Can Norman back it up at Senior Open?

BY Bruce Young | Champions Tour | 2008 Senior British Open | Preview | 23 Jul 2008

The Senior British Open presented by MasterCard is played this week at Royal Troon on the Ayrshire coast of Scotland where most of the talk will surround last week’s performance by Greg Norman and just how he will back that up this week.

A player capable of contending for as long as he did at the higher level of regular tour golf must be the favourite against a field of over 50’s as it would be fair to say that no other player in this week’s field would have been capable of achieving what Norman did just four days ago.

Having said that, golf does work in mysterious ways and there is often no rhyme or reason when comparing performances week to week. It would be a surprise however if Norman was not right in the mix again on Sunday.

Norman has an impressive record at the Open Championship but this will be his first attempt at the British Senior Open. Not only did he do so well last week, but in his previous start Norman finished 6th at the Senior PGA Championship.

Norman has played the Open Championship at Royal Troon on several occasions but it was in 1989 when he went the closest to winning, eventually losing a three man playoff involving Mark Calcavecchia and Wayne Grady.

Calcavecchia won that year following a four hole playoff. Norman’s record in European Tour events in the 2008 season reads 7th at the South African Airways Open, 14th at the BMW Asian Open and 3rd at the Open, rather impressive.

Not only does Norman bring a potential winning chance to the Championship but he adds a lot of interest to an event which has only in recent years been elevated to major status on the Senior PGA Tour or Champions Tour.

Tom Watson returns to defend the title he won at Muirfield last year and must be considered a chance of sorts. He missed the cut last week but did not disgrace himself in the trying conditions and he must be considered a chance to topple Norman.

If Watson is a chance then so too is Bernhard Langer who will play in this event for the very first time. In what has been a brilliant first full season on the Champions Tour, Langer has twice been a winner and twice runner up and currently leads the money list. Langer didn’t win an Open Championship in 28 years of trying but often went close and at this level is perhaps Norman’s greatest threat.

Surprisingly, previous winner Loren Roberts and in form Jay Haas are not in the field and neither is 1994 Open Champion, Nick Price, who went so close to winning the Open Championship at Royal Troon in 1982 and who has played well in season 2008 on the Champions Tour in the US.

Eduardo Romero is the type of player who could do well around this golf course and with a last start victory on the Champions Tour he brings good form to Royal Troon.

Sir Bob Charles is another previous Open Championship winner in the field and while it might be a little much to expect a 72-year-old to win, he has shown this year in both the US and in several European Senior Tour events that he is more than capable of doing well. Charles won this event on two occasions and has regularly broken his age in 2008.

Stewart Ginn went within a whisker last year of winning at Muirfield, while Terry Gale, David Good, Wayne Grady, Jim Lapsley, David Merriman, Ossie Moore (debut) and Simon Owen are included in the line-up of those from down under.