DID YOU KNOW – FACTS ABOUT ROYAL PORTHCAWL AND THE SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY ROLEX
• Royal Porthcawl will be the first Welsh course to host a Major Championship. The venue has previously staged the Wales Senior Open in 2009, 2010 and 2013 and the Welsh Golf Classic between 1980-82 on The European Tour.
• Royal Porthcawl is no stranger to holding major amateur events, including the 1995 Walker Cup, where Great Britain and Ireland defeated the USA team which included Tiger Woods. Other events to be witnessed in Mid Glamorgan was the Curtis Cup 1964 and the British Amateur Championship on six occasions, the last one being in 2002.
• The club was founded in 1891 with the first nine holes laid out by Charles Gibson in 1892. Three years later the club moved to its present site with the addition of a further nine hole course. Shortly after a new 18 holes was built and the original layout was abandoned.
• The club was given Royal Patronage in 1909 by King Edward VII.
• The late Tom Scott, a leading golf writer described Royal Porthcawl as being one of the 12 finest courses in the world with the sea being visible from all 18 holes.
• Mark Wiebe will attempt to become the first American to retain The Senior Open Championship Presented by Rolex, after defeating Bernhard Langer in a play-off at Royal Birkdale in 2013.
• In 2011 Russ Cochran became the second left-hander to win the Championship, following Bob Charles (1989 and 1993).
• There have been 19 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 2015 at the Old Course, St Andrews.
