DID YOU KNOW – FACTS ABOUT CARNOUSTIE AND THE SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY ROLEX
• Carnoustie’s Championship Course will be playing host to its second Senior Open Championship presented by Rolex. Bernhard Langer won the last time the tournament was here when the German won wire-to-wire in 2010.
• Defending champion, Marco Dawson will aim to become the first player to make a successful defence of the title since Christy O’Connor Jnr in 1999-2000. The only other player to achieve this feat was Brian Barnes in 1995-1996.
• Three players in the field have won over Carnoustie’s Championship Course. They are: Tom Watson (1975 Open Championship), Ian Woosnam (1996 Scottish Open) and Langer (2010 Senior Open Championship). (To highlight how difficult the course is, Woosnam won here in 1996 with a total of 289 (+1).
• Should Langer win for the second time at Carnoustie and third time overall he would join Gary Player (1988, 1990 and 1997) and Watson (2003, 2005 and 2007), as the third player to win the event three times.
• Should Dawson win for the second time he would become the third American to record multiple titles, following Watson (2003, 2005 and 2007) and Loren Roberts (2006 and 2009).
• There are no fewer than 27 Regular and Senior Major Champions playing with 64 Major titles between them. There are 14 players in the field who won Regular Majors and 18 Senior Major champions. Five players competing have won regular and Senior Majors. They are: Langer, Tom Lehman, Mark O’Meara, Craig Stadler and Watson.
• In 2011 Russ Cochran became the second left-hander to win the Championship, following Bob Charles (1989 and 1993).
• There have been 20 different champions dating back to 1987, the first playing of the tournament, coming from ten different countries.
• The winner of the Senior Open Championship Presented by Rolex will gain an exemption into The Open Championship in 2017.
