June 25-28, 2015
Del Paso Country Club, Sacramento, Calif.
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PAR AND YARDAGE
Del Paso Country Club will be set up at 6,994 yards and will play to a par of 36-34–70.
DEL PASO COUNTRY CLUB HOLE BY HOLE
Hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Total
Par 5 3 4 5 3 4 4 4 4 36
Yards 544 178 490 580 228 395 440 450 318 3,623
Hole 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Total
Par 4 4 3 4 3 5 4 3 4 34
Yards 317 393 165 487 215 636 473 225 460 3,371
ARCHITECT
Del Paso County Club was designed by Scotsman John L. Black. It was redesigned and renovated by architect Kyle Phillips in 2006. The club was founded in 1916 on property that was part of the original Rancho Del Paso, a historic 44,000-acre area used by 19th-century settlers as a pathway through the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
COURSE RATING
Based on the course setup for the championship, the USGA Course Rating is 74.9. Its Slope Rating is 147.
WHO CAN ENTER
The championship is open to any professional and amateur golfer who is 50 years of age as of June 22. An amateur is eligible with a Handicap Index® not exceeding 3.4. The deadline for entries is May 6.
ENTRIES
The USGA accepted 2,445 entries for the 2015 U.S. Senior Open. The record number of entries is 3,101 in 2002.
SECTIONAL QUALIFYING
Sectional qualifying, played over 18 holes, was conducted at 34 sites around the country between May 11 and June 4. The sectional qualifying sites are located in 26 states, including five in California and three in Florida.
CHAMPIONSHIP FIELD
The starting field of 156 golfers will be cut after 36 holes to the low 60 scorers and ties.
SCHEDULE OF PLAY
Eighteen holes of stroke play are scheduled each day from Thursday, June 25, through Sunday, June 28. In the case of a tie after 72 holes, a three-hole aggregate playoff will commence immediately after the conclusion of the fourth round on June 28.
2014 CHAMPION
Colin Montgomerie defeated Gene Sauers in a three-hole aggregate playoff to win the 2014 U.S. Senior Open Championship at Oak Tree National, in Edmond, Okla. Montgomerie and Sauers advanced to the playoff with 72-hole scores of 5-under 279. Montgomerie held a one-shot lead through two holes and sank a 16-foot par putt to claim his first USGA championship.
Montgomerie, who opened with a first-round 65, led at the end of the first and second rounds but trailed Sauers by four strokes entering Sunday’s action. He rallied with a final-round 69, while Sauers narrowly missed a birdie putt on the 72nd hole that led to the first U.S. Senior Open playoff since 2002. Sauers, who tied for 35th the previous year in his first U.S. Senior Open, had shot three consecutive rounds in the 60s to build his lead.
Montgomerie, who won his first professional playoff in nine attempts, which included a loss to Ernie Els in the 1994 U.S. Open at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club, became the fifth player to win both the U.S. Senior Open and Senior PGA Championship in the same year.
PURSE
The 2014 purse was $3.35 million; the winner earned $630,000.
TELEVISION SCHEDULE
The U.S. Senior Open will receive at least 20 hours of live network coverage. Fox will air at least 10 hours of coverage throughout the championship. Fox Sports 1 will air at least 10 hours over the first two days of play.
Date Network Broadcast Hours (EDT)
June 23 Fox Sports 1 Preview, 3:30 p.m.-4 p.m.
June 24 Fox Sports 1 Preview, 7 p.m.-8 p.m.
June 25 Fox Sports 1 2 p.m.-7 p.m.
June 26 Fox Sports 1 2 p.m.-7 p.m.
June 27 Fox 2 p.m.-7 p.m.
June 28 Fox 2 p.m.-7 p.m.
TICKETS
Tickets for the 2015 U.S. Senior Open Championship are available for purchase at 2015ussenioropen.com. Weekly tickets are $125 (good Thursday-Sunday with parking). Trophy Club tickets are $250.
HISTORY
This is the 36th U.S. Senior Open Championship. The first U.S. Senior Open, played in 1980, was conducted for golfers 55 and older. The next year, the USGA lowered the minimum age to 50.
Miller Barber captured the first of his three U.S. Senior Open titles in 1982 – he also won in 1984 and 1985. The U.S. Senior Open has four two-time winners: Gary Player (1987, 1988), Jack Nicklaus (1991, 1993), Hale Irwin (1998, 2000), and Allen Doyle (2005, 2006). Doyle became the championship’s oldest winner in 2006 at the age of 58 years, 13 days.
The youngest champion is Dale Douglass, who won in 1986 at the age of 50 years, 3 months, 24 days.
USGA CHAMPIONSHIPS AT DEL PASO COUNTRY CLUB
This is the first U.S. Senior Open Championship and the fifth USGA championship to be conducted at Del Paso Country Club.
