After a year’s hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Senior Open is back. The championship is back at Omaha (Neb.) Country Club for the second time in eight years. While 2019 champion Steve Stricker will not defend his title, 10 Senior Open champions are in the field, including Kenny Perry, who earned the first of his two Francis D. Ouimet Memorial Trophies right here in Omaha in 2013 with rounds of 64-63 on the weekend.

This week looks a little different than most on the PGA Tour Champions. It is one of just three events on the schedule that have a 36-hole cut and feature a full field of 156 players. Thirty-four amateurs will also take their shot at the title, the most in a U.S. Senior Open since 2012.

Ray Franz Jr. of Mount Pleasant, S.C., will get the festivities underway off No. 1 at 7:15 a.m. CDT on Thursday. Here are 3 things to look for in Rounds 1 and 2:

First-Timers

Nearly half the players in this year’s field (73 of 156) are playing in their first U.S. Senior Open, including major champions Rich Beem, Ernie Els, Jim Furyk, Jose Maria Olazabal and Mike Weir. Each has their sights on winning the championship in their first attempt, something only nine players have accomplished.

While many of these players will have opportunities to win this title in the future, based on data of past champions, they may not want to dawdle, as 12 of the last 13 champions were age 54 or younger, with Perry at age 56 in 2017 the only outlier.

“Out here you have a little bit smaller window,” said Furyk, the 2003 U.S. Open champion. “You look at the PGA Tour, I felt like I had a real good 15-year window to win a major championship. Out here, unless you're Bernhard [Langer], usually most guys don't get a 15-year window.”

Ageless Langer

Speaking of the 2010 champion, this year marks Langer’s 13th consecutive start in the U.S. Senior Open. In addition to his victory at Sahalee, the 63-year-old German has not finished outside the top 25 in his career. Langer’s 12 top-25 finishes are tied for second all-time, trailing only Tom Watson’s 14. Perhaps even more impressive, Langer is a combined 330 strokes under par in senior major championships since 2007 – more than 200 strokes better than his nearest competitor, Kenny Perry.

The 11-time senior major champion has also added another title in the past year, though it won’t show up in his competitive record: “Opa.”

“We've had three grandkids in a span of 10 months, and I enjoy every minute I can spend with them,” said Langer. “It's almost better than having your own kids. You can play with them, and then send them back and say, OK, you take care of them now. And I don't have to change as many diapers as I used to, either.”

Welcome Back

Twenty-three players return from the 2013 U.S. Senior Open at Omaha, including Perry, Rocco Mediate (T-3), Tom Lehman (T-9) and Fred Couples (T-14). But the course looks and feels significantly different than eight years ago: The fairways are wider, the bunkers have all been rebuilt, the putting surfaces are new and four holes on the inward nine (Nos. 14-17) have been rerouted.

The course has also been lengthened by approximately 175 yards since 2013, but that’s not the only thing that’s gotten longer in the past eight years.

“I felt like the rough in '13 was half of what it is this year,” said Perry, who led the field in driving distance (300.5 yards) and was T-55 out of the 64 players who made the 36-hole cut in driving accuracy (48.1 percent) in his 2013 triumph. “I haven't seen anybody even attempt to hit a shot out of that heavy grass and move it more than 150 yards.”

The translation? Hitting fairways will be easier than eight years ago, but also more important, because if players miss them, they will have a hard time hitting the green from the rough.

Mike Trostel is the executive producer of content for the USGA. Email him at mtrostel@usga.org.