When you get to your 50s, you probably have to be a bit more wary about things like hitting the ground and running. The body is not as well-oiled and as sturdy as it used to be, after all.
As one of the young ‘uns on the golden oldies circuit, though, Paul Broadhurst was champing at the bit to get his senior service off to a flying start.
His play-off win over St Andrews-born Austrian Gordon Manson in the Prostate Cancer UK Scottish Senior Open at Archerfield Links on Saturday, his first event on the over-50s stage, was a classic case of hitting the ground running ... so you can forget all about that first paragraph, then.
Having stepped away from the main European Tour, Broadhurst had been building up to this moment for the past three or four years as he counted down the days to his 50th birthday and looked ahead to beginning a new chapter in his sporting life.
The former Ryder Cup player, who rolled in a birdie putt of 20-feet on the last to tie Manson and then made another birdie at the second play-off hole to win, probably wishes the season was just starting. As it is, Broadhurst just has three more events to play this year on a European Senior Tour that has only nine regular tournaments on its schedule. The last couple of years have been tough for Andy Stubbs, the managing director of the circuit, as the financial ravages brought on by the recession led to a serious reduction in playing opportunities as sponsors and events fell by the wayside. “I’ve been with the tour for 21 years and this is as tough as it’s been,” he said. “The main tour suffered too. They used to have seven events in Spain and now they have just one. We had two but none now. On the Senior Tour, we used to be supported by tourist boards, finance services companies, banks, real estate developments etc but they have gone in the last five years. They are under more and more scrutiny so it’s not as easy for them to justify spending lots of money on golf.”
The Pro-Am format utilised for the Scottish event for the first two rounds is seen as a way forward in the tour’s bid to attract new investment and there are now four Pro-Am-style tournaments on the schedule. “The seniors are the best at entertaining the amateurs,” added Stubbs. “Businessmen love playing golf and these boys give them good value. We will be reducing fields next year to 54 pros and 54 amateurs. We won’t see a massive transition next year as in all events becoming Pro-Ams but we will see a drift.”
While the riches on offer on the US-based Champions Tour will always see Europe’s high-profile elder statesmen migrating across the Atlantic, Stubbs is still hopeful that player power can aid the tour’s recovery.
“Colin Montgomerie, bless him, had the Scottish event pencilled in,” said Stubbs. “But his success in the Senior PGA meant he got into the US PGA on the main tour. He would never turn down a major. That, originally, would have been his holiday week and he would’ve played here. We have also sat down with Miguel Angel Jimenez. He is a very frank, he still wants to play at the highest level in the majors and the WGCs. He’s incredible. But we’ve said that when he can see that he’ll be coming out of his regular tour commitments then we’ll try and do a partnership with him and Jose Maria Olazabal and go from there.”
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