1,000 sit-ups at a time or run the treadmill on the highest setting.

Such hyper-competitiveness comes from a deep place. During his recovery from a serious neck injury at age 15, Player remembers looking in the mirror and repeating over and over, “You will be the greatest golfer in the world.” While he was still playing regularly in his 60s, he refused to concede that Nicklaus’ would end up with the most total regular and senior majors. “He might,” said Player of his friend, “but let’s wait until all the golf has been played.”

Even today, Player can’t help pointing out when he outdrives Nicklaus during their ceremonial tee shots at the Masters. As Player said in his autobiography: “What I have learned about myself is that I am animal when it comes to achievement and wanting success. There is never enough success for me.”

Icon Sportswire

Now Player hopes that his Senior Open Championship victories will be retroactively deemed majors. The championship was first played in 1987, but it wasn’t designated a major on the PGA Tour Champions until 2003. Besides Player, the previous multiples winners were Bob Charles, Brian Barnes and Christy O’Connor Jr.

An almost parallel situation occurred in women’s golf. The British Women’s Open, first played in 1976 (without the men’s “links only” policy), was not considered a major until 2001. Karrie Webb had won it twice before that. And if Laura Davies’s 1986 victory had counted as a major, she would have entered the World Golf Hall of Fame a decade earlier.

Player’s argument for retroactivity is persuasive, starting with what he considers golf’s chronic institutional undervaluing of the international game. “Remember that the Open Championship itself wasn’t made official by the PGA Tour until 1995, which meant it didn’t count on the victory totals of Snead, Hogan, Palmer, Nicklaus, myself all that time,” Player says. “Imagine the oldest golf tournament, played on links courses that are the greatest test of skill and mind, with the most representative international field, not being recognized. It tells you something. And to similarly not recognize the Senior Open Championship as a major for many years is not fair.

“What I would say,” Player continues, “is that every tournament has to start somewhere, and then it evolves. The Masters in 1934 was not what it would become, but every player who has won it is recognized as a major winner. I remember Arnold Palmer, using his word, telling me it was ‘bullsh–’ that the Senior Open Championship wasn’t a major. He so regretted not winning the championship when he was playing senior golf, because playing on an old links where golf began was very special for him. I wonder, what would the status of the championship be if Arnold had won it three times?”

My nine majors and career Grand Slam on the senior tour outrank my nine majors and career Grand Slam on the regular tour. —Gary Player

Player’s claim that he—and not Nicklaus—is the only man to have achieved the senior career Grand Slam is flawed by his contention that the Tradition, now one of the five senior majors and a tournament he never won, should not have been designated a major at its inception in 1989. “It’s always been a very nice tournament,” he says. “It’s just not a major.” But whether it should or shouldn’t have been, the fact is it was. Nicklaus is officially credited with completing his era’s Grand Slam by winning The Tradition (four times) along with the U.S. Senior Open, the Senior Players Championship and the Senior PGA Championship, all before the Senior Open Championship (which he never won) was designated a major.

By winning on Sunday, Langer would become the first player to complete the senior career Grand Slam since it has been expanded to five championships, an even greater feat than either Nicklaus or Player achieved.

Regardless, in my opinion Player’s main argument—biased by his own “animal” ambitions as it undoubtedly is—is right. The powers that be should designate that every Senior Open Championship ever played was a major. Even more than the U.S. Senior Open (always a major) follows the U.S. Open, the 50-and-older version of the Open Championship looks and feels and plays like the world’s oldest championship, and that alone should make it a major.

Langer’s current run into the record books makes now the right time to give Player an official stamp for three more senior majors, and at least one more for 10 other players. Player would have his nine—which might even withstand Langer’s final total. And even though a similarly authenticated senior Grand Slam for Player is not in the cards, it’s OK. Even if it were, it still wouldn’t be enough success.

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Senior Open champion set for Sharjah Masters

Kent Gray — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 15:14:02 +0000

Senior Open champion Paul Broadhurst will headline the inaugural Sharjah Senior Golf Masters presented by Shurooq in March.

The 51-year-old Englishman will be joined by three other Ryder Cup blasts from the past – Mark James, Ronan Rafferty and Barry Lane – at the European Senior Tour event at Sharjah Golf and Shooting Club from March 16-18.

“I am greatly looking forward to starting my defence of the John Jacobs Trophy [order of merit title] in Sharjah in March,” said Broadhurst who won his first senior major at Carnoustie in July by two shots from American Scott McCarron before going on to capture the US Champion Tour’s Pure Insurance Championship in September.

“I have always enjoyed playing in the United Arab Emirates, and it’s great that the Senior Tour golfers now have a chance to return to a country where a number of us will have very fond memories.”

Broadhurst, who finished second at the Wales Senior Open, WINSTONgolf Senior Open and the season-ending MCB Tour Championship and had two other two 10s, easily captured the the 2016 order of merit title with €399, 285 from nine events. Swede Magnus P Atlevi, tied third with Miguel Angel Jimenez at Carnoustie, was second with €211,557 to tie up rookie of the year honours.

Atlevi will also tee it up in Sharjah which is one of five European Tour events scheduled for the UAE in 2017 alongside the this month’s main tour Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, February’s Tiger Woods-headlined Omega Dubai Desert Classic, November’s DP World Tour Championship and the Challenge Tour’s Ras-Al Khaimah Golf Challenge in October.

It’s the first Senior Tour event in the region since 2000 but a first professional tournament for Sharjah and the emirate’s Peter Harradine-designed nine-hole course.

James, a former Ryder Cup captain and two-time Senior Tour winner, won the inaugural Dubai Desert Classic in 1989, the very first European Tour event held in the UAE.

Northern Ireland’s Rafferty, winner of the European Tour Order of Merit in 1989, will go in search of a maiden Senior Tour title, adding to the seven he won on main tour between 1989 and 1993.

Lane will land in Sharjah fresh from winning the MCB Tour Championship.

Former Desert Classic champion Eamonn Darcy, a hero of Europe’s 15-13 Ryder Cup win in 1987, fellow Irishman and two-time Ryder Cupper Des Smyth and five-time Senior Tour winner and 2011 OOM winner Peter Fowler (Australia) have also been linked with to the Sharjah bow.

Photo – Getty Images

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