One of the unique things about senior events is that every year a fresh cohort of players tee it up who have turned 50 since the last edition.
This year's ISPS HANDA Senior Open sees players players enter the fray who are Ryder Cup captains, Major winners, Tour stalwarts and plenty in between.
Here, we take a look at six of them teeing it up at The Gleneagles Hotel.
Zach Johnson
DOB: 24/02/76
One of the game's quiet superstars, the man from the United States has enjoyed a stellar career with the minimum of fuss. After turning professional in 1998, he topped the money list on the now Korn Ferry Tour in 2003 and claimed the first of his 12 PGA TOUR wins the following year. In 2007 he won the Masters Tournament as World Number 56 and would then stay in the top 50 for a decade, reaching a career-high sixth in 2014. A second Major title would come at The Open at St Andrews after a play-off in 2015 and he captained the United States Ryder Cup team for their 2023 defeat in Rome. As a player, he made five Ryder Cup teams and won nine points, tasting victory at Hazeltine in 2016. He is already a senior winner at the Regions Tradition on the Champions Tour.
Henrik Stenson
DOB: 05/04/76
The first and still only male Swede to win a Major Championship, Stenson has enjoyed considerable success on both sides of the Atlantic. He turned professional in 1998, topped the HotelPlannner Tour Rankings in 2000 and won the Benson and Hedges International Open in his rookie season on the DP World Tour. Another ten wins would follow, the last of which brought him a Claret Jug in record-breaking fashion after what some consider to be the greatest golfing duel of them all against Phil Mickelson at Royal Troon in 2016. That victory was one of the six on the PGA TOUR, where he also won THE PLAYERS Championship and won twice in 2013 en route to winning the FedEx Cup and Race to Dubai in the same season. He holed the winning putt on his Ryder Cup debut in 2006 and won 11 points across five appearances with three European wins.
Jamie Donaldson
DOB: 19/10/75
It may be an emotional return to Gleneagles for the man who hit the winning shot for Europe at this venue in the 2014 Ryder Cup. Stood in the 15th fairway, he hit a towering iron to tap-in range and bring a concession from Keegan Bradley in his only appearance in the biennial spectacular. A man for the big moment, he earned his place on Paul McGinley's team with a a vital victory at the D+D Real Czech Masters, his third win in as many seasons and most recent on the DP World Tour across 509 appearances. Just 20 of those appearances came across 2024 and 2025 but his passion was undimmed as he played some HotelPlanner Tour events and already has two Staysure Legends Tour wins and tops the 2026 Order of Merit.
Vaughn Taylor
DOB: 09/03/76
Another Ryder Cup player, Taylor was the man on the receiving end of Stenson's winning putt in 2006 as the Swede took their singles match 4&3. He claimed a half in the foursomes alongside Chad Campbell is his other match and earned his way onto Tom Lehman's team via a rich vein of form. He won his first qualifying event at the 2004 Reno–Tahoe Open and would go on to successfully defend the title at a record 21 under the follwoing year, with a further ten top tens over two years. By 2016 he had dropped to 447th in the world but astonishingly won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am as first reserve for a third PGA TOUR title.
Hennie Otto
DOB: 25/06/76
The South African has been eligible for senior golf for less than a month and made his Staysure Legends Tour debut with a tie for 33rd at the OFX Irish Legends. He has played three times on the DP World Tour this season and on the HotelPlanner Tour registered a runner-up finish and two top tens in consecutive weeks in his homeland in February. A three-time DP World Tour winner with a victory at his home open and two in Italy, he also has 14 Sunshine Tour wins, including that South African Open Championship win of 2011.
Rory Sabbatini
DOB: 02/04/76
A PGA TOUR Qualifying School graduate in 1998, he won his first title in 2000 and would add another five over the next 11 years. Finished in a tie for second at the 2007 Masters behind Johnson and reached a career-high of eighth on the Official World Golf Ranking the following year. In 2018, the South Africa native became a Slovakian citizen and went on to win silver for his adopted country at the Olympic Men's Golf Competition in Tokyo. He has also won the World Cup of Golf for South Africa alongside Trevor Immelman and represented the International team at the Presidents Cup.