In the 1982 U.S. Women’s Open, Janet Alex posted a 72-hole score of 5-under 283 to win by six strokes and record her first professional victory. Four players tied for second at 1-over 289: eight-time USGA champion JoAnne Gunderson Carner, 1975 U.S. Women’s Open champion Sandra Haynie and U.S. Women’s Amateur champions Donna White and Beth Daniel.
Carner won the first of her five U.S. Women’s Amateur titles at Del Paso in 1957. She defeated Ann Casey Johnstone, 8 and 6, in the final. Carner, the 1971 and 1976 U.S. Women’s Open winner, holds the record for women with eight USGA championships and is tied for third among all competitors behind Robert T. Jones Jr. and Tiger Woods, who have nine each.
USGA CHAMPIONSHIPS AT DEL PASO COUNTRY CLUB
1957 U.S. Women’s Amateur: JoAnne Gunderson Carner def. Ann Casey Johnstone, 8 and 6
1964 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur: Loma Smith won by one stroke over Mrs. William Kirkland
1976 U.S. Women’s Amateur: Donna Horton def. Marianne Bretton, 2 and 1
1982 U.S. Women’s Open: Janet Alex won by six strokes over Sandra Haynie, Donna White, JoAnne Gunderson Carner and Beth Daniel
USGA CHAMPIONSHIPS IN CALIFORNIA
This will be the 75th USGA championship played in California and the second U.S. Senior Open contested in the state. Hale Irwin edged Vicente Fernandez by one stroke to win the 1998 U.S. Senior Open at Riviera Country Club, in Pacific Palisades. He became the seventh player to win the U.S. Open and U.S. Senior Open.
USGA OPENS IN CALIFORNIA
1948 U.S. Open: Riviera Country Club, Pacific Palisades (Ben Hogan)
1955 U.S. Open: The Olympic Club (Lake Course), San Francisco (Jack Fleck)
1964 U.S. Women’s Open: San Diego Country Club (Mickey Wright)
1966 U.S. Open: The Olympic Club (Lake Course), San Francisco (Billy Casper)
1972 U.S. Open: Pebble Beach Golf Links (Jack Nicklaus)
1982 U.S. Open: Pebble Beach Golf Links (Tom Watson)
1982 U.S. Women’s Open: Del Paso Country Club, Sacramento (Janet Alex)
1987 U.S. Open: The Olympic Club (Lake Course), San Francisco (Scott Simpson)
1992 U.S. Open: Pebble Beach Golf Links (Tom Kite)
1998 U.S. Open: The Olympic Club (Lake Course), San Francisco (Lee Janzen)
1998 U.S. Senior Open: Riviera Country Club, Pacific Palisades (Hale Irwin)
2000 U.S. Open: Pebble Beach Golf Links (Tiger Woods)
2008 U.S. Open; Torrey Pines Golf Course (South Course), San Diego (Tiger Woods)
2010 U.S. Open: Pebble Beach Golf Links (Graeme McDowell)
2012 U.S. Open: The Olympic Club (Lake Course), San Francisco (Webb Simpson)
U.S. SENIOR OPENS IN CALIFORNIA
1998 U.S. Senior Open: Riviera Country Club, Pacific Palisades, Calif. (Hale Irwin)
U.S. SENIOR OPEN – PAR-70 COURSES (10)
Oakland Hills Country Club, Bloomfield Hills, Mich. (1981, 1991)
Oak Hill Country Club, Rochester, N.Y. (1984)
Olympia Fields (Ill.) Country Club (1997)
Salem Country Club, Peabody, Mass. (2001)
Prairie Dunes Country Club, Hutchinson, Kan. (2006)
The Broadmoor (East Course), Colorado Springs, Colo. (2008)
Sahalee Country Club, Sammamish, Wash. (2010)
Indianwood Golf & Country Club (Old Course), Lake Orion, Mich. (2012)
Omaha (Neb.) Country Club (2013)
Del Paso Country Club, Sacramento, Calif. (2015)
LONGEST PAR 3s in U.S. SENIOR OPEN HISTORY
240 yards – 12th at The Broadmoor (East Course), Colorado Springs, Colo., 2008
230 yards – 3rd at Omaha (Neb.) Country Club, 2013
230 yards – 4th at Riviera Country Club, Pacific Palisades, Calif., 1998
228 yards – 6th at Inverness Club, Toledo, Ohio, 2003
228 yards – 15th at Inverness Club, Toledo, Ohio, 2011
228 yards – 5th at Del Paso Country Club, Sacramento, Calif., 2015
LONGEST PAR 4s in U.S. SENIOR OPEN HISTORY
545 yards – 17th at The Broadmoor (East Course), Colorado Springs, Colo., 2008
501 yards – 10th at The Broadmoor (East Course), Colorado Springs, Colo., 2008
494 yards – 10th at Omaha (Neb.) Country Club, 2013
493 yards – 13th at The Broadmoor (East Course), Colorado Springs, Colo., 2008
490 yards – 3rd at Del Paso Country Club, Sacramento, Calif., 2015
