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Overview of U.S. Senior Open

The 31st U.S. Senior Open starts Thursday July 29 at Sahalee Country Club east of Seattle in Sammamish, Wash. Here's an overview of the championship.

Ted Robinson designed the original 18-hole course, which opened in 1969. Rees Jones oversaw a redesign and renovations in 1996 in preparation for the 1998 PGA Championship. Based on the course setup for the championship, the course rating is 74.4. Its Slope rating is 143.

The fairways, on average, will be 26 yards wide. On either side of the fairways, a 6-foot-wide swath of intermediate rough running the length of each hole will be set to 1.5 inches. Then, an 8-foot-wide band of first cut of primary rough will be grown to 2.5 inches. The balance of the rough (secondary cut) will be 4 inches. Putting greens will measure 12 feet on the Stimpmeter.

The championship is open to any professional and amateur golfer who is 50 years of age as of July 29 with a USGA Handicap Index not exceeding 3.4. The deadline for entries was June 9. The USGA accepted 2,439 entries for the 2010 U.S. Senior Open. The record number of entries is 3,101 in 2002.

Sectional qualifying, played over 18 holes, was held at 42 sites between June 21 and July 12.

The starting field of 156 golfers will be cut after 36 holes to the low 60 scorers (and ties) and any player within 10 strokes of the leader.

Eighteen holes of stroke play are scheduled each day from July 29 (Thursday) through Aug. 1 (Sunday). In the case of a tie after 72 holes, a three-hole aggregate playoff (using holes 14, 17 and 18) will be held immediately after the conclusion of the fourth round on Aug. 1.

Fred Funk shot a final-round 65 for a USGA 72-hole record of 20-under-par 268 to win the 2009 U.S. Senior Open at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind. For more details, visit: http://www.ussenioropen.com/news/game82.html.

Sixty-three players are currently fully exempt into the 156-player U.S. Senior Open field, including 11 past champions. Champions, through 2009, received a lifetime exemption into the field. Fully-exempt players are listed at the end of the fact sheet.

Among the benefits enjoyed by the U.S. Senior Open winner, starting with the 2010 championship, is a 10-year exemption into the U.S. Senior Open or an exemption through age 65, whichever yields the higher number of exemptions.

The 2010 purse is $2.6 million and the winner will earn $470,000.

Television

The U.S. Senior Open will receive at least 14 hours of live network coverage, with six of those hours on NBC. ESPN2 will air at least eight hours over the first two days of play.

July 29 - ESPN, 5-9 p.m.
July 30 - ESPN2, 5-9 p.m.
July 31 - NBC, 4-7 p.m.
Aug. 1 - NBC, 4-7 p.m.

Individual and group tickets are available at various prices. For more information, visit www.2010ussenioropen.com, or call (877) 281-OPEN for tickets.

History

This is the 31st U.S. Senior Open Championship. The first U.S. Senior Open, played in 1980, was conducted for golfers 55 and older. The next year, the USGA lowered the age minimum to 50.

Miller Barber captured the first of his three Senior Open titles in 1982, later winning in 1984 and 1985. In its history, the U.S. Senior Open has had four two-time winners: Gary Player (1987-88); Jack Nicklaus (1991, 1993); Hale Irwin (1998, 2000); and Allen Doyle (2005-06). Doyle became the championship's oldest winner in 2006 at the age of 58 years and 13 days.

Dale Douglass is the youngest champion, having won the championship on his first try, in 1986, at the age of 50 years, 3 months and 24 days. Douglass is scheduled to make this 25th consecutive start in the championship, which would tie Arnold Palmer's 25 consecutive starts from 1981-2005. Douglass, 74, the 1986 U.S. Senior Open champion, has made the cut 14 times and has three top-five finishes in his 24 U.S. Senior Open appearances.

