A story that was lost to a large extent because of the lengthy delays to the second round of the Open Championship on Friday was the farewell to St Andrews of the five-time champion Tom Watson, the man who made every 59-year-old golfer feel young again when he came so close to winning golf’s biggest prize at Turnberry last year.
Unlike the sunlit valedictories in front of huge crowds of Arnold Palmer in 1995 and Jack Nicklaus five years ago, Watson’s departure was in the twilight.
Because of the weather delay earlier in the day, it was pushing 10pm, light was fading and the stands were nearly empty when the 60-year-old from Kansas City took centre stage on the Swilcan Bridge, which he stooped to kiss in the passing, on an emotional walk down the 18th fairway.
In the company of the Dubliner Padraig Harrington, a two-time Open champion, and a member of the new generation, 18-year-old Japanese Ryo Ishikawa, he finished with a flourish, his pitch to the green coming to within an inch of going into the hole for an eagle 2.
It was a moment worthy of a bigger audience both at the scene and in the media that Palmer and Nicklaus enjoyed, but these kind of things sometimes cannot be stage-managed.
Watson said that during his last walk down the 18th fairway with applause ringing in his ears from the fans who remained, he reflected on the respect he has for the way the game is played in Scotland and the respect that Scots have for golf. “The Scots invented golf and they love the game with a passion unlike any other people. I enjoy that,” he said.
There was one significant difference from the Palmer and Nicklaus farewells. This was certainly not meant to be Watson’s final Open. “I intend to play some more, but it’s my last Open Championship at St Andrews,” he said.
Following his age-defying performance last year, the R&A, who had lowered the exemption age of past champions from 65 to 60, pondered how to extend the longevity of players such as Watson without giving a bus ticket to everyone. They came up with the formula of exempting former champions who finish in the top 10 and ties in any of the previous five Opens. That means that Watson will be able to play right up to 2014, one year short of the expected return of the Open to St Andrews in 2015, so barring another epic performance from the Peter Pan of golf, 2014 at Hoylake will definitely be the end of the road.
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Watson was filled with nostalgia as he posed on the bridge. “I thought of Arnold on the bridge. I thought of Jack on the bridge, and their last Opens were both right here at St Andrews. My last Open is not right here, the good Lord willing. The creek don’t rise, as they say, and I have a few more years left, thanks to the R&A’s special exemption for me,” he said.
In fact, Watson is back again this week for the Senior British Open at Carnoustie, the venue where it all started for him in 1975 with an Open victory in a play-off against the Australian, Jack Newton. I asked if that course might now seem easy after Friday’s tempest and he said without hesitation: “Give me a break: that’s a tougher course than this one.”
Four of his five Open wins were in Scotland, at Carnoustie, Muirfield, Royal Troon and, of course, Turnberry where he went head-to-head with Nicklaus in the Duel In The Sun in 1977 that is regarded by some aficionados as the greatest Open of all time.
He has an affinity with the Scots and not just for his golfing ability. There is a vulnerability about him and he has had his dark phase when there was a dependency, to a greater or lesser extent, on alcohol. A private man, he rarely spoke about such matters in public, though he has talked about his belief that it is less an illness and more a matter of choice.
Watson can put golf firmly into perspective. He was on the first tee on Friday when the hooter sounded for the suspension of play because of high winds. Instead of heading back into the clubhouse he walked over to an area reserved for people in wheelchairs and shot the breeze with them.
One of those he spoke to was Sergeant Paul Barrett, from Manchester, who lost a leg when he trod on a landmine two years ago in Helmand Province and who remarked to Watson how hazardous it must be playing in the wind. “Hey,” said Watson. “You’re a guy who knows what hazards are really like. We don’t have hazards.”
On the course, Watson is the supreme links specialist. He hated it at first “but you have to accept the luck of the bounce,” he said. “It tests you. It really, really tests you.”
Of his total of eight majors, five were on links. He never won any of them at St Andrews but there is no doubt the man from Kansas City is one of the most loved adopted sons of the Auld Grey Toon.
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