Preview: 2024 European Senior (50+) Championships

144 of Europe’s best senior (50+) players have gathered in Luxembourg this week to contest the European Senior Men’s and Ladies’ Championships.

Here’s everything you need to know before the event gets underway on Thursday.

ABOUT THE EVENT

The event sees two separate European-titled tournaments, the European Senior Men’s Championship and European Senior Ladies’ Championship, contested in parallel over 54 holes of stroke play.

Inaugurated in 1996 and played annually, this year’s event will be the 29th edition of the contests.

The maximum field size is 90 for men and 54 for ladies, which is cut to 54 and 33 and ties respectively after 36 holes.

Medals are awarded to the top-three finishers in each tournament, and prizes are also presented to the top players aged 60-and-over.

With the European Senior Men’s and Ladies’ Team Championships taking place in just a few months time, players also have the extra motivation this week of trying to prove themselves worthy of national-team selection.

THE VENUE

Kikuoka Golf & Country Club, located just 10km east of Luxembourg city, will set the stage for the competitors year.

This 18-hole course was constructed in 1991 within the 250-acre Scheierhaff estate by the Kikuoka family, who own many other courses in their native Japan. Situated in the south east of the Grand Duchy, close to the Moselle wine making region, Kikuoka Country Club offers a challenging 18-hole championship golf course.

Laid out over lightly wooded, rolling country side, Iwao Uematsu’s design was always intended to test the golfing ability of amateur and professionals alike. The narrow fairways of the course are well protected by plenty of intimidating bunkers (there are over 80 sand traps around the property) and putting surfaces are both large and undulating. Several holes are enhanced by water features, especially the par-five 2nd and par-three 10th, where tee shots must carry ponds before reaching grass on the other side.

The Luxembourgish venue will host its second EGA event following the European Amateur Team Championship, Division 2 in 2016.

DEFENDING CHAMPIONS

The 2023 championships, held at Douglas Golf Club in Ireland, saw two home winners emerge victorious.

Edward McCormack (IRL) claimed the men’s title with a final round 67 (-4) to top an all-Irish podium.

In the women’s event, Alison Taylor (IRL) made a stunning walk-off eagle on the closing hole of the championship to win by one stroke.

Both Irish players are in the field this week and will be looking to have their names inscribed on the trophies for a second time.

THE FIELD

90 men and 54 women from 28 different countries make up the field this year.

Eight players in the field will compete having only celebrated their 50th birthdays in the last 12 months. Among them is former European Mid-Amateur Men’s Champion, Rodrigo Lacerda Soares. Representing France this week, Lacerda Soares triumphed in the European 25+ event in 2020.

The group of 50-year-olds also includes the men’s favourite on paper, Denmark’s Morten Finsen Schou, who comes into the week with an impressive +5.4 handicap index, the lowest of the field.

Two other former men’s champions are also in the field this week, Spain’s Jacobo Cestino (2020 winner) and Sweden’s Matthias Pernheden (2019 champion).

On the ladies’ side, Macarena Campomanes (ESP) is by far the most recognisable name on the start list. The Spanish player has won the event no less than three times, in addition to having helped the Spanish team to the European Senior Ladies’ Team title on two of the last three years.

However the favourite in terms of handicap in the women's field is France’s Helene Malvy. With a +2.5 index, the French player is making her first appearance in the championship having turned 50 just over one month ago.

On the opposite side of the age list, Guatemela’s Beatriz Arenas is the oldest player teeing it up this week at the age of 76.

Germany has the most players represented this year, with nine men and nine women looking to earn Germany’s first European medals of the season.