The U.S. Senior Open at Newport Country Club is set to be a star-studded affair with a stacked field this year.
This prestigious tournament, only the fifth USGA championship to be held at the historic Rhode Island club and 129 years since the inaugural U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur in 1895, is the third of five senior majors scheduled for this season. Doug Barron and Richard Bland have already claimed victories in the Regions Tradition and the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship respectively.
The line-up for the 44th U.S. Senior Open boasts a diverse range of players eager to demonstrate they've still got what it takes. Six World Golf Hall of Fame members, four U.S. Open champions, two LIV Golf stars and 11 previous U.S. Senior Open winners will be vying for the $4 million prize fund, with the champion pocketing a cool $800,000.
Mirror Sport has picked out three big names to watch this week at Newport Country Club.
Bernhard Langer
Last year, Langer made history at SentryWorld by becoming the oldest U.S. Senior Open winner at the ripe age of 65. The German faces a tough challenge if he hopes to secure back-to-back titles, especially after tearing his Achilles during a pickleball game in February.
Less than five months after suffering a serious injury that usually takes a year to fully recover from, 66 year old Langer is still experiencing the aftermath. He's been granted the use of a cart this week, which is a stroke of luck.
"My leg and my ankle are swollen," he shared with journalists. "It's fatigue. I don't have the range of motion in my foot. So there's various things that aren't there yet. My balance is not where I want it to be, and my ... calf muscle is probably one or two inches smaller than the other leg.
"I can't get on my tiptoes. Right foot, I can do that. Just my right foot. I tried it on my left, and nothing. I've got a ways to go, and I'm happy to be playing golf. The good thing is I can get carts in tournaments because right now I can't walk four or five days, 18 holes. It's impossible."
Richard Bland
Bland has made quite the splash in senior golf, clinching the Senior PGA Championship in his very first appearance last month. His journey to victory was much quicker than the 479 attempts it took before he secured his inaugural DP World Tour win at the British Masters in 2021.
"Obviously, the British Masters was very special at 48, but this is right up there. I couldn't be happier," Bland expressed following his recent triumph. "I was interested to see that if I brought my game how it would stack up against these guys. Thankfully, it does."
Bland, who switched to the Saudi-backed LIV Golf league in 2022, is currently sitting in 25th place after nine events this season. With two top-10 finishes and 33.05 points, the 51 year old is now the favourite to win the U. S. Senior Open with odds of +500.
Lee Westwood
Westwood, who has made nearly 800 professional starts in 20 different countries, will be making his debut on the senior circuit at this week's U. S. Senior Open. Despite struggling since joining LIV Golf as a founding member in 2022, he is coming off his best performance in the breakaway league.
At LIV Golf Nashville, Westwood shot rounds of 69, 66, and 66 to finish 12-under, tying him for third place with Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, and Joaquin Niemann. The Majesticks co-captain attributed his strong performance to the extra work he put in before the tournament.
"I started to swing well, and my whole game was coming together when I played at LIV Houston three weeks ago," Westwood said on Tuesday. "Then I went home and did a little bit of work on it. I probably haven't been working as hard on my game as I would have liked to, but I put in a bit more work in the week off.
"I went to Nashville and carried on really with that theme, those swing thoughts. Putted well last week. I sharpened my short game up because I've been playing more, and my game is in a really good place."