FILE PHOTO
Next Thursday, 156 of the world’s best senior golfers will compete for the right to hoist the Francis D. Ouimet trophy at the Salem Country Club.
By ANNE MARIE TOBIN
Things are heating up in Peabody these days and it has nothing to do with weather.
The 38th U.S. Senior Open Golf Championship is coming to Salem Country Club next week. The tournament, which begins Thursday, June 29 and concludes Sunday, July 2, features 156 of the world’s best senior golfers (age 50 and over) all vying for the right to hoist the Francis D. Ouimet Trophy in front of upwards of 25,000 adoring spectators and millions more watching all across all the world on television and on the internet.
The field is packed with marquee players and includes the likes of John Daly, Fred Couples, Tom Watson, Bernhard Langer, Hale Irwin, Colin Montgomerie, Tom Kite, last year’s runner-up Miguel Angel Jimenez and defending champion Gene Sauers, each of whom hopes to find that magical touch and leave town with the winner’s share of approximately $700,000 of the $4 million prize purse and the Ouimet Trophy.
Last year, Sauers made a five-foot putt for par on the 72nd hole at Scioto C.C. in Columbus to win the championship by one stroke over Miguel Angel Jimenez and Billy Mayfair.
The championship is expected to pump millions of dollars into the local economy, with restaurants, hotels, B&Bs, local malls and retailers and popular tourist destinations expecting to reap windfall profits.
While the practice rounds don’t officially begin until Monday, players and their families and entourages are expected to begin arriving as early as this weekend to prep for the event.
Last Friday, members were busy cleaning out their club lockers for the players.
“Yes, it’s hard to believe it’s already here, and it really hit when the deadline for clearing out our lockers was upon us last Friday,” said Lynnfield resident Tim Nevils, a member at Salem. “It will be interesting to see who gets your locker, maybe it will be a big name or someone who ends up winning, which would be something.”
The last couple of weeks has been hectic at Salem, with contractors swarming the golf course erecting bleachers, television towers and putting in place all the infrastructure needed to conduct the championship.
“We are in great shape so far,” said championship assistant Jake Salvatore. “The hospitality tents are all up, the grandstands are nearly all completed and they are working on the television towers, but should be right on schedule by the time the first players arrive Saturday and Sunday.”
This is the second U.S Senior Open Championship and the sixth USGA championship to be conducted at the Donald Ross gem.
Two of the greatest female players in golf history won U.S. Women’s Open titles at Salem. Babe Didrikson Zaharias claimed her third Open title in 1954, just four months after undergoing colon cancer surgery, the disease that claimed her life two years later. She lapped the field, winning by 12 strokes over her nearest competitor and remains, to this day, the championship’s oldest winner (43).
In 1984, Hollis Stacy also won her third Open title at Salem in a nailbiter, winning by one shot over Rosie Jones, who bogeyed the 72nd hole.
Salem also hosted the 1932 U.S. Women’s Amateur, won by Virginia Van Wie, and the 1977 U.S. Senior Amateur, won by Dale Morey.
Last year, the club underwent a major project that restored the Donald Ross-designed gem to its original 1925 layout.
The bulk of the project, conducted by designer Ron Forse, focused on the expansion and reshaping of the greens as originally envisioned and created by Ross. In addition, a new irrigation system was installed and more that 500 trees were removed, significantly opening up the course and restoring original site lines and strategy.
After touring the “championship” front nine (members’ back nine), Sauers said he knew what he needed to work on to win a second Open title.
“I know what I need to work on and that’s chipping and putting,” he said. “Today, even with slow, damp greens, you can see that once they speed up, it’s going to be all about the short game and the greens.”
