PETER SENIOR has arrived at the scene of the 2010 US Senior Open Championship brimming with confidence following his third placing at the Senior British Open.

The veteran Aussie golfer believes the tight, tree lined Sahalee Country Club course in Seattle, Washington, will suit his game.

The tournament gets underway Friday AEST with Fox Sports coverage beginning from 7am to 11am.

‘It’s not often you get to play in three consecutive Major Championships so putting the fatigue aside I’m excited to be here after flying in from the UK last night,” Senior said in his player blog this week.

“My game has been pretty consistent all year and I am finally starting to believe I can compete with these guys.”

“Tee to green has been solid but my putting has let me down at various times. Although on Sunday I putted super at Carnoustie and hope this might be the start to some good scoring.”

“The course this week is heavily tree lined and very narrow. The shorter hitters will have a big advantage. I think the course will suit me as I’m driving the ball well, but as we all know this game is full of surprises.”

Senior will be facing stiff competition in his bid for his first US senior tour win – beginning with British Senior Open Champion Bernhard Langer.

Langer, winner on ten occasions on the Champions Tour since turning 50, will be out to become the first player to win consecutive senior majors since Tom Watson in 2003.

“It won’t be easy to win back-to-back senior majors but I will give it my best shot,” the 52 year-old German, who has finished T6 and T22 in his last attempts at the title, said.

“Obviously I will take some good confidence and form over there but it’s going to be a tough golf course so we’ll have to see.”

Defending champion is American Fred Funk who was the runaway winner 12 months ago at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Indiana. Funk fired a closing round 65 to win the US Senior Open by six shots from Joey Sindelar.

Another clear threat is the US Champions Tour rookie standout Fred Couples.

Couples has had three victories on the tour this year and last week chose to rest up his golfing loafers – and his back – and sat out the Senior British Open.

“It’s a tough course,” Couples said this week. “For four days to play a course like this and do well is going to take a lot from the best players, and that will be the guy who wins, for sure.”

Other contenders include the likes of Tom Lehman, Corey Pavin, Mark Calcavecchia, Loren Roberts, Larry Mize, Tom Kite, Mark O’Meara, Tom Watson, Ben Crenshaw and David Frost.

The only one other Australian in the field is 1997 champion Graham Marsh.

Australian Fox Sports Coverage is from 7am to 11am (AEST) for the first two rounds Friday and Saturday, 6am to 9am for the final rounds Sunday Monday.

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ENTRIES for two of Australia’s top senior amateur golf tournaments are now open - the 2010 Australian Women’s Senior Championship and the 2010 Australian Men’s Senior Match Championships.

The two tournaments will take place at separate venues from 25-29 October.
The Australian Women’s Senior Amateur will be played at the Commonwealth Golf Club on Melbourne’s sand-belt, the venue of the 2010 and 2011 Handa Women’s Australian Open.

The Championship will be played over 36-holes qualifying, followed by elimination match play.

The leading 16 players qualify for the major championship, in addition to four age match play divisions – a new Division for those players aged 70 years and over has been included in 2010.

To keep things interesting, there will also be a Handicap Competition held in conjunction with the first two rounds of qualifying.

The Interstate Stroke Teams Event will again be played in conjunction, with three players representing their state or territory in the aggregate scratch competition.

Defending champion and six time winner Sylvia Donohoe will be a hot favourite again but can expect but can expect a tough battle from a number of others including 2009 runner up, Lynne Townsend.

The Australian Men’s Senior Match Play Championship is in its fourth year, and will again be held at Thirteenth Beach Golf Links on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula.

The leading 32 entries from the 2010 Australian Men’s Senior Ranking System, plus the top eight players in the 65 years and over section, will contest match play over five days.

Defending Champion and current Australian Senior Amateur Champion, Stefan Albinski will again be hard to beat but has shown there are some chinks in is armour in recent times.

See the Golf Australia website for more competitor information. Women’s. Men’s.

RODGER DAVIS has played one of the shots of the year to birdie the final hole of the day and claim his third Queensland Senior Open title at Nudgee Golf Club.

With his drive bunkered on the left hand side of the fairway and his approach to the elevated 18th green obscured by an overhanging Moreton Bay Fig, Davis crisply struck his second to within six inches of the flag.

Earlier, in blustery conditions overnight leader New Zealander Craig Owen dropped three shots in his opening holes.

However, with the winds also affected his playing partners, the Kiwi still had a one shot lead over Davis and defending champion Garry Merrick after nine holes.

Ahead, New South Welshman David Saunders gathered a couple of quick birdies to move into the picture at one-under par, while Lyndsay Stephen from West Australian marked his time at even par.

