In my opinion one of the most interesting tours is the European Senior Tour. Great players on classic golf courses, what’s not to like?
As you probably know there are lots of beautiful courses around that are deemed too short for regular tour events. European Senior Tour events are also played on these kinds of courses. As fairways get narrower shot making, placement and trajectory control becomes more important than length. The senior players grew up playing these kinds of courses and you can learn a lot just by watching them dissect a course. Guys like Ian Woosnam, Sam Torrance, Sandy Lyle and Peter Fowler have been competing at the top for decades and it’s just great to to see that they still have some great golf in them.
Schedule
Here is a list of this year’s upcoming events; I can highly recommend attending at least one of them.
Jul 21-Jul 24 The Senior Open Championship 2011 Walton Heath G.C., Surrey,Surrey,England
Jul 28-Jul 31 US Senior Open 2011 Inverness Club, Toledo,Ohio,USA
Aug 19-Aug 21 Cleveland Golf / Srixon Scottish Senior Open Fairmont St. Andrews,St. Andrews, Fife,Scotland
Sep 02-Sep 04 Travis Perkins plc Senior Masters Duke's Course, Woburn GC,Woburn,England
Sep 16-Sep 18 Casa Serena Open Casa Serena Golf,Prague,Czech Republic
Sep 22-Sep 24 Cannes Mougins Masters Cannes Mougins,Cannes,France
Sep 29-Oct 01 Senior Open de Portugal Belas Clube de Campo,Lisbon,Portugal
Oct 14-Oct 16 Benahavis Senior Masters La Quinta Golf & Country Club,Marbella,Spain
Nov 04-Nov 06 ISPS Handa Australian Senior Open TBC,TBA,Australia
Nov 18-Nov 20 Fubon Senior Open Miramar Golf & Country Club,Taipei,Taiwan
Dec 09-Dec 11 MCB Tour Championship Constance Belle Mare Plage,Poste de Flacq,Mauritius
Taken from: http://www.europeantour.com/seniortour/index.html
Van Lanschot Senior Open at The Royal Hague G&CC
Last month the senior tour came to The Netherlands and they played The Royal Hague G&CC (aka ‘De Haagsche’ in Dutch). The course is regarded as one of the finest examples of a links course on Europe’s mainland. During the first few days of the tournament the heavily sloped course showed its teeth as the rain and wind prevented players from going low. On Saturday, the lowest score was three under by Peter Fowler. On Sunday, Des Smyth played some incredible golf. Coming from 4 strokes down behind Fowler, he put together a string of birdies and two eagles to finish at 6 under.
Here are some swing clips that were taken at this particular event:
