2007 Senior British Open Notes  PGA TOUR Staff • This year's Senior British Open Championship will be contested at Muirfield for the first time in its history. Located in Gullane, East Lothian, Scotland, Muirfield has hosted The Open Championship 15 times, the most recent coming in 2002 when Ernie Els survived a four-man playoff which included Stuart Appleby, Steve Elkington and Thomas Levet. After Appleby and Elkington were eliminated after three holes on aggregate scores, Els made a par on the fourth hole in the sudden-death playoff with Levet to claim the title. Some of the other past winners at Muirfield include Nick Faldo (1987, 1992), Tom Watson (1980), Lee Trevino (1972), Jack Nicklaus (1966) and Gary Player (1959). Muirfield has also hosted a number of other prestigious events, including, the Ryder Cup (1973), Walker Cup (1959, 1979), Curtis Cup (1952) and the British Amateur Championship, most recently in 1998. • Muirfield is the home of The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers whose records date back to 1744 when the Club wrote the original 13 Rules of Golf for the first competition played for the Silver Club. At the time the Club played on the five holes at Leith Links but then moved, in 1836, to Musselburgh's nine-hole Old Course and then again to its current home, Muirfield, in 1891. Muirfield is the only course to have hosted the Open (15 times, the most recent in 2002), the British Amateur, the British Mid-Amateur, the Ryder Cup, the Walker Cup and the Curtis Cup. In accordance with the rules of the Club, the management and administration of the Club is in the hands of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers (Management) Limited, a company limited by guarantee. • This year's field includes seven players who competed in the 2002 British Open Championship at Muirfield. Scott Hoch posted the best finish among those players, a T8 which included a final-round 66. In addition to Hoch, Mark O'Meara was T22, Loren Roberts and Des Smyth were each T28, while Nick Faldo was T59. Missing the cut were Tom Watson and Eduardo Romero. • Nick Faldo, who turned 50 on July 18, will make his Champions Tour debut at Muirfield. A three-time British Open champion (1987, '90, '92) and a three-time Masters winner (1989-90, '96), Faldo won nine times on the PGA TOUR and also owns more than 30 other titles worldwide. He'll be joined in the field by Australian Wayne Grady, who will also be making his debut. Grady turns 50 on July 26. He won the 1990 PGA Championship and the 1989 Manufacturer's Hanover Classic on the PGA TOUR. • Tom Watson will be seeking his third Senior British Open Championship title which would tie him with Gary Player for most victories in the event. Player won this event at Turnberry in 1988 and 1990 and at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland in 1997. • The winner of the 2007 Senior British Open Championship will receive double points in the season-long Charles Schwab Cup race. Points in the Schwab Cup race are awarded throughout the year based on top-10 finishes and dollar amounts won in events on a per-thousand basis (i.e. $100,000 equals 200 Charles Schwab Cup points). At the end of the official season, the points leader will earn a $1-million annuity from Charles Schwab. The Charles Schwab Cup is designed to recognize the Champions Tour's leading player. The program rewards both top finishes and week-in/week-out consistency at all official/Charles Schwab Cup events. Brad Bryant currently leads with 2,019 points followed by Jay Haas with 1,907 points. Loren Roberts is third with 1,408 points, Denis Watson is fourth with 1,276 and R.W. Eaks is fifth with 966. • Playoffs have become the norm since this event became an official event in 2003. Three of the last four tournaments have been decided in playoffs with Tom Watson winning two of those (2003, 2005) and Loren Roberts claiming the other last year. Overall, there have been seven playoffs in the 20-year history of the tournament. • This will be the 21st Senior British Open Championship and will also be the third of five major championships on the 2007 Champions Tour schedule. Denis Watson won the Senior PGA Championship at Kiawah Island in May while Brad Bryant emerged victorious at the U.S. Senior Open at Whistling Straits earlier this month. The final two major championships will be the JELD-WEN Tradition at the Crosswater Club at Sunriver Resort in Oregon (August 16-19) and the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship at Baltimore