Walton Joins Turnberry Ranks at Senior Open

Philip Walton will mix with the greatest names of golf this week as the Senior Open Championship presented by Rolex tees off at Turnberry in Scotland. Although Walton missed  The Open when it was last played on the Ailsa Course, the Malahide golfer did qualify for the previous year at Royal Birkdale.

This week  the Turnberry field includes Greg Norman, Gary Player, Tom Lehman, Fred Couples, Larry Mize, Tony Jacklin, Sam Torrrance and Ian Woosnam, who beat Walton in a play off at the Carrolls Irish Open in 1988.

Another name returning to Turnberry - after nearly winning The Open in 2009 as a Senior - is Tom Watson, who has a long link with the course.

So it was appropriate that Watson unveiled a plaque to commemorate that famous Duel in the Sun with Jack Nicklaus 35 years ago at Turnberry on the eve of the Senior British Open.

In 1977, Watson hit a 7-iron approach within two feet of the 18th hole in beating Nicklaus in a head-to-head battle to seal the second of his five British Open titles. The weather was remarkably similar 35 years later for the plaque's presentation on the right side of the final fairway.

Watson says "I remember hitting the shot which meant so much to me and so many other people."

Watson will tee off Thursday alongside another former British Open champion at Turnberry, Greg Norman, plus Roger Chapman of England, who has two senior majors this year.


The other Irish players in the field are Mark McNulty, Des Smyth and Eamonn Darcy.

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