PITTSBURGH — Fox Chapel Golf Club didn’t need any major changes to give the top senior golfers in the world a major test.

The opening tee shots will take flight Thursday morning at Fox Chapel for the Constellation Senior Players Championship, one of five major tournaments on the PGA Champions Tour.

Fred Couples is the defending champion of the event, which was held in 2011 at Westchester Country Club in Rye, N.Y. The Senior Players Championship will feature a $2.7 million purse with the winner taking home $405,000.

It’s the first time Fox Chapel Golf Club, a par-70, 6,710-yard course, has hosted a professional tournament, although the club has welcomed USGA events such as the Senior Amateur, the Women’s Amateur and the Curtis Cup.

“We haven’t had a PGA Tour event,” said Alex Childs, the head golf professional at Fox Chapel. “It’s always been an amateur event.”

Sometimes, courses can go through a makeover leading up to a prestigious tournament. However, Fox Chapel has stayed true to the same form designer Seth Raynor created in 1923.

“The club was very concerned about redesigning the golf course,” said Childs, as time, money and the proud tradition of Fox Chapel served as significant hurdles. “It would be quite a project.”

The club also stayed true to its original agenda.

“We didn’t want to change or cancel any events we had already scheduled,” he added. “That took a lot of effort.”

The PGA first approached Fox Chapel in late December, while seeking a worthy golf course in the Western Pennsylvania market. Champions Tour President Mike Stevens is a Penn State graduate and has friends in the area.

“We were one that was suggested,” said Childs. “(The Tour) had to take on some challenges that they otherwise wouldn’t.

“We had an outing on Monday; we didn’t change it. We weren’t going to change the golf course. Logistically, we couldn’t expand the (driving) range,” he continued. “There are a number of things they had to accept in order to make it acceptable for the members to say, ‘Yes, let’s have it.’

“To their credit and to our satisfaction, all of those things were immediately taken on.”

The Tour had no problem with the course, though.

“In March, when they came to visit,” said Childs, “they told us the golf course was ready then to host the event.”

Anticipation for the Senior Players Championship has been building ever since.

“The atmosphere 90 days ago is a lot different than it is now,” Childs explained. “It’s a different kind of environment when you have so many people involved, wanting to make it successful. There’s no question everybody is excited about it.”

Childs estimated 1,000 volunteers through the PGA and membership have helped the tournament come to fruition, along with around 400 workers through the club. The PGA has specific standards for the height of the rough, which has been the biggest change to the golf course.

The most unique aspect of Fox Chapel Golf Club is the greens, which means weather conditions will go a long way in determining how low the scores are this week.

“We do not have a long golf course,” said Childs. “We have very large greens and it is uncommon to have such large greens and be putting from 75 or 90 feet. It becomes a little bit of a unique challenge.

“The golf course has been traditionally very quick. The difficulty reading them — the contour and the speed —makes it very challenging.”

If rain softens the fairways and greens, players like Tom Watson, Greg Norman and Tom Lehman —who tee off together Thursday at 8:02 a.m. — are more likely to string together birdies.

“If the greens are slower ... they’ll shoot a very low score,” Childs admitted. “The defense of the golf course is the remarkable size of the greens and the speed of them.”

Couples is aiming to become the first back-to-back champion of the Senior Players Championship since Arnold Palmer in 1984 and 1985. Michael Allen, who leads the Charles Schwab Cup points race, figures to be a contender as well.

Mark Calcavecchia is coming off a win in Montreal and Bernhard Langer leads the Champions Tour with nine top-10 finishes in 11 tournaments.

“I know that the guys on my staff on the range have heard a lot of good compliments (from the players),” said Childs. “When they were talking to Kenny Perry, he said he didn’t know it was here ... and thought it was an unbelievable place.”