Nudgee’s 12th hole proved to be the tournament turning point as Owen found trouble to the right of the long par five, settling for a double bogey seven.

At the same time Davis wedged to within two feet, holing for a birdie and claiming a one shot lead at one-under par. But again the chasers kept pace, Merrick making birdie on 15.

As the final groups trekked to the 18th Davis held a slender one stroke lead from Merrick and two over Saunders.

An errant tee shot into the fairway trap placed Saunders in a precarious position and his title chances slipped away with his missed seven foot par putt. Saunders efforts saw him settle for a tied 3rd position with Stephens.

Merrick similarly strayed to the left of the demanding 18th leaving his second with a restricted backswing and in the ominous shadow of the giant Moreton Bay Fig.

With his own heroics Merrick hoisted the approach high into the westerly setting sun, nestling 15 feet away from flag. As the ensuing putt dropped Merrick had posted the clubhouse lead at two-under par for the tournament.

This then paved the way for Davis to play what every amateur dreams of - the championship winning shot.

The amateur section was highlighted by the battle between Nugdee Club Champion, Shane Ryan and Twin Creek’s Greg Corben.

Three days of competition saw the two separated by a single shot, Corben’s final day two-under 69, failing by the narrowest margin.

Ryan’s total of 218 (five-over) displayed the quality of the amateur competitors tying him for 11th overall in a field that boasted numerous internationally credentialed professionals.

The PGA Legends Tour now moves onto a Gold Coast swing before moving onto the traditional week in the Darling Downs.

GERMANY’S Bernhard Langer has held off a determined challenge by Corey Pavin to win the 2010 British Senior Open Championship with Australia’s Peter Senior third.

Senior began his day strongly with three birdies on first four holes to put himself right in contention but the ever challenging Carnoustie course caught up with him when he bogeyed the 10th.

Senior finished equal third on 68 alongside American trio Fred Funk, Jay Don Blake and Russ Cochran and is now almost certain to gain full status on the US Champions Tour next year.

It was the first Major in the senior ranks for Langer after many successes since turning 50 three years ago. The German won his second Green Jacket at Augusta National in 1993.

Langer began the day three clear of Pavin but his playing partner held on doggedly.

When Pavin birdied the 11th there was just one shot in it but by the 18th Langer had the luxury of a two stroke lead.

Langer finished with a one-over 72 to end at five-under, one better than the American, who finished his first Senior Major with a round of 70.

The US$90,000 pay cheque for Senior moves him to 13th on the 2010 Champions Tour money list with earnings of US$495,000.

The next best Australian performances in Scotland came from Wayne Grady and David Merriman who finished in a tie for 50th position at 13-over.

SOUTH AFRICAN golfer Louis Oosthuizen has raised his interntational profile somewhat with an emphatic win in the 2010 British Open.

The little-known former farm boy has joined some of the legends of golf with a seven shot win in a gripping 150th anniversary Open at St Andrews.

Oosthuizen entered the tournament ranked 54th in the world and ended it just three shy of Tiger Woods record score at the home of golf in 2000.

Mentor Ernie Els praised both his talent and demeanour.

“It would be difficult to find anybody in the world who is more proud of him right now,” Els said of the 27 year old. “He comes from a little town on the outskirts of George in South Africa and needed help, so we took him into the foundation and educated him. I thought long before anybody had heard of him that he was going to be an exceptional player. His life will change. He won’t.”
Oosthuizen is only the fourth South African to win the Open, following Bobby Locke (149, 1940, 1952 and 1957), Gary Player (1959, 1968 and 1974) and 2002 champion Eels.

Seeming to become calmer the further the tournament progressed and the further his lead lengthened, the often smiling Oosthuizen carded a final-round one-under-par 71 to finish with a 72-hole total of 16-under 272.

“It’s unbelievable,” Oosthuizen said after coolly paring the final hole before a huge crowd, including his wife and infant daughter. ”It’s probably going to hit me tomorrow, what I did, but I felt like I played well the whole week.

Later, reflecting on comments he had been a talented underachiever held back by a hot temper, the South African said: “”It was just a matter of growing up, really. I think any youngster that’s playing that makes stupid mistakes on the golf course, it frustrates you. If you look at the older guys on Tour who have all that experience, when they make bogey or double bogey they just go on the next hole. I thought to myself, the quicker I can get around that, the quicker I’m going to win tournaments here.”

Perennial bridesmaid Lee Westwood finished second (70) at nine-under 279 while a final round charge by English compatriot Paul Casey ended with a triple bogey on the 12th.

