Arnold Palmer News
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Palmer to Play in U.S. Senior Open in Kansas
May 26, 2006
Arnold Palmer has submitted a entry for the U.S. Senior Open Championship, which will be played July 6-9 at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kansas. It is scheduled to be his first tour tournament start of the 2006 season.
Palmer's last competitive appearance was in the Wendy's Champions Skins Game at Wailea, Hawaii in February, where he partnered with Peter Jacobsen, and his most recent Champions Tour start was in the Administaff Small Business Classic at Houston, Texas, last October.
Palmer won the 1981U.S. Senior Open at Oakland Hills Country Club, Birmingham, Michigan, the first year he was eligible to play in the championship. He has competed in all 24 Senior Opens that followed. At Oakland Hills, he defeated Bill Casper and Bob Stone in an 18-hole playoff. He returns to Prairie Dunes for the first time since playing an exhibition match there with Jack Nicklaus in 1962.
"My golf has certainly not been up to par of late," the 76-year-old Palmer said, explaining his reluctance to enter the championship until days before the deadline. Dissatisfaction with his game was a factor in his withdrawal prior to last week's Senior PGA Championship. "Hopefully, by the time I get to Kansas, my game will be much better."
In addition to the Senior Open, Palmer has won four other senior majors and a total of 10 Champions Tour titles. He captured the Senior PGA in 1980, the year he turned 50, and in 1984 and scored back-to-back victories in the Senior Players Championship (then the Senior TPC Championship) at Canterbury Golf Club in Cleveland. He won 62 times on the regular PGA Tour and has 92 professional titles on his brilliant record. He also won the 1954 U.S. Amateur Championship at the Country Club of Detroit and is one of only two players to have won the U.S. Amateur, U.S. Open and U.S. Senior Open. Jack Nicklaus is the other.
Posted by dgiffin at May 26, 2006 04:11 PM