Key Storylines
Tournament

• This is the 39th edition of the ISPS HANDA Senior Open, Europe’s only Senior Major.
• The King’s Course at Gleneagles will host the ISPS HANDA Senior Open for the second time, following on from when it first hosted the Championship in 2022.
• Gleneagles has an enviable track record of hosting elite golf events across its three Championship courses, including the Ryder Cup in 2014, the Solheim Cup in 2019 and 26 DP World Tour events since 1974.
• The ISPS Handa Senior Open is jointly run by the European Tour group and The R&A and counts towards both the Staysure Legends Tour Order of Merit and the PGA TOUR Champions’ Schwab Cup.
• The Senior Open was first played in 1987 at Turnberry, won by Neil Coles, and was a catalyst for the formal inception of what is now the Staysure Legends Tour.

Players

• A star-studded field has gathered for this week’s ISPS HANDA Senior Open, including 15 Major champions, ten Open champions, 29 Ryder Cup players and five Ryder Cup captains.
• Defending champion Padraig Harrington became just the fifth player in history to win both The Open Championship and the ISPS HANDA Senior Open at Sunningdale last year, adding his name to a roll of honour which includes Darren Clarke, Bob Charles, Gary Player and Tom Watson.
• The Irishman won three Major Championships in 13 months across 2007 and 2008 and he is looking to make it four Senior Majors in the same timespan after winning back-to-back U.S. Senior Open titles.
• He will be joined by Clarke, who lifted the trophy the last time Europe’s only Senior Major was played at Gleneagles, adding  to his own Claret Jug.
• They are two of ten former Open champions in the field, including South African Ernie Els, Scotland’s Paul Lawrie and American pair David Duval and Justin Leonard, who finished tied second on his event debut at Sunningdale 12 months ago.
• Stewart Cink and Zach Johnson, along with Henrik Stenson, all won The Open on Scottish soil, at Turnberry, St Andrews and Royal Troon respectively, and the trio are set to make their Senior Open bows at the King’s Course from July 23-26.
• 1989 Open winner Mark Calcavecchia last played at Europe’s only Senior Major Championship in 2018 but he makes a welcome return for what will be his eighth appearance at the event.
• Retief Goosen won the U.S. Open in 2001 and 2004, before later reaching a career-high third in the Official World Golf Ranking and the South African will bid for his second Senior Major title.
• Rich Beem, now a familiar voice to UK audiences as a Sky Sports commentator and on-course analyst, along with Shaun Micheel, both won the US PGA and the American duo take their place in a high-calibre field.
• Completing the list of Major champions are Michael Campbell, who became only the second New Zealander to win a Major when he lifted the U.S. Open trophy in 2005 as a qualifier, and South Korea’s 2009 US PGA Championship winner Y. E. Yang.
• Paul McGinley will be returning to the venue where he led Europe to victory in the 2014 Ryder Cup, alongside his Vice-Captains Harringtonand Miguel Ángel Jiménez.
• Jamie Donaldson, Stephen Gallacher and Stenson all played on that victorious European team, while Johnson was part of Team USA.
• Donaldson secured the winning point for Team Europe on the PGA Centenary Course in 2014 after defeating Keegan Bradley 4&3 to give Europe the 14½ points needed.

Gleneagles

• For over a century, Gleneagles have welcomed guests from around the world to enjoy all the delights that The Gleneagles Hotel and the beautiful local countryside have to offer. From the wildlife that thrives across our 850-acres to the natural botanicals growing wild across our golf courses, we’re surrounded by many precious natural assets.
• The golf courses have been Golf Environmental Organisation certified (‘GEO Certified’® status) since 2014. This accolade recognises exceptional golfing environmental stewardship through protecting biodiversity, using natural resources responsibly and raising awareness for sustainability.

The King’s Course

• Since opening in 1919, The King’s Course, designed by James Braid, is considered a masterpiece of design that tests even the best players over eighteen holes.
• Lee Trevino famously said of The King’s Course: ‘If heaven is anything like this, I hope they save me a tee-time.
• In 1921, The King’s Course was the venue of the first ever match between British and US professionals in what is widely accepted today as the precursor to the Ryder Cup – which saw the British team, featuring James Braid, winning nine points to three.
• The course hosted a famous match between the ‘Big Three’ of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player in 1966, as well as the popular Bell’s Scottish Open on the European Tour from 1987 -1994, the largest spectator event after The Open at the time.
• The King’s Course underwent an extensive restoration programme in 2016, which included taking the fairway cut lines back to the original James Braid design, alongside a comprehensive bunker refurbishment programme designed to aid drainage and further enhance the aesthetic design of the 18 holes.
• Alister MacKenzie (the legendary mind behind Augusta National) openly declared that The King’s Course was James Braid’s absolute masterpiece – high praise, considering Braid designed or re-modelled over 400 courses.
• The King’s Course is pure nostalgia. It was the centrepiece for the iconic Pro-Celebrity Golf TV series in the 1970s and 80s, hosted by the legendary Peter Alliss.
• 5th Hole – ‘Het Girdle’ (The Hot Pan): A brutal, heavily guarded par-3. The name implies that if you don’t hit the green, you are quite literally in the frying pan. There is trouble absolutely everywhere except on the putting surface.
• 13th Hole – ‘Braid’s Brawest’ (Braid’s Best): This par-4 was designer James Braid’s personal favourite hole on the entire layout. Off the tee, players must avoid the menacingly named ‘Auld Nick’ bunker.
• 17th Hole – ‘Warslin’ Lea’ (The Wrestling Ground): A long, sweeping, uphill par-4. It got its name because players historically ‘wrestle’ with the terrain to salvage a par here late in the round.
• The King’s Course is famous for its blind crests and elevated greens. A player might feel absolute calm down on the fairway, but the wind swirling 20 feet up over the exposed putting surfaces is often a club-and-a-half stronger.
• If competitors grab a post-round wee dram from Gleneagles’ famous clubhouse bar, Auchterarder 70, they may not realise the bar is named after Gleneagles’ very first, single-digit telephone number from the 1920s.
• During the 1992 Bell’s Scottish Open, Australian Peter O’Malley trailed by five shots with just five holes to play. He went on an almost impossible run: Eagle, Birdie, Birdie, Birdie, Eagle to finish 7-under-par for his last five holes and snatch the trophy. It remains one of the most blistering finishes in professional golf history.
• The fairways of The King’s Course are not cut in modern, diamond-shaped, cross-striped patterns. Instead, they are mowed in a traditional ‘block style’ to emulate the exact aesthetic of the 1920s when horse-drawn gang mowers were used.
• While The King’s Course opened in 1919, the accompanying hotel didn’t open until 1924. When it did, the British press went into overdrive, officially dubbing the estate ‘The Eighth Wonder of the World.’ The opening gala ball was a massive cultural event, broadcast live on BBC radio to the entire nation.
• The rolling, roller-coaster terrain surrounding Gleneagles is a textbook example of glacial kames and kettles, ridges and pits formed by melting glaciers thousands of years ago. James Braid famously refused to move earth, choosing instead to seamlessly lay his holes into the natural contours left by the ice.