While the Senior Open Championship certainly doesn’t draw as many headlines as the Open Championship, it debuted in 1987 and has become a storied competition in its own right.
The Senior Open is for professional golfers aged 50 and over and is jointly organized by the R&A and the PGA European Tour. It was first considered a major on the Champions Tour in 2003.
The Senior PGA Championship, The Tradition, the U.S. Senior Open, and the Senior Players Championship (officially the Kaulig Companies Championship) are the other majors.
This year’s tournament will be played at the historic King’s Course at Gleneagles Hotel and Grounds. The course was designed by James Braid and first opened in 1919. It last hosted the Senior Open in 2022, when Darren Clarke won and Pádraig Harrington was the runner-up.
Harrington should be considered one of the favorites entering Thursday, as he is the defending champion and is coming off a win at the U.S. Senior Open earlier this month.
“The King’s Course at Gleneagles is a magnificent golf course and is one that will test every part of your game,” Harrington said in a statement from the Legends Tour. “I’m looking forward to the challenge and teeing it up in Scotland again.”
Johnson won the Kaulig Companies Championship and should be among the early favorites as well. The list of top contenders also includes José María Olazábal, Miguel Angel Jiménez, Alex Cejka, Els, Langer, and Cink, who is making his Senior Open debut.
“I am so excited to finally get to compete in the ISPS HANDA Senior Open,” Cink said, per the Legends Tour. “I have loved playing The Open for so many years, and of course the memories of 2009 are still fresh as ever. I just can’t get enough Open golf.”
Like Clarke and Harrington, Jiménez, Cejka, Stephen Dodd, K.J. Choi, and Langer are former Senior Open Champions scheduled to compete this weekend—and Langer is seeking his fifth Senior Open title. A complete look at the scheduled field can be found at Golf News Net.
