Tom Watson Photograph: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images Europe
It was late Sunday afternoon at the Turnberry golf course and 59 year old Tom Watson was staring down a medium length putt that would seal his victory at the 138th Open Championships. He could feel a brisk wind hitting him; the same wind that was coming off the ocean all day and reaching speeds of over 20 mph. He knew what was on the line as he stared down at the hole. If he was to sink that putt then he would complete one of golf’s most amazing feats by becoming the oldest man to win a major golf championship at the age of 59. Watson had the opportunity to win his first major title in 26 years (his last victory in a major happened to be the 1983 Open Championships) and win his 6th Open Championship, tying Jersey’s Harry Vardon for the most wins ever at the Open. Tom Watson had the chance to finish a dream weekend in Scotland that would conclude with him hoisting the Claret Jug for the 6th time. Tom Watson had a lot on the line.
Watching from the Club House was the American Stewart Cink. Cink was the club house leader and the only other player in the tournament that had a chance to take the victory. Earlier, he had sunk a fifteen foot birdie putt at the 18th to post a score of -2. As he watched, he knew that if Watson missed his par putt, then he and Watson would enter a playoff for the Championship. He knew that the putt would determine whether or not he would have a legitimate shot at his first major victory. The former 3-time All-American at Georgia Tech and 1997 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year knew that victory was within his reach, but it all depended on one putt.
With the entire crowd in complete silence, Watson hit his putt. As the putter hit the ball his eyes inched forward as he watched the ball move toward the hole. The ball rolled along the green and then broke to the right. The putt was not to be. It stopped short of the hole and a little bit to the right. Watson then tapped in the bogey putt and finished the day at -2, thus forcing a playoff between he and Cink.
The Open Championship has it’s own unique style of a playoff, where players golf four holes and see who can do it in the least strokes. Cink took care of Watson easily in those four holes, as he finished six strokes ahead by the end of the playoff. It was not Tom Watson who would be holding the Claret Jug by the end of the day, but rather Stewart Cink. Although, it would have been nice to see a 59 year-old win a major, we have to remember that Cink had never won a major before in his career. Watson had already won eight. So whether you were rooting for Watson or Cink, it was overall a great weekend on the links.
The next major to be played on the PGA tour will be “Glory’s last shot”: the PGA Championship. The tournament is nicknamed “Glory’s Last Shot” because it is the last major tournament in the season, the last chance at immortality for each golfer. Will Watson bounce back and win the PGA (which happens to be the only major tournament that he has never won)? Will Tiger rebound from a poor weekend at the Open and win his first major since coming off of his knee injury? Will the World number 2, Phil Mickelson, reclaim a title that he earned in 2005 as the victor of the PGA Championship? These questions and more will be answered in August at the Hazeltine National Golf Club.
Zach Seites-Rundlett