Turnberry whets appetite of top names ahead of Senior Open

THE lure of the Ailsa Course, coupled with a sensible schedule change, is set to ensure a stellar field for this year’s Senior Open Championship at Turnberry.

The event’s seventh staging at the Ayrshire venue takes place on 26-29 July and will be the final senior major of the 2012 season as a result of the US Senior Open moving forward three weeks. In recent years, it was held the week after the Senior Open, meaning Bernhard Langer, for example, found himself in Carnoustie one week then Seattle the next as he claimed back-to-back over-50s major titles in 2010. With the Open Championship being held south of the Border for the second year running – at Royal Lytham – organisers of the Senior Open, which is being presented by Rolex, expect bumper crowds at Turnberry.

It’s an event the players are already looking forward to, with Sam Torrance, for one, relishing the chance to compete in a Senior major again in his native Ayrshire.

“I was at Turnberry a few weeks ago and it looked absolutely magnificent,” said the former Ryder Cup captain. “I’m really looking forward to The Senior Open there. Aesthetically. it is one of the most beautiful looking courses in the world, in one of the most beautiful parts of the world, and it is a great golf course.

“The Senior Open is always special, no matter where it is played, but it is extra special when it is played in Scotland and in an area I’m from.”

Tom Lehman, the 1996 Open champion and leading player on last year’s Champions Tour in America, will also be in the field in July. He said: “Winning The Senior Open is on my wish list and Turnberry would be an amazing place to do it. It is a tremendous golf course and a beautiful spot in the world.”

Barry Lane, winner of the past two Scottish Senior Opens and runner-up in the 2011 European Senior Tour Order of Merit, added: “For us, as seniors, to play Turnberry is fantastic. We play some great courses anyway but to play a course that is on the Open rota is a real privilege.”

American Loren Roberts took the title on the event’s last visit to Turnberry in 2006, four years after Tom Watson won a play-off against Carl Mason.

Discounted advance tickets for the event can be purchased online at www.europeantourtickets.com, with season passes available at £60 and any one-day tickets at £16.50.