The R&A launched the inaugural competition in 1969 to help select a Great Britain & Ireland side to play in the World Senior Amateur Team Championship run by the World Amateur Golf Council. The team event fell at the first hurdle but the Seniors Amateur (plural, with no apostrophe, as it was originally called) became an instant success.

Since then, it’s been played throughout the British Isles on an annual basis, attracting elite amateur players aged 50 and over from all over the world. When the tournament proper gets under way, 144 competitors play two 18-hole rounds on consecutive days, after which the leading 60 players and ties play a further 18 holes on the last day for the title.

From 1983 to 2010, the championship was either held at a club with two 18-hole courses or co-hosted by two clubs in close proximity to one another. This allowed the field to be split in two, playing one course on the first day then the other course on the second day, before those who made the cut teed it up at the principal course for the last round on day 3.

Scotland’s Charlie Green has been the most successful player in the history of the event, winning six times in seven years, starting at Royal Burgess and Bruntsfield Links in 1988 and finishing at Formby and Southport & Ainsdale in 1994. Since then, eighteen of the following twenty-five titles have been claimed by seniors from the United States.

Americans Paul Simson and Chip Lutz have each won the championship three times in the new millennium. Paul lifted the trophy in 2006, 2008 and 2010, while Chip triumphed in 2011, 2012 and 2016. Both men have also won the US Amateur, with Paul taking the match play title in 2010 and 2012 before Chip followed him in 2015.

Formby has hosted the Senior Amateur four times, while Blairgowrie, Prestwick, Royal Cinque Ports and The Berkshire have each been used on three occasions to hold the competition. All told, nine clubs with a Royal prefix have staged the event and the most recent of these to join the roster was Royal Porthcawl in 2018.