Alex Čejka overcame punishing weather to win The Senior Open presented by Rolex last year and he is prepared for another exacting test as he defends his title at Carnoustie.
The German defeated Pádraig Harrington in a play-off to claim his third Senior Major Championship title at Royal Porthcawl after both players finished at five over par – the highest winning score at Europe’s only Senior Major Championship – as the field faced howling winds and rain in Wales.
No player has won the Senior Open, which is contested by players aged 50 and over, in back-to-back years since Ireland’s Christy O’Connor Jnr in 1999 and 2000.
As a four-time winner on the DP World Tour, Čejka has experience of playing at Carnoustie in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship but knows he will have to be at his best on a course he describes as a “beast”.
“I played it a long time ago, I want to say ten years ago, I think during the Dunhill Links we used that course,” he said after a practice round at the Angus links venue on Tuesday.
“But we had such bad weather, it wasn't even like comparable when you play like in this weather, right, no wind and everything. But it's a tough beast even in good condition. It's a great test of golf. There's a lot of great players here. It's nice to defend the title but it's a new tournament.
“Every week is different. You can play great one week and the next week, you miss the cut. We've all seen it before. But you know, I'm going to give it my best shot to play great.”
Victory 12 months ago saw Čejka emulate four-time champion Bernhard Langer as just the second German to win the Senior Open as he added the trophy to his wins at the Regions Tradition and KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship in 2021.
“I was super pleased,” he reflected. “It was incredible to win a tournament like this. It was always my dream, and yeah, it was a super week.
“Both of my two prior major titles were incredible. I can't say that one was better than the two or the third one was better than the one. Each one is unique.”
After an injury-enforced absence earlier in the campaign, Čejka is set for his fourth event in the last five weeks and arrives with his confidence enhanced after he made the cut at last week’s Open Championship in Troon.
“A year later on a different track, hopefully in better conditions against almost the same players. There's a lot of people who are in form,” he added.
“I'm a little bit struggling because I had two months off due to a back injury. So, I'm slowly coming back. So that threw me off a little bit of my game, two months off.
“Last week was a really, really big deal. I didn't even give myself a chance to make the cut. I basically started [returned to action] at the BMW International Open on the DP World Tour like three weeks ago, and it was awful to watch me play. Everything about my game was terrible, right. I played only two rounds. I didn't even sniff the cut. [But] my game improved a little bit last week.”
