Thorpeness to host PGA Super 60's

He's won it in the past and now former champion Frank Hill is set to play host when Thorpeness Golf Club stages the PGA Super 60s Tournament next year.

The club's head PGA professional lifted the Super 60s title back in 2006 with Brian Underwood in Lincolnshire but won't have far to travel for the next two years with his home course named as the venue for 2013 and 2014.

Senior players including past Ryder Cup players regularly play in the 36-hole betterball event which carries at £10,000 prize-fund with next year's dates confirmed for August 29-30.

Hill, who is head professional at the Suffolk club, admits he is delighted with the news, not least so the club can showcase new changes to the James Braid-designed course.

"The course merits hosting this event and the players will love it," he said.

"I have already heard from some of the Irish lads who are looking forward to coming to Suffolk while some players who live in the region like John Hudson and two-time winner Graham Burroughs will know the course well.

"For many it will be their first visit and I am sure they will enjoy it.

"There have many changes in the past three years with a bunker programme with a dozen new ones and some of the original ones reshaped. This work has updated the excellent course originally laid out by James Braid in 1922."

Former winners have included Ryder Cup player Lionel Platts who won with David Dupree in 1996. He will be among those hoping to win the Superb Seventies Trophy introduced this year for players aged 70 and over.

PGA head of tournaments, Simon Higginbottom, said: "The PGA Super 60s is a popular event for our older members and we're delighted to be staging the tournament at Thorpeness which rightly has a reputation for being an outstanding course and venue.

"The PGA works hard to provide playing opportunities across its membership and this event in particular is going from strength to strength.

"The opportunity for members to catch up with old friends from a lifetime in golf is one of the great attractions of the event but the competitive spirit still burns brightly and the 36 holes are always keenly contested."

Thorpeness is a par 69 coastal heath land course 6,300 yards long that winds through silver birch, pine trees, gorse and heather with the famous 'House in the Clouds' feature that can be seen behind the 18th green. It is a converted water tower that appears to float in the skyline.

The club has also been recognized for its environmental contributions, winning awards from the Sports Turf Research Institute in 2012 and in 2011 when it won the regional environmental achievement award for Southern England at the STRI Golf Environment Awards after rejuvenating heather and gorse habitats.

It will be the seventh different club to host the event since it was launched in 1994. Previous venues have been Selsdon Park, Rudding Park, Lindrick, Forest Pines, Blackwell and De Vere Belton Woods.