" My toolbox is now closed. I don't have the tools to compete with these guys anymore"
These words from Lytham and St Anne's over the weekend at the Senior Open Championship ( Bernhard Langer won), a place by the way Tom Watson never won the Open. He won 4 of his 5 in Scotland, the other at Royal Birkdale. He won't play another major.
I first saw Tom play when he won his first, at Carnoustie in the 1975 Open. His red hair, freckled face and gap tooth grin reminded us of Huckleberry Finn, and when he adorned a tartan cap he was warmly embraced as an adopted Scot. He beat the Aussie playboy Jack Newton in an 18 hole playoff.
He didn't like links at first but that soon changed, in fact he mastered them winning again in 1977 (Turnberry), 1980 (Muirfield), 1982 (Royal Troon), and 1983. Perhaps the one he didn't win, nearing his 60th birthday at Turnberry in 2009 when he missed that 8 footer on the 72nd, then lost to Stewart Cink over the 4 hole playoff, would have been the most famous.
His epic "Battle in the Sun" again at Turnberry in 1977, during a rare Scottish heat wave is deserving of a Hollywood movie, Tom edging Jack on the final hole after Jack had hacked out from under a whin bush, then holed a 40 footer for a birdie.
While he is most remembered for his championships in Scotland, he also won the Masters 1977, 1981 and the US Open in 1982, was the world #1 ranked golfer from '78-'82, won the PGA Tour player of the year 6 times and is of course in the Hall Of Fame. He has also won 3 Senior Open Championships and owns 70 wins world wide.
He wasn't a charismatic character in his early career, pretty down to earth, not the warmest of guys, but those tremendous wins at the Open humbled him. The adoration of the Scottish fans in the home of golf, breaking through the crowd swarming behind him in Open Championship style, with caddie Alfie Fyles being rescued behind him, doffing his tartan cap with that Huck Finn smile beaming on his freckled face, will never be replaced and is how I choose to remember him.
Adopted son indeed !
Bryan Angus
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