The Grass & Co. English Legends, hosted by Roger Chapman, kicks off this week as the Legends Tour’s UK and Ireland swing moves on to the prestigious Brocket Hall Estate in Hertfordshire, with Ryder Cup captains and players, Major champions and Tour winners contesting the €500,000 prize fund.
The English Legends will be the final event of host Roger Chapman’s stellar 50-year playing career, and he will be joined by a number of the biggest names in seniors golf, including Ryder Cup legend Colin Montgomerie, Open champion Paul Lawrie and US Open winner Michael Campbell.
Also in the field will be local favourite and 2010 BMW PGA champion Simon Khan, who hosted the English Legends event at Hanbury Manor two years ago.
The Englishman, now in his fourth season on the Legends Tour, is still chasing that elusive first victory after a number of near-misses already this season, including sixth at the recent Staysure PGA Seniors Championship – an event in which he has finished top-five in the last three years. A T5 in his first event of the year at the Barbados Legends hosted by Ian Woosnam was backed up by a T9 at the OFX Irish Legends, with two further top-20 finishes giving Khan optimism that his game is in a good place for the remainder of the season.
“I’ve practised hard over the winter and worked more on my game,” said Khan, who won twice on the DP World Tour and made almost 400 starts before turning 50. “I started the season really well, feel like I could have won in Barbados if I’d been sharper around the greens on the final day, and Ireland was a really good final round. I’ve always felt that tee to green is one of the strengths of my game, so I’ve worked hard on my short game and putting – particularly the mental side of it – and there’s more to do.”
After a recent golf break with friends to St Andrews, Khan is hoping to take a more relaxed attitude into the English Legends. “Those three days playing the Old Course and Kingsbarns have actually really rekindled something in me,” said Khan. “You remember why you play the game, why you love it. It’s also reminded me that it’s that kind of relaxed mindset that I have when I play my best. You want to win so much that you can push a bit too hard, so you just have to try and let it come to you, especially on the final day. Trying to play free is what we are all chasing.
“It’s a really good standard out here. To win, you’ve got to beat some really good guys. You can’t just turn up and play ok. You’ve really got be fully committed to it, and put the time and effort in. Being good at 50 is very different to being good at 30. It’s a different part of your life and it’s really about desire, how much you want it and how much you want to put in. It has been a little bit frustrating not to have won, because I’ve lost a play-off, I’ve had a second, a third, been in the final group a few times. It would be lovely to win this year, that’s been my goal and hopefully I can.
“I learnt a good lesson at Trump that I was paying too much attention to the leaderboard and trying to catch them rather than just trying to shoot a good score. When I think about my wins, I never really used to look, so I’d like to get that mindset back.”
And as the Legends Tour heads to Hertfordshire, Khan is hoping that a course he knows well will play to his strengths. “It’s a golf course that I’m very familiar with. It’s a great set-up here and the players are really going to enjoy it. It’s a second shot course – there’s some good par-threes so your iron play and wedge game needs to be good. You’ve got to hit it in the right spots on the tricky greens, so it’s managing your shots into the greens, because you can get left some tough up-and-downs. You have to pick your moments to attack as there will be tough pins and you need control.”
While the DP World Tour’s final Ryder Cup qualifying tournament will see a number of players battling at the British Masters for the remaining places in Luke Donald’s Team Europe side, a number of men who have enjoyed that privilege will be teeing it up at Brocket Hall including the likes of Montgomerie, Lawrie and Baker, plus Joakim Haeggman, Jarmo Sandelin, Niclas Fasth, Phillip Price, Thomas Levet and David Gilford, who famously partnered both Severiano Ballesteros and Bernhard Langer to victory at Oak Hill in 1995 before also winning his singles match.
Six Legends Tour winners from 2025 will also be present at Brocket, including Order of Merit leader Scott Hend and the South African trio of Keith Horne, James Kingston and Darren Fichardt – who lost in a play-off at the recent Staysure PGA Seniors Championship to Bo Van Pelt – plus English duo Peter Baker and Simon Griffiths.
Brocket Hall is one of the country’s best golf facilities with two spectacular courses, a world-class practice and short-game facility, luxurious manor-house accommodation that has housed Prime Ministers and Royalty, and a superb AA-rosette restaurant.
Created at the turn of the 21st century by esteemed architects, Donald Steel and Martin Ebert, Golf Monthly magazine describes the Palmerston course as a “a majestic rolling layout on an expansive canvas – one of England’s grandest parkland creations of the past quarter of a century, with holes that catch your eye at every turn.”
Brocket Hall has hosted a number of elite events, including most recently the Rose Ladies Open – hosting by Kate and Justin Rose – on the LET Access Series. Multiple Faldo Series Grand Finals have also been held at Brocket Hall, with future stars like Rory McIlroy and Carly Booth playing.
Tickets for the event are now on sale, with a discounted price when buying online. Adult tickets are £15 with under-16s receiving free entry. All ticket purchases also include a £7.50 food and drink voucher.
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