It is the second time that the United States Golf Association has brought this championship to Scioto, which hosted it in 1986 when Dale Douglass nipped Gary Player by a stroke.
The Senior Open was held at Cleveland’s Canterbury Country Club in 1996, at the Inverness Club of Toledo in 2003, at Kettering’s NCR Country Club in 2005 and again at Inverness in 2011.
Unlike some of the previous senior events, this one will not have a crowd favorite like Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Gary Player or Greg Norman in the field.
Tom Watson, Hale Irwin, Fred Couples, John Daly, Craig Stadler and Vijay Singh are likely to tee it up for the first of four rounds Thursday, but the favorite might by Bernhard Langer or Woody Austin, the two guys who have three victories apiece on the tour this year.
Ten players have one victory. They are: Michael Allen, Paul Broadhurst, Paul Goydos, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Scott McCarron, Rocco Mediate, Jesper Parnevik, Esteban Toledo, Kirk Triplett and Duffy Waldorf. The points leaders are: Langer, Billy Andrade, Austin and Scott McCarron.
The 156 entrants will play Scioto at 7,129 yards with a par of 70. Fox Sports1 will provide 10 hours of coverage over Thursday and Friday. Fox Sports will televise from 2-6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Next to close?: The City of Springfield, which closed its Snyder Park Golf Course in January of 2014, now is looking to get out of the golf business altogether.
Springfield has posted a request for proposals to either buy or lease the 36-hole Reid Park facility located at 1325 S. Bird Road. The request for proposal says: “Because of a decline in state support for local government and because there are ample public facilities in the community, the City Commission has determined that it can no longer subsidize golf at taxpayer expense.”
Rollandia may close: The Rollandia Golf Course on Wilmington Pike, which opened 55 years ago, may be closing after this season.
I’m hearing that Craig Fanning, who has owned the property for many years, is negotiating with a buyer who would shut down the course and driving range to develop the property for another use.
Zachary and Angela Fink, who have been leasing the facility, have the rights to continue operating the Magic Castle fun center for several years, but the executive golf course and driving range will be closed if the deal goes through.
Chip shots
• The United States Golf Association has invited Springfield Country Club to host a U.S. Open Sectional qualifier again in 2017. The Springfield club has been a sectional site for many years.
• It appears that Jeff Scohy will again be a member of the three-man Ohio team for the USGA team championship this year. Of the players eligible, Scohy ranked third in points as of July 31. Bill Williamson of Cincinnati and Brandon Pluchinsky of Lima ranked 1-2. There are few, if any, Ohio events in which points can be earned.
The USGA Men’s State Team Championship will be played Sept. 28-30 at the Country Club of Birmingham, Ala.
• The field is filling fast for The Mercedes tournament Aug. 22 at NCR South. Steve Jurick, the tournament director, said 106 players are registered and a field of 120 is desired.
• The family of former University of Dayton basketball star Jim Paxson Sr. is holding a Jim Paxson Memorial Golf Outing on Sept. 6 at Walnut Grove Country Club. It’s a shotgun scramble beginning at noon.
“We plan on doing the outing every three years to maintain the scholarship we created after he passed in 2014,” said Paxson’s daughter, Maggie Paxson-Collins. Two scholarships already have been awarded to a student entering the eighth grade year at St. Charles School.
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