Allenby and Scott best placed Australians

Robert Allenby (71) and Adam Scott (72) were the best placed Australians finishing at two under and ruing lost opportunities.

“I gave it my best shot,” Allenby said. “I just needed to make more putts and hit it a little closer as well. There were certain holes where I hit it great and there were certain holes where I didn’t hit it fantastically.”

Scott, who saw glimmers of hope in his improved final round putting said: “It was a good week. If you can’t enjoy this week, I don’t know what you can enjoy.”

John Senden (73) finished one over whilst Jason Day (71), Peter Senior (73) and Marc Leishman (75) all posted three-over totals.

Day was overall happy with his major debut and hoping to contend in the future, whilst veteran Senior will take a lot of positives into the upcoming Senior British Open which begins early Friday morning (AEST) at Carnoustie.

THE future of Australia’s premier senior golf tournament, the Handa Australian Senior Open, continues to strengthen with the announcement to co-sanction the event with the European Senior Tour.

The three year co-sanctioning of the Handa Australian Senior Open will see a $100,000 increase in the prize money to AUD$400,000 and the inclusion of the leading 30 players from the European Senior Tour.

It will be the opening tournament on the 2011 European Senior Tour schedule and will be followed by the Handa Cup Senior Masters in Japan the following week.

To be held at Royal Perth Golf Club from 19-21 November 2010, the Handa Australian Senior Open will see the likes of Ian Woosnam, Sandy Lyle and Sam Torrance compete for the prestigious title.

The tournament will also be a significant occasion for Australian golf icon Ian Baker-Finch, who will make his debut on home soil as a Senior golfer at the event.

He will be joined in the field by defending Champion Mike Harwood and fellow countrymen Peter Senior, Wayne Grady and David Merriman.

Chairman of the International Sports Promotion Society and long-term golf supporter Dr Haruhisa Handa said he was pleased the European Senior Tour have agreed to co-sanction the event and pledged his continued support to the tournament he resurrected back in 2007.

“I am so proud of the growth of the Handa Australian Senior Open over the past 3 years and to now have the event feature in conjunction with the European Senior Tour is a big step forward for Senior Golf in Australia,” said Dr Handa.

ISPS is a leading sponsor of a number of European Senior Tour events. Andy Stubbs, Managing Director of the European Senior Tour, said: “The European Senior Tour is delighted to be invited for the first time to co-sanction the Handa Australian Senior Open with the PGA of Australia and for this tournament to be the first to count towards the 2011 European Senior Tour Order of Merit.

 “Over the years, we have had numerous legendary Australian players participate on our Tour and this opportunity will allow for them to showcase their talents on home soil and to be joined by our legends such as Sandy Lyle, Sam Torrance and Ian Woosnam.

Stephen Pitt, CEO of Golf Australia also confirmed their enthusiasm at the continued growth of the event. “The Handa Australian Senior Open is the biggest tournament on the EZ-GO PGA Legends Tour and to see it co-sanctioned with the European Senior Tour is a fantastic achievement”, said Pitt.

Simon Butterly, General Manager of the Tournament Division of the PGA of Australia added, “The Handa Australian Senior Open provides a fantastic opportunity for our members to play an internationally recognised tournament, for an impressive prize pool on their home soil.”

“This move to co-sanction the tournament with the European Senior Tour is indicative of the growth of the EZ-GO PGA Legends Tour in recent years, and I hope that Australian senior golf continues to develop in years to come.”

Household names including Rodger Davis, Bob Shearer, Michael Clayton and Peter Fowler are anticipated to play at the prestigious Royal Perth Golf Club from 19-21 November 2010.

YOUNG Irishman Rory McIlroy set the lowset first round score in the history of the British Open with a nine under 63 to lead the championship at the St Andrews Old Course after day one.

An eagle on the short par four ninth fired the 21 year old into action on the back.

“The round was going OK, one-under through eight holes, nothing special, and then the eagle on nine really got me going,” McIllroy said.

In eight previous rounds over the Old Course, six as an amateur, the Irishman he has never been higher than 69.

It was a tale of two halves over the Old Course on the first day of the 150th Anniversary Open Championship, with the morning starters blessed with flat, calm conditions and those who came later confronted with rising wind and blasts of heavy rain.

Two strokes behind the leader with an impressive round was South African Louis Oosthuizen, whilst a rejuvenated John Daly was third with a 66 along with  Peter Hanson,  Andrew Coltart and Steven Tiley.

Tiger Woods, seeking his third successive win at St Andrews after victories in 2000 and 2005, is lurking four shots behind the leader.

