A MERE four years after the first players teed off, Rockliffe Hall is playing host to some of golf’s most experienced professionals as the English Senior Open makes its comeback to the European Tour this weekend.

Former Ryder Cup captain Mark James, Miguel Angel Martin, Gordon Brand Jnr and Pedro Linhart are just a few of the names competing in the first English Senior Open since it was last played in 2007 at St Mellion.

It’s a huge achievement for the course and hotel at Hurworth, near Darlington to land the prestigious event such a short time after it’s inception, although it’s not an unplanned one.

Rockliffe chiefs set an ambitious target when they opened their doors to the public four years ago – to bring tour golf to its fairways within six years.

They’ve reached their preliminary goal with time to spare and can now be mentioned in the same breath as St James’ Park, Gateshead’s International Stadium and Durham Emirates ICG as venues to hold first class sport in the North-East of late.

Although Rockliffe Hall only found out they’d be hosting the event in late August, head pro Jonathan Stacey maintains that the course is ready for the weekend’s play, starting with Thursday’s pro-am.

“Preparations are going superb,” Stacey said.

“Although we had a fairly short lead time for the event we’ve managed to get everything sorted and things are shaping up great.

“The course is looking fantastic, we’ve already had quite a few of the players in practicing over the last couple of days saying how impressed they are with the facilities at the golf course and looking forward to a great week.

“These are guys I’ve grown up, and we’ve all grown up, watching, they’re legends of the game really and it’ll be great to see them play round Rockliffe. It’s a great achievement for us, being open only four years, to get such a major event so early.

“It’s good for the North- East as well to bring such a big event to many golfing fans.

“If you go up to the driving range now and there’s ten or 12 of them up there even today practicing away, it’s superb. It’s going to be even better when the crowds come in Friday, Saturday and Sunday.”

The greenkeeping team at Rockliffe Hall have set up the course to be around 6,900 yards long and, with the weather forecast looking good, Stacey believes they are all set for a weekend of top quality golf with a chance of the course record of 66 being broken.

He said: “Quite possibly (it could be broken), it just depends on what the wind does. The weather’s looking fairly good, I think there’s going to be a bit of a breeze out there. I could say something similar will be carded but it’s difficult to say, it all depends on the weather conditions.’’ The deal for the Senior Open spreads over two years so Rockliffe Hall will have the competition again next year, slightly earlier in the season, with it returning in August.

Stacey hopes the club continues to grow and host more major events.

“We’ll have it next year at the back end of August which is fantastic and then who knows, we’ll move on from there,’’ he reflected.

“This may happen again, hopefully it will, but obviously in the future there is great potential there to get a full tour event which again would be another stepping stone to where we want to be.

“To get such a major event now for the seniors tour and such a prestigious title, its fantastic”