Legends Tour event is ultimate ambition for Yorkshire as Ian Woosnam Senior Invitational tees off at Ilkley

A pro-am today, followed by an 18-hole shootout tomorrow, the event is another staging post in the co-organisers’ ambitions to bring international fields in profressional golf tournaments back to Yorkshire.

The White Rose county is already established as a leading destination for amateur events, with Moortown and Headingley co-hosting the English Amateur Championship earlier this summer and Ganton the Brabazon Trophy just last month.

But the biggest names in professional golf have not been lured to these parts since the days of Woosnam himself, Bernhard Langer and Seve Ballesteros in the European Tour’s Benson and Hedges Invitational at Fulford, which ended in 1989.

Last year’s inaugural Ian Woosnam Invitational brought some of those names back and organisers want this week’s event to continue building the momentum.

The tournament is a joint venture between tourism board Welcome to Yorkshire and SGH Sporting Events, whose co-founder Simon Hurd is a former European Tour player.

“I want to try and get more and more, and bigger, corporate clients involved and then have a seniors tour event in the next two or three years,” said Hurd of the gathering momentum.

“Bringing the Solheim Cup to Yorkshire has been spoken of but that’s a long way off and there’s other more pressing needs at the moment.

“So I would say right now our end-goal is that Legends Tour event.”

The Staysure Legends Tour as it is now known, or European Seniors Tour as it was when it was launched 30 years ago for former Tour players aged 50 or over, is certainly in need of a breath of fresh air.

At its height 10 years ago there were 22 tournaments but this year, due to the Covid pandemic and a climate where sponsors are drying up not just for golf events but across a multitude of sporting platforms, there are only 12 scheduled events.

“The more players come here the more they’ll be encouraged to come back,” said Hurd.

“We’ve got to keep trying to build on it. For our business we’ve got the same vision for bringing more people to Yorkshire on holiday because people haven’t been travelling.

“Leeds as a city is fantastic and there’s so many great courses around it, so we’ve got to keep banging the drum for this as a place to come.

“And Ilkley looks great, it’s a fantastic host club.”

The name of Woosnam is a big draw to bring a few famous names in. The 2010 Ryder Cup-winning captain, former world No 1 and Masters champion will be joined by another Ryder Cup captain and Ilkley member in Mark James, as well as former Cup players Peter Baker and Philip Walton.

“It’s proud for everyone in our business to be able to bring it back, proud to be bringing these names back to Yorkshire,” continued Hurd.

“We’ve got Woosie of course, Peter Baker - I’ve just played nine holes with Philip Walton this morning, he’s flown over from Ireland.

“It’s great to get these seniors over who have such fond memories of playing in Yorkshire, and we’ll try and have it again next year.”

Today’s action is a pro-am before tomorrow’s 18-hole tournament, “a one-round sprint really,” as Hurd calls it. Refreshingly, the action will take place in front of spectators after last year’s first staging was held without spectators due to coronavirus restrictions. Fingers crossed it looks like we’ll have 250 to 300 people watching it so it will bring a nice little vibe to the occasion,” said Hurd.

Tickets at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/welcome-to-yorkshire-ian-woosnam-senior-invitational-2021-registration-165885206117?aff=ebdssbdestsearch