He was in a large group on five under that includes home favourite Lee Westwood, YE Yang and former US Open victor Lucas Glover.

US Masters champion Phil Mickelson, who could end Woods’s five-year reign as world No.1 with victory in Scotland, is in danger of missing the weekend cut after recording a one-over 73.

With the early benign conditions, more than half the field of 156 players finished the day under par and more than 500 birdies were recorded. Tiger Woods said that he had never known a major championship where it took a five under par score to get into the top 10 in the first round. In fact 16 players are on that score or better.

John Senden leads the Aussie contingent

Australia had a disappointing start with only John Senden, Robert Allenby and major newbie Jason Day managed to break par.

With a four under 68 Senden is five strokes behind the leader, while Allenby (69) and Day (71) are still well in contention.

Late starters Adam Scott, Geoff Ogilvy and Michael Sim all posted even-par 72s and will be looking to make up ground when they tee off in hopefully better conditions on day two.
Senden was delighted with his five birdies only offset with a  lone bogey recorded on the intimidating and extended par four 17th.

“This is my first actual tournament day at this course, so you’ve got to be happy,” Senden said.
Jason Day, the youngest Australia player ever to win on the US PGA Tour, was upbeat after making his eagerly-awaited major debut.

“lt was good, probably one of the better experiences just because it’s the home of golf,” the 22-year-old said.

“I hit it well. I just hit a lot of lips out there and unfortunately didn’t hole any putts.

An obviously frustrated Adam Scott again struggled with his putter.

“Same old story, I let myself down on the greens,” Scott said.

“It’s been the story of the year. I just putt poorly every week. I’ve just had a gutful of it.

Peter Senior, who celebrates his 51st birthday in a couple of weeks, mixed four birdies with five bogeys in a very creditable performance in the afternoon conditions.

Marc Leishman also finished one over while Mathew Goggin (74), Kurt Barnes (75) and Cameron Percy (76) have work to do to make the weekend cut.

Ewen Porter had a horror day and never really recovered after a quadruple eight on the short par four second. He finished equal last with a nine-over 81.

LIVE LEADERBOARD

JUST released figures show the average male and female handicaps in Australia have risen since the introduction of the new golf handicapping system on 9 April.

The average male handicap rose by 1.15 points whilst for women it was 2.21 points.

But the average increases were not even across the handicap ranges, with low single figure players more likely to have their handicap decrease slightly under the new system.

Those with high handicaps were more likely to blow out by more strokes.

Just over 16 percent of male golfers had their handicaps increase by three or more strokes.

Golf Australia said the main points from the statistics were:

• For both females & males, low single figure handicap players are likely to have had their handicap decrease slightly under the new system. Players with higher handicaps are likely to have experienced an increase under the new system (and the higher the old handicap, the greater the increase).
• The average female handicap is about 10 strokes higher than the average male handicap (The same under both systems)
• Under the old handicap calculation method, the higher a player’s handicap, the greater the downward increase resulting from a ‘good’ score, whereas the new method does not discriminate.
• The average male handicap rose by about 1 stroke, whilst the average female handicap rose by about 2 strokes.
• For all handicap ranges, the move to the new calculation method produced a reasonable amount of movement (both upward and downward) in handicaps. The vast majority of this movement was within the range of plus or minus 4 strokes.

GA said the fact that upward increases of greater than 4 strokes were  largely restricted to high handicap players addressed previous concerns of unfairness (where an outward increase would essentially only occur in increments of 0.1) that it would take 30 consecutive “bad” rounds for a player’s handicap to reflect an outward correction of 3 strokes.
This was patently unfair on a player who had one (or a very small number) of uncharacteristically “good” rounds or who experienced a demonstrable trend of changed form (an occurrence which is more prevalent in the higher handicap golfer).

Generally greater consistency by low markers is reflected in the fact that their handicaps decreased slightly.

See the full figures here

2010 British Open free to air television coverage – an entire hour right after the midnight Skippy repeat

TWELVE Australians will tee off in the first round of the British Open at St Andrews beginning at 3.30pm Thursday AEST.

They include Mathew Goggin, John Senden, Robert Allenby, Jason Day, Michael Sim, Ewan Porter, Cameron Percy, Peter Senior, Marc Leishman, Adam Scott, Geoff Ogilvy and Kurt Barnes.

Scott will tee off at 10.42 pm in an afternoon feature group that includes England’s Lee Westwood and Spain’s Miguel Angel Jiminez.

They will be directly followed by Ogilvy, playing with fellow former US Open winner Jim Furyk and current champion Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell.

