Golf: Oldcorn has a Fair chance

CAPITAL golfer Andrew Oldcorn is among a host of home players with a good chance of winning the Cleveland Golf/Srixon Scottish Senior Open, which tees off tomorrow at Fairmont, St Andrews.

Five Scots, including Oldcorn, are currently sitting in the top 20 on the European Senior Tour Order of Merit and they're all in the field for an event which this year carries an increased prize fund of 250,000.

For Oldcorn, it will be his debut in the Scottish Senior Open and the former PGA champion will surely be in the mix if he can produce the form that saw him make a fine start to his career on the over-50s circuit.

He finished in the top ten in the Senior PGA Championship, one of the majors, in Denver and then came close to a first win as he claimed second spot in the Van Lanschot Open back on European soil.

Oldcorn suffered the disappointment of missing the cut in the Senior Open Championship at Carnoustie last month but he's kept his game ticking over since then by playing in some domestic events and, no doubt, will be raring to get back into action on the Senior circuit.

He's seventh on the order of merit, a spot behind Bill Longmuir, with Gordon Brand Jnr (12th), Sam Torrance (14th) and Ross Drummond (15th) the other Scots to the fore going into this week's 54-hole event.

Also making his debut in the tournament is Fraser Mann, the former Musselburgh club professional who, like Oldcorn, is in the middle of his rookie season as a Senior.

Mann made the cut at Carnoustie but is lying 69th in the rankings as he waits to make his presence felt on a leaderboard for the first time.