Senior Open Championship.

Bernhard is kicking ar$e.

That is all.

At least it's "Open", unlike the US Senior Closed two weeks ago.

That is all.

I watched Tom Watson from the 8th to the 15th yesterday.
He was quite magnificent. He knew exactly where each shot was going.
Not much of a crowd with him and he was a total gentleman.

The guy playing with him was not too shabby, Hinton from England. Anyone know of him?

kwinigolfer wrote:At least it's "Open", unlike the US Senior Closed two weeks ago.

That is all.

Explain?

Gary Hallberg's 63 on Friday must surely be recognised as 'round of the year'

Championship tees except Tappie Toorie.
Three club wind and squalls.

I know 'cos I wos there'

GPB,
Only five Europeans (plus one qualifier) at the US Senior Open, more than forty Americans at Turnberry. Not quite "fair and balanced".


Doon, Hallberg is still not out of this! Couples (68) the only other golfer to break 70 on Friday . . . . . .

Amazing win by Couples! Langer loses the second major in a row in the last round... that must hurt...

Total collapse by Langer on the inward half.
Freddie was playing beautifully, good recovery from some disasterous putting on the [easy] first d, 35 putts.. I watched him nearly three putt from a 6 foot birdie putt on Friday.
Hallberg and Calcavechia were impressive.

Doon the Water wrote:Gary Hallberg's 63 on Friday must surely be recognised as 'round of the year'

Championship tees except Tappie Toorie.
Three club wind and squalls.

I know 'cos I wos there'

Not off the Championship tees today. Looked like every tee was 15-30 yards ahead of the back tees.

Doon the Water wrote:I watched Tom Watson from the 8th to the 15th yesterday.
He was quite magnificent. He knew exactly where each shot was going.
Not much of a crowd with him and he was a total gentleman.

The guy playing with him was not too shabby, Hinton from England. Anyone know of him?

How did I miss you yesterday Doon?...I followed him to the 9th then drifted back down to watch Couples through most of the front 9 (and beyond as he was playing great stuff). Watson had a very ropey 1st hole and did well to get back level for the day when he birdied 9. Couldn't believe the board when I saw him come down 18, he must have had a cracking back 9.

What a difference from the Open...so much more opportunity to see the players close up.

kwinigolfer wrote:GPB,
Only five Europeans (plus one qualifier) at the US Senior Open, more than forty Americans at Turnberry. Not quite "fair and balanced".


Doon, Hallberg is still not out of this! Couples (68) the only other golfer to break 70 on Friday . . . . . .

Maybe the Euro Sr Tour ought to be in negotiating with the USGA about Co-sanctioning the event along with some exemptions and a Euro Qualifier.

Sometimes it takes two to tango.

It's a little bit like the extradition treaty between the two countries as things stand, GPB. One way traffic.

Time for the R&A to get this nonsense sorted, but maybe the USGA doesn't want to tango - that's the only conclusion one can reach.

IMO, I don't think it would take much for the USGA to have an USSO qualifier in Europe but I think the Euro Sr Tour would have to co-sanction the event. But a winner would heavily skew their money list. Chapman won more money at the USSO than Peter Fowler did as the leading money winner on the Euro Sr Tour.

Looking at the top Euros who were not exempt from last years money list (Woosnam, Quiros, Mason) they didn't even apply.

It's not like it is closed shop, about half the field (76 players) qualified for the USSO.

On the surface, it does not look like it is just a USGA problem. I think both sides can take credit for it.

Presumably part of the problem is the gulf in standard between the European Seniors and Champions Tour (setting aside that up-and-coming phenomenon known as Roger Chapman).

To me (and I think some of them have said this themselves), the senior tour in Europe has more of a feel of a bunch of mates travelling around and enjoying themselves in their retirement*, whereas there is big money available on the US counterpart tour, and hence the levels of ability and competition tends to be higher. I suspect that if half a field was from the Euro tour and the other from US, there would be a fairly consistent pattern of a large proportion of the Euros missing the cut / not contending - which then leads to similar questions as posed recently such as "why are so many qualifying slots for The Open Championship available to Japanese Tour players?".

* in contrast to a number of us who expect to leave behind our working lives on retirement... but then play more golf.

jas
My week has been all over the place.
Great day at Hampden on Thursday with the wee chap.
I was given a season ticket by my daughters fella who is a member but was too busy.
I managed to watch a few hours on Friday with my grandson and from mid-day to around 4pm on Sat.
When I got back M'lady asked if I had seen you. My reply was that one golfer in waterproofs and a peaked hat looks just like any other golfer.
Sorry I missed you but we were there in spirit!

Skydiver.
The R&A have always paid heed to the Japanese media.
You only have to see the amount of TV people from Japan buzzing around at an Open.

As I said above, I watched the Spain v Japan match at Hampden and The Olympics.
There were 33 photographers and 13 sets of TV crews from Japan at the match.
Most of them just in front of me!!

I have always been a saddo when it comes to stats!!

Sure, I appreciate the commercial point (and indeed, I witnessed with my very own eyes the number of buggies zooming around Lytham with Japanese TV crews!) - just saying that some of our esteemed contributors have expressed a view that perhaps the J-Tour should be reassessed on merit for Open Championship qualification. My point here is that making the US-based senior major fields "genuinely" open probably wouldn't lead to many members of the Euro tour earning spots at present compared to their Champions Tour contemporaries.