Other highlight groups will be Tiger Woods, in form Englishman Justin Rose and Colombia’s Camilo Villegas at 6.09pm – just nine minutes after the Australian Fox Sports coverage begins.

The early coverage is also likely to heavily feature the following group (6.20pm) - Ireland’s Padraig Harrington, Japan’s teenage star Ryo Ishikawa and the man who broke so many hearts at the event last year - US legend Tom Watson.

Unfortunately, Greg Norman had to pull out of the event this week saying regaining competitive form after his shoulder surgery was taking longer than expected.

His spot was immediately taken by the next alternate starter who happened to be a fellow Queenslander, the up and coming Jason Day.

“I was especially looking forward to playing St Andrews, celebrating The Open’s 150th anniversary and playing The Open Champions’ Challenge,” Norman said.

One Aussie veteran golfer who will make it to the historic Old Course first tee will be Peter Senior, playing in his sixth British Open and his first for a decade.

Senior, who has been honing his skills and keeping the bank balance healthy on the US Champions Tour, says that making the weekend cut would be an achievement.

“I’m excited that I’ve got two weeks here. I’ve got St Andrews and then Carnoustie next week for the Senior (British) Open,” Senior said.

Australian Fox Sports subscribers will have access to a mammoth amount of coverage beginning with historic films and previews over the next few days and then more than 40 hours of live coverage, beginning with the Open Champions’ Challenge live at 12.30 am on Thursday.

Channel Nine will be serving up a few scraps for free to air viewers. See the full story on that below.

 LIVE LEADERBOARD

Channel Nine supposedly has the rights sewn up to golf’s oldest and most loved major golf tournament but at this stage they seem to have more commitment to screening old episodes of Skippy.

Fox Sports will screen the championship, which at this stage features a dozen Aussie players, live beginning at 6pm on Thursday.

According to the Foxtel program the pay tv coverage of the first round goes through to 5 am.

I admit to being a little mathematically challenged but I reckon that’s about 11 hours of live coverage first up.

Channel 9 on the other hand, according to their latest program gude, will begin their coverage of the British Open with a one hour highlights package at 12 am on Saturday.

That’s at least better than what the Channel Nine Publicity Department in Sydney directly informed me last Friday.

It took them a day to provide the information that it seemed – the 150th anniversary of the British Open being held at the hallowed St Andrews was obviously very low on their radar – that their coverage began with a one high highlights show at 2 am on Sunday morning (It turns out Skippy is on at 1.30 am).

A spokesperson said under their contract they could only screen four, one hour highlights packages.

The thing is, the British Open is one of four golf events supposedly “protected” under the current Australian television anti-siphoning laws.

The other three are the Australian Open, the Australian Masters and the US Masters.

You’ll note the big difference between those three tournaments and the British Open – they get quite extensive television coverage, with the Ten Network and ONE HD providing quite decent coverage of the US Masters.

Channel Nine telecasts the Australian Masters and in this instance even they manage to squeeze in some golf around the Channel Nine talking heads.

From memory, last year Tiger Woods teed off in the first round at about 8am, the full Channel Nine telecast started at noon and they showed the first live golf shot some 45 minutes later.

Whilst the anti-siphoning legislation (it’s still under review by the Federal Government) might be complicated for the average Joe (and especially for mathematically AND legally challenged me) it seems patently obvious if a commercial free to air network has the initial rights to a “protected” program they can choose to telecast as much of it as they want.

If Channel Nine doesn’t think there are enough ratings or revenue in the British Open for them, why don’t they just hand it over to Ten and ONE HD.

It makes a mockery of all those ads you see from the free to air commercial channels wanting public support for their campaign of protecting big sporting events for the masses.

What will likely happen will be the same as 2009. If there is a favoured Australian player – or like last year if there is big public interest in the final run of a Tom Watson – Channel Nine will suddenly decide to screen the final round live from around 11pm on Sunday night. (The Foxtel final round coverage by the way begins at 7 pm)

The other alternative for those without a pay television subscription but with a half decent broadband connection is free live internet streaming.

Try places such as Veetle, Justin TV or MyP2P Golf when play is underway. MyP2P Golf is usually the best place to start as there are a number of alternatives. You may have to downloard some new viewer software which is usually safe. [Update: One of the best and easily accessible streams here during round one was "IraqGoalsTV" would you believe".]

I asked the Channel Nine publicity spokesperson to provide written confirmation of their 2010 British Open television coverage, and for an official statement on why their scheduled coverage is so poor.

We’re still waiting for the email. I think they’re getting Skippy to deliver it. He never was much of a typist.