489 yards – 12th at Indianwood Golf & Country Club (Old Course), Lake Orion, Mich., 2012
LONGEST PAR 5s IN U.S. SENIOR OPEN HISTORY
636 yards – 15th at Del Paso Country Club, Sacramento, Calif., 2015
608 yards – 7th at Brooklawn Country Club, Fairfield, Conn., 1987
608 yards – 6th at Canterbury Golf Club, Beachwood, Ohio, 1996
601 yards – 3rd at The Broadmoor (East Course), Colorado Springs, Colo., 2008
600 yards – 5th at Crooked Stick Golf Club, Carmel, Ind., 2009
599 yards – 14th at Oak Tree National, Edmond, Okla., 2014
WINNERS OF U.S. OPEN AND U.S. SENIOR OPEN
Billy Casper (1959, 1966 U.S. Open; 1983 U.S. Senior Open)
Hale Irwin (1974, 1979, 1990 U.S. Open; 1998, 2000 U.S. Senior Open)
Orville Moody (1969 U.S. Open; 1989 U.S. Senior Open)
Jack Nicklaus (1962, 1967, 1972, 1980 U.S. Open; 1991, 1993 U.S. Senior Open)
Arnold Palmer (1960 U.S. Open; 1981 U.S. Senior Open)
Gary Player (1965 U.S. Open; 1987, 1988 U.S. Senior Open)
Lee Trevino (1968, 1971 U.S. Open: 1990 U.S. Senior Open)
THE LAST TIME IT HAPPENED AT THE SENIOR OPEN
Colin Montgomerie – the last international winner (2014)
Allen Doyle – the last to defend title successfully (2006)
Roger Chapman – the last to win in his first appearance (2012)
Colin Montgomerie – the last to win on his second attempt (2014)
Olin Browne – the last start-to-finish winner with no ties (2011)
Hale Irwin – the last winner to birdie the 72nd hole to win by one stroke (1998)
Gary Player – the last winner without a round in the 60s (1988)
Roger Chapman – the last winner with all rounds in the 60s (2012)
Roger Chapman – the last defending champion to miss the cut (2013)
Don Pooley – the last winner to come through sectional qualifying (2002)
FUTURE SITES
Aug. 11-14, 2016: Scioto Country Club, Columbus, Ohio
June 29-July 2, 2017: Salem Country Club, Peabody, Mass.
CHAMPIONSHIP TROPHY
The U.S. Senior Open, first contested in 1980, is a relatively new national championship when compared with others conducted by the USGA. Yet the U.S. Senior Open Trophy is actually the oldest among the USGA’s championship trophies.
On Sept. 24, 1894, the Tuxedo Club of Tuxedo Park, N.Y., invited three other clubs to compete in the first American interclub tournament. Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, Saint Andrew’s Golf Club, and The Country Club of Brookline, Mass., agreed to the challenge. While there is still some dispute as to which team won, The Country Club team, consisting of H.C. Leeds, Laurence Curtis, Robert Bacon and W.B. Thomas, returned home with the trophy. The sterling silver, hourglass-shaped cup remained in the club’s possession until the mid-1950s, when it was given to the USGA for exhibition.
In June 1980, with the USGA preparing for the first U.S. Senior Open, The Country Club suggested that the trophy be used as the formal award for the championship. The cup was presented “by the Country Club and Golfers of Massachusetts,” and formally dedicated as the Francis D. Ouimet Memorial Trophy. Roberto De Vicenzo received it at Winged Foot Golf Club as the inaugural champion. A replica of the trophy, complete with engraving of the 1894 Brookline team, was produced by the USGA in 1997 and awarded to Graham Marsh at Olympia Fields Country Club in Illinois. The original was then given its second and final retirement.
The original U.S. Senior Open Trophy is on display at the USGA Museum in Far Hills, N.J.
PHOTO MEDIA SERVICE
The USGA will offer daily complimentary high-resolution photographs during the U.S. Senior Open (Monday-Sunday) for news use only. For more information and to register, contact photorequests@usga.org.
IMPORTANT PHONE NUMBERS
USGA Communications Department: 908-234-2300
MEDIA OPERATIONS/SERVICE
Please contact Brian DePasquale, Pete Kowalski or Stephanie DiPilla for more information regarding your U.S. Senior Open coverage. Their contact information is:
Brian DePasquale: bdepasquale@usga.org
Pete Kowalski: pkowalski@usga.org
Stephanie DiPilla: sdipilla@usga.org
Media-specific information can be found at www.usga.org/media.html.