COLUMBUS, Ohio \u2014\u00a0The U.S. Senior Open is bringing some of the biggest names in golf to Columbus this week.<\/p>\n
For the third time ever and the first time since 2016, Scioto Country Club is hosting the tournament.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s field contains six World Golf Hall of Famers and four Ohio natives.<\/p>\n
For Dayton native Rik Cramer, the road to the U.S. Senior Open couldn\u2019t have been scripted any better.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast fall our tournament director for our local association called and asked if we wouldn\u2019t mind hosting it, and I said surely let\u2019s do it here,\u201d said Rik Cramer, a professional golfer.<\/p>\n
Not only did Cramer help host a qualifier at the course where he works as a pro, he took advantage of the familiar surroundings, earning one of the coveted spots in this week\u2019s championship at Scioto Country Club.<\/p>\n
Now, he\u2019s embracing another opportunity to compete on home soil.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really cool that all the qualifiers leading up to this and the open being here in Ohio, it\u2019s great, it\u2019s lined up really well for me,\u201d Cramer said.<\/p>\n
As players get their practice rounds in at Scioto, Cramer says he\u2019s settling into one of Ohio\u2019s most historic golf courses while preparing for the biggest tournament of his senior career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been great to experience this golf course; it\u2019s such a great golf course. It\u2019s very pure, it\u2019s playing great, super hot so trying to get accustomed to that. Drinking lots of water trying to get hydrated for the next few days,\u201d Cramer said.<\/p>\n
The Columbus area has long been known for producing championship-caliber golf courses. It\u2019s something Akron native and former Ohio State golfer, Ryan Armour knows well.<\/p>\n
Having played at Muirfield, Scarlet and Scioto, he doesn\u2019t take it for granted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just, I don\u2019t know what the word to describe it is; it\u2019s a special place. It is. In the history of the game, the greatest player who ever played grew up playing and practicing here. To be in a major metropolitan area this close to downtown, this close to a major university, it\u2019s just a really special place,\u201d said Ryan Armour, a professional golfer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Cramer, playing in front of family, friends and fellow Ohioans adds even more meaning to the week. And after qualifying at his home course, he hopes to carry that confidence into the championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a really cool opportunity to have this in Ohio, very proud to be here, represent the local state and make everybody proud. We\u2019ll see if I can make a good showing,\u201d Cramer said.<\/p>\n
Practice rounds continue on Wednesday before the first round of the tournament starts on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLUMBUS, Ohio \u2014\u00a0The U.S. Senior Open is bringing some of the biggest names in golf to Columbus this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1419,2037,6263,5093,54,3261,5095,56,2040,1288,4023],"class_list":["post-30078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-u-s-open-championship","tag-app-sports","tag-app-top-stories","tag-cassidy-wilson","tag-ctv","tag-news","tag-ohio","tag-ohio-what-you-need-to-know","tag-sports","tag-top-stories","tag-u-s-open-championship","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}