The 2010 U.S. Senior Open is the first USGA championship to be conducted at Sahalee Country Club and the 22nd to be conducted in the state of Washington, which has never hosted prior the U.S. Senior Open. It last welcomed the 2007 U.S. Girls' Junior at Tacoma Country & Golf Club in Lakewood. The 2010 U.S. Amateur will be held at Chambers Bay in University Place Aug. 23-29. The 2011 U.S. Junior Amateur will take place at Gold Mountain Golf Club (Olympic Course) in Bremerton July 18-23, and Chambers Bay will host the 2015 U.S. Open June 18-21.

Sahalee Country Club hosted the 1998 PGA Championship (won by Vijay Singh) and the 2002 NEC World Golf Championship (won by Craig Parry). Since 1992, it has hosted the Sahalee Players Championship, a prominent amateur event.

USGA Champions

Following is a list of the 24 USGA champions (with 32 championships) who are in the field for this year's U.S.Senior Open:

Brad Bryant - 2007 U.S. Senior Open
Jerry Courville - 1995 U.S. Mid-Amateur
John Cook - 1978 U.S. Amateur
Dale Douglass - 1986 U.S. Senior Open
Allen Doyle - 2005 and 2006 U.S. Senior Open
Dave Eichelberger - 1999 U.S. Senior Open
Bruce Fleisher - 1968 U.S. Amateur and 2001 U.S. Senior Open
Fred Funk - 2009 U.S. Senior Open
Vinny Giles - 1972 U.S. Amateur and 2009 USGA Senior Amateur
Hale Irwin - 1974, 1979 and 1990 U.S. Open, 1998, 2000 U.S. Senior Open
Peter Jacobsen - 2004 U.S. Senior Open
Tim Jackson - 1994 and 2001 U.S. Mid-Amateur
Tom Kite - 1992 U.S. Open
Graham Marsh - 1997 U.S. Senior Open
Buddy Marucci - 2008 USGA Senior Amateur
Mark O'Meara - 1979 U.S. Amateur
Corey Pavin - 1995 U.S. Open
Don Pooley - 2002 U.S. Senior Open
Eduardo Romero - 2008 U.S. Senior Open
Scott Simpson - 1987 U.S. Open
Craig Stadler - 1973 U.S. Amateur
Hal Sutton - 1980 U.S. Amateur
Tom Watson - 1982 U.S. Open
Fuzzy Zoeller - 1984 U.S. Open

Future Sites

July 28-31, 2011 - Inverness Club, Toledo, Ohio
July 12-15, 2012 - Indianwood Golf & Country Club, Lake Orion, Mich.
Aug. 1-4, 2013 - Omaha (Neb.) Country Club
July 31-Aug. 3, 2014 - Oak Tree National, Edmond, Okla.

Fully Exempt Players - (63) (a=amateur)

Michael Allen
Tommy Armour III
Paul Azinger
Andy Bean
Phil Blackmar
Olin Browne
Brad Bryant
Mark Calcavecchia
Russ Cochran
John Cook
Fred Couples
Ben Crenshaw
Dale Douglass
Allen Doyle
R.W. Eaks
Dave Eichelberger
Keith Fergus
Bruce Fleisher
Dan Forsman
Robin Freeman
Fred Funk
a-Marvin "Vinny" Giles
Mike Goodes
a-John Grace
Jay Haas
Hale Irwin
a-Tim Jackson
John Jacobs
Peter Jacobsen
Tom Jenkins
Gene Jones
Tom Kite
Bernhard Langer
Tom Lehman
Graham Marsh
a-George Marucci Jr.
Larry Mize
Gil Morgan
Mark O'Meara
Naomichi Ozaki
Corey Pavin
Tom Pernice Jr.
Don Pooley
Nick Price
Tom Purtzer
Glenn Ralph
Mike Reid
Loren Roberts
Eduardo Romero
Scott Simpson
Joey Sindelar
Jeff Sluman
Craig Stadler
Hal Sutton
Bob Tway
Bruce Vaughan
Bobby Wadkins
Tsukasa Watanabe
Denis Watson
Tom Watson
D.A. Weibring
Mark Wiebe
Fuzzy Zoeller

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