While all golfing eyes are on this weekend's Open Championship at Turnberry, Scotland, Queenstown professional Jim Lapsley is in England targeting another major prize.
Lapsley and his wife, Noeleen, are in Sunningdale, Berkshire, England, preparing for the $2 million Senior British Open, which starts on Thursday.
But first, Lapsley has to qualify for the event and so will line up on Monday at Mill Ride along with 111 others seeking entry into the top-class field.
There are another 109 hopefuls in a qualifier at Berkshire and 109 at Camberley Heath.
Should he make the cut on Monday, Lapsley will then line up at Sunningdale alongside such golfing legends as Greg Norman, Gary Player, Tom Watson, Bernhard Langer, Sir Nick Faldo and our own Sir Bob Charles.
Lapsley has category 9 status on the European senior tour, which means he has automatic entry only in the smaller tournaments, but already this year he has contested two of the "majors" on the senior tour.
After winning the New Zealand PGA Seniors championship at Wairakei in March, he gained an invitation to play in the US Senior PGA in Cleveland, Ohio, in May but failed to make the cut after two rounds.
The event was won by American Michael Allen.
Lapsley then easily qualified for the PGA Seniors Championship at Slaley Hall, in Northumberland, England, last month (won by Carl Mason) but missed the cut again.
If he does qualify for the Senior Open on Monday, it will be the third time Lapsley has contested the event, having competed at Muirfield in 2007 and at Troon last year.
• If readers of the Queenstown Times on Wednesday were confused when they read that a J. Lapsley won the Saturday stableford at Arrowtown recently, Jim advises that is John Lapsley, who is not related.
