Phil Price Ready For The Wind And Rain Of Royal Porthcawl At Seniors Open

BAD RAGAZ, SWITZERLAND - JULY 06: Phillip Price of Wales prior to the Swiss Seniors Open at Golf Club Bad Ragaz on July 06, 2023 in Bad Ragaz, Switzerland. (Photo by Phil Inglis/Getty Images)

Phil Price Ready For The Wind And Rain Of Royal Porthcawl At Seniors Open

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By Paul Jones

Welshman Phillip Price can put local knowledge to good use this week when he tees off at the Senior Open Championship at Royal Porthcawl.

The Welsh star has got plenty of early practice rounds in and has been promoting the event with seniors newcomer and countryman Bradley Dredge.

Price, who famously defeated Phil Mickelson in the 2002 Ryder Cup singles, was tenth in the 2003 Open Championship.

Now 56, he has moved smoothly onto the European seniors circuit, winning the Irish Legends event last year on a windswept links course.

Price is capable of giving the home galleries something to cheer and will lead the home challenge alongside Ian Woosnam, Stephen Dodd and Bradley Dredge.

He knows Royal Porthcawl well and finished sixth in 2017, five shots behind winner and four times champion Bernhard Langer.

“All the players love coming,” said former Ryder Cup winner Price.

“All the Americans rave about the course. I think we’ll probably have one of the best fields that we have ever had. It’s great for Welsh golf.”

“I probably didn’t have a chance to win [then] but the course is quite favourable for me I think,” added Price, 56.

“They have made a few changes, which I have been watching. There are a lot of run-offs, which means chipping – proper chipping off fairway-cut grass, not the American thick rough.

“I think probably you have got a lot of people who don’t like links golf because it’s quite different, with the wind, the bounces – it can be tricky. I do like it.”

The Senior Open, which runs from Thursday, 27 July to Sunday, 30 July, will be staged in Wales for a third time, having previously come to Royal Porthcawl in 2014 and 2017.

Former world number one Langer, 65, triumphed on both those occasions and has won a record 12 senior majors overall.

The German is one of six European former Ryder Cup captains in the field, alongside Clarke – who won the Senior Open at Gleneagles in 2022 – Harrington, Woosnam, Jose Maria Olazabal and Colin Montgomerie.

Champion Clarke said: “The feeling of winning The Senior Open last year is something I will never forget, and I am incredibly excited to visit Royal Porthcawl later this year to try and defend my title.

“I made no secret of the fact that I wanted to win The Senior Open more than anything, so I could sit it beside my Claret Jug, and to be able to do that is a privilege.

“I feel so honoured to be able to put my name alongside some of the greats of the game and now I want to keep playing well and keep contending in some of the biggest events on our schedule.

“Royal Porthcawl is a magnificent golf course and is one that will test every facet of your game.”

Miguel Angel Jimenez, Vijay Singh, Paul Lawrie and Rich Beem are among the other well-known players heading to the south Wales coast, though Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Thomas Bjorn have withdrawn.

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