Worth the wait as Mason chases one that has got away

Senior Sports Writer

Saturday 18 August 2012

No-one can match Carl Mason's record on the European Seniors Tour, but the 59-year-old Englishman was on course to fill in a curious omission on his golfing cv as he eased his way into contention in St Andrews yesterday.

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Kevin Ferrie

Before becoming a serial winner in his sixth decade – he has accrued 25 seniors titles so far – Mason won only two titles on the regular tour, but the more important of them came at Gleneagles in the 1994 Scottish Open.

Yet as the man beaten by Tom Watson in a play-off at the Senior Open at Turnberry nine years ago pointed out, Scotland is the only one of the home nations in which he has not recorded a tournament victory since he turned 50. "I've always had fond memories of the Scottish Open win . . . and I've thought about that this week because I've won the Welsh, the English and the Irish [opens] on the Seniors," he said. "On the regular tour it was the other way around, so it would be nice to win this one and complete the set."Mason's wonderfully relaxed demeanour was certainly well suited to what confronted him yesterday, with play postponed due to heavy rain just as he and his playing partners Sam Torrance and Des Smyth took to the first tee.The delay did Mason no harm at all as he eventually carded a five-under-par opening 67 to share second place with Scotland's Andrew Oldcorn."I was delighted to be called off the first tee this morning," Mason smiled, admitting he had been much more relieved than frustrated by what turned out to be a three-and-three-quarter-hour wait. "We hadn't started. I had hit a couple of shots on the range and that was it. The weather was just horrid. I was dreading it."It was perfect when we did go out though and I just played steadily. I didn't drive it into any trouble and knocked it on the greens. It was just nice stress-free golf, then when I got some chances I took them."Mason had sympathy for those who had been able to start. "I could imagine when they teed off it was brutal," he said. "I was hitting 7-irons about 100 yards on the practice ground."Mason said he had drawn great confidence from the way he played in the Senior Open at Turnberry three weeks ago, a far cry from the experience of Oldcorn, who matched Mason's bogey-free 67 yesterday to be just a shot behind first-round leaders Marc Farry and Anders Forsbrand.As is the case with the Senior Open, Oldcorn has repeatedly struggled in this event, but is determined to put that right. "The one thing that's positive and pleasing for me is that I've put a power of work in for this for the past seven days," said the 52-year-old. "The mentality is that you just forget that you've not done well here [in previous years] and prepare as best as you can for the tournament."I was absolutely heartbroken at the way I played at Turnberry; it was one of the biggest disappointments in the whole of my career. It wasn't that I missed the cut by a shot in the end; it was the way I played. It was as big a downer as I've ever had . . . it took me about a week to 10 days to get over it. I had to get back on my bike and my head was good today. I applied myself."Sweden's Forsbrand also kept a bogey off his card, while Frenchman Farry birdied the long last hole to make up for the only bogey of his round at the 17th.

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Worth the wait as Mason chases one that has got away

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