Golf Events / Bill Elliott / 23 July 2008 /

Europe's golden generation - Woosnam, Lyle et al - make their Senior Open debuts on Thursday. Bill Elliott previews the Troon tournament

About 1,000 years ago I recall bumping into Billy Casper, the old Mormon rascal, who had just played in his first few events on the inaugural season of the US Seniors Tour. So I asked him how it was going?

"How's it going? Hell, it's like walking across a big field kicking over rocks and finding lots of dollars under every one of them," he grinned.

And so it has been ever since both there and, in more recent years, over here. Certainly the European Seniors circuit has grown nicely, if less spectacularly, when compared to its American rival.

But there is still enough money available to secure the serious attention of contestants. Especially this week at Royal Troon where the highlight of the season, the Senior Open, is being staged. This is the 22nd Senior Open and it promises to be one of the very best with 20 major champs in the field and a first prize of nearly £125,000 on offer. Small beer maybe compared to the regular tour but still worth a man spending the time to bend down and pick it up.

Main attraction, of course, is Greg Norman who is continuing his golfing honeymoon in Scotland, Chrissie (the tennis artist formerly known as Evert) by his side and cooing audibly.

At [8.8] Greg is second favourite from Bernhard Langer ([7.6]) with defending champ Tom Watson a couple of ticks back on [9.6]. It was at Troon nearly 20 years ago that the Aussie lost an Open play-off to Mark Calcavecchia (who is teeing up at the Canadian Open) and now the big question is what sort of reaction will there be to last week's heroics at Birkdale.

Put simply, the big man must be tired. On the other hand he will be also inspired. I'm not sure which of these things will gain an upper hand but I fear it will be the former. I know he is the fittest 53-year-old ever in the history of middle-aged sport but, surely, there must be a limit. Mind you, I hope I am wrong.

Watson, too, showed at Birkdale that he can play the game still, his opening round a master class in bad weather links golf. His record in the Senior Open is damn near as good as his Open CV (five victories there) and he definitely remains the man to beat this week.

There are, however, a lot of guys capable of beating him. This is the year when Europe's Generation X has joined the fray. Seve Ballesteros, sadly, is retired hurt but Langer, Ian Woosnam and Sandy Lyle will be making their Senior Open debuts on the west coast of Scotland.

Woosnam is already a two-time winner on the Senior circuit and heads the home money list. Now recovered from his various physical ailments, Woosie should be a force. As should Langer who has been playing well enough in the States to merit at least a consideration by Nick Faldo for a Ryder Cup place and I mean that seriously.

Lyle, however, is a different proposition. Sandy has not played consistently decent golf for a very long time now and there is no reason to expect this week to be any different. What he does need to do is to put on some kind of a show. His withdrawal after the opening nine holes last Thursday in Southport was an embarrassing and damaging decision by a man who should know much better.

Many of us have been supporting his candidature to become Ryder Cup captain but last week this support became much more difficult to sustain than had been the case. Lyle has apologised to everyone about his sulky action because of a bit of wind and rain but he still has a lot of ground left to make up. It would help him, and us, if he began to make this up this week.

Meanwhile, while all the focus naturally is on the star names allow me to mention a slightly less famous bloke. Mark James has always been able to play links golf. The old game suits his quirky mind and people forget how close he came several times to picking off The Open itself.

He might not have the charisma of a Norman - or even of me and you - but James can play this game very, very well. Just thought I'd mention it...

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