The Legends Tour heads to Germany for its 9th regular event of the season, with an innovative line-up that features 57 men and three senior women – including both of this year’s three-time winners.
Peter Baker has been the master of Great Britain and Ireland with his victories coming in the Irish Legends, JCB Championship in England and Staysure PGA Seniors Championship in Scotland, while Adilson da Silva has ruled at tree-lined layouts with titles at the Riegler and Partner Legends in Austria, the Swiss Seniors Open and last week’s WCM Legends Open de France. Both players are vying for top spot in the MCB Road to Mauritius, alongside Alex Cejka, who won The Senior Open presented by Rolex in July.
“I just want to play well each week, and we’ll end up where we end up,” said Baker, who is the current MCB Road to Mauritius number one. “If it gets me over the line, then great. It’s a matter of concentrating each week and trying to get the most out of it and playing to the standard that I’ve set myself.”
As well as the hat trick of wins, Baker is very pleased with the consistency that has also yielded another three top-six finishes: “It’s really important that you get the most out of whatever game you bring to the tournament to give yourself a chance at the end of the week. I’ve done that quite well so far, so hopefully I can keep improving.”
Da Silva is a little surprised that his best results have come in the trees rather than on the links: “Links courses are supposed to suit me the best because I hit the ball low, and the ball usually rolls, so that helps because I’m not a really long hitter. I was thinking the other day, ‘why aren’t I doing better at links courses because that’s my game?’ But then again, I think the trees help me because my mind is channelled between them and I feel comfortable on the tee shots. My focus has been better on tree-lined courses. Your mind is a funny thing.”
The three ladies in the event are two-time Solheim Cup captain Catrin Nilsmark, two-time Ladies European Tour winner and 2003 Solheim Cup player Elisabeth Esterl and France’s Patricia Beliard.
“I’m very much looking forward to playing this week,” said Nilsmark, who also played in five Solheim Cups. “I don’t really know what to expect. It’s tricky set up a golf course for the men and the ladies, but I’m excited to play.”
This week’s field also has five former WINSTONgolf Senior Open winners – James Kingston, Clark Dennis, Stephen Dodd, Phillip Price and Andrew Oldcorn – as well as Phillip Archer, who lost in a five-hole play-off to Richard Green last year.
There are two excellent championship courses at WINSTONgolf and this week’s tournament is being held on ‘The Links’, which is a par 72 that measures 6,885 yards (6,072 yards for the ladies). It certainly has the visual characteristics of a links course, with imposing dunes framing the undulating fairways and tricky sloping greens, but it won’t play like a true links as it’s quite soft and relatively little wind is forecast for the week.
Visit www.legendstour.com to see the full list of tee times, keep up to date with the leaderboard and find out more about the WINSTONgolf Senior Open at WINSTONgolf, Germany.