Country Club/Five Farms in Maryland (Oct. 4-7) • The Senior British Open Championship will be televised by SKY Sports in the United Kingdom and will also be shown on both the TNT Network and ABC Sports in the United States. TNT will air its coverage live from noon-2:00 p.m. (EDT) on Thursday and Friday. ABC Sports' coverage of the event will be tape-delayed and aired from 1:30-3:00 p.m. (EDT) on Saturday and Sunday. • The previous 20 Senior British Open Championships have been won by players from nine different countries. England's Neil Coles (1987), South Africans Gary Player (1988, 1990, 1997), Bob Verwey (1991) and John Fourie (1992), New Zealand's Bob Charles (1989, 1993), Americans Tom Watson (2003, 2005), Tom Wargo (1994), Pete Oakley (2004) and Loren Roberts (2006), Scotland's Brian Barnes (1995-96), Brian Huggett of Wales (1998), Christy O'Connor, Jr. of Ireland (1999-2000), Australian Ian Stanley (2001) and Japan's Noboru Sugai (2002) have all triumphed in this event. • When he prevailed by one stroke over Tom Kite and Eduardo Romero at Royal Portrush in 2004, American Pete Oakley became just the 10th open qualifier in Champions Tour history to win an event and the second consecutive qualifier to win a major championship when he triumphed at the 2004 Senior British Open at Royal Portrush. Oakley shot an even-par 72 at Portstewart on Tuesday of tournament week to qualify for the event. Before Oakley, Don Pooley went through qualifying to get into the 2002 U.S. Senior Open at Caves Valley Golf Club and went on to win, defeating Tom Watson in a dramatic five-hole playoff. • In 1990, Gary Player scored the biggest come-from-behind victory in Senior British Open Championship history at Turnberry. Despite posting a 5-over 75 on the final day, Player rallied from five strokes down to edge Deane Beman and Brian Waites by a stroke. • Tom Watson remains the only player in tournament history to win the event with four consecutive rounds in the 60s when he won at Turnberry in 2003. Besides Watson, only Brian Huggett (1998), Christy O'Connor, Jr. (2000) and Ian Stanley (2001) have won a Senior British Open after posting four consecutive sub-par rounds. • Gary Player remains the oldest winner of this event. Player earned that distinction when he won his third Senior Open Championship in 1997 at age 61. Player's brother-in-law, Bob Verwey, won the Senior British Open at 50 years, five months and 23 days, the youngest winner in championship history. • Bob Charles remains the only player to have competed in all 20 Senior British Open Championships. He won titles in 1989 and 1993. • Jay Haas comes into this event with a string of six consecutive top-10 finishes on the Champions Tour. Haas, the Tour's leading money winner with $1,874,573, started his string with a T9 finish at the Senior PGA Championship. • A total of four players have finished in the top 10 in each of the first two major championships in 2007. Denis Watson had a win at the Senior PGA Championship and was T5 at the U.S. Senior Open. Brad Bryant won the U. S. Senior Open and was sixth at the Senior PGA Championship. Joining the pair are Joe Ozaki (4th at Senior PGA Championship, T5 at U.S. Senior Open) and Jay Haas (T5 at the U.S. Senior Open, T9 at Senior PGA Championship). • Could the third time be the charm for Eduardo Romero this year? Romero has twice finished second in this event, falling a stroke shy at the 2004 event (along with Tom Kite) to Pete Oakley and losing in a one-hole playoff to Loren Roberts last year. • The last non-American player to win this tournament was Noboro Sugai, who prevailed in the 2002 event at Royal County Down when it was an unofficial tournament. • Among the Champions Tour contingent with British Open Championships on their resume who have committed to this year's Senior British Open Championship are Bob Charles, Mark O'Meara, Tom Watson, Gary Player and Nick Faldo. • Brad Bryant, who recently won the U.S. Senior Open, will make his first appearance in this tournament. Bryant played in just one British Open Championship in 1995 at St. Andrew's where he missed the cut. • Since the 2004 U.S. Senior Open, Loren Roberts and Tom Watson are the only two players to lead majors after 54 holes and go on to win. Both did so at the Senior British Open Championship. Last year at Turnberry, Roberts led after three rounds and went on to defeat Eduardo Romero in a playoff. Two years ago at Royal Aberdeen, Watson was the three-round leader and went on to defeat Des Smyth in a playoff. |
