David Frost has enjoyed a good season on the PGA Tour Champions this year and is one of three South Africans that heads to Carnoustie Golf Links this week for the Senior Open Championship.
The 56-year-old has accumulated just over $575,000 across the pond this year, which includes two runner-up finishes and a further eight top-25s. He ranks 11th on tour for putting average and 14th on the Charles Schwab money list. The Cape Town-born golfer also ranks fourth on tour for three-putt avoidance and eighth in total birdies on tour.
His obvious strength in putting, an asset on a links layout, has resulted in four top-15 performances at The Senior Open in the last six years. His best of those finishes came in 2013 where he tied for third at Royal Birkdale where he finished three shots behind the winner.
He has yet to finish outside of the top-20 in this year’s three preceding majors and should be somewhere near the top come the weekend.
James Kingston will get his first taste of a senior major this week at Carnoustie, a course he has only had the pleasure of playing a few times in the European Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
Chris Williams is the last of the trio and will bring fond memories of the tournament as well as relatively good form into this week. The 57-year-old has recorded two top-10 finishes on the European Senior Tour this season and tied for 39th at the Senior PGA Championship in the only other major he has played this year.
He’s collected four top-30 performances in the past at The Senior Open since debuting in 2009, with a best of tied-16th in 2014 at Royal Porthcawl Golf Club, which could have been a top-five performance were it not for a final-round 80.
The defending champion is Marco Dawson and with a few seniors having played at Royal Troon last week, it will be interesting to see what transpires at Carnoustie.
