The 2009 British Open (Updated)
[Guest post by DRJ]
American pro Tom Watson, age 59, has a one-stroke lead going into the final found of the British Open golf tournament at Turnberry.
I grew up playing golf and while my favorite players were Palmer, Trevino, and Littler, Tom Watson is and was a great player. He is also a man of principle. In 1990, Watson resigned from the Kansas City Country Club, the club he grew up in, because it refused membership to a Jewish applicant. The club changed its policy within a year.
In addition, Watson is the Honorary Chairman of the Bruce Edwards Foundation honoring Bruce Edwards, Watson’s caddy for 30 years. Edwards was diagnosed with ALS in 2003 and died April 8, 2004, the first day of play in his favorite tournament, the Masters Tournament. Watson also founded Driving 4 Life, a fundraising campaign that supports ALS research.
In a 2006 Golf.com interview, Watson said he still played in the Masters and the British Open because “I’m still competitive, I know I’m still competitive. In certain situations, I can beat the kids.” This may be the week he proves he was right.
UPDATE: Tom Watson lost in a playoff to Stewart Cink. It was a hard loss for Watson but he handled it graciously, as did Cink.
— DRJ
The radio tells me Tom Watson’s 59; he turns 60 in September. Please feel free to delete this when you’re sure.
[You’re absolutely right, Golden Eagle. I looked up Watson’s birthdate – 9/4/49 – before I posted this but I still blew it. Thanks for your comment and I’ve corrected the post. — DRJ]
Golden Eagle (4e9369) — 7/18/2009 @ 6:10 pmTom is responsible for some of the most remarkable moments in golf. As DRJ correctly notes, he is a principled and honorable man, one that any young golfer would do well to emulate. This is not the first time he has been in the hunt in a Major in the last few years, but it is the latest in the tourney. He won on this course 32 years ago. A victory by him would be one of the greatest moments in golf, since his impossible chip from above the hole on 17 @ Pebble Beach to win the Open.
I am a Tiger fan, but Tom Watson is a close second.
JD (083e45) — 7/18/2009 @ 6:11 pmI take it that golf is some kind of a competitive game?
nk a/k/a Sarah (54c569) — 7/18/2009 @ 6:22 pmYeah, it’s one of those stick and ball things.
AD - RtR/OS! (ff0870) — 7/18/2009 @ 6:24 pmI thought he was done early in round 2. Started off with a bird, then managed to bogey 5 of the next 6 holes. Looked like he might not even make the cut the way he was going. Managed to right himself nicely.
danoso (9d8250) — 7/18/2009 @ 6:28 pmI guess I played golf when I was young. We would cut off a broomhandle and wrap it with electrical tape. And we had a ten cent rubber ball that we had bought at Woolworth’s. We called it stickball, but it was golf, right?
nk a/k/a Sarah (54c569) — 7/18/2009 @ 6:30 pmWell, if you were attempting to put it into a small hole in the ground, it was golf.
AD - RtR/OS! (ff0870) — 7/18/2009 @ 6:34 pmIf, on the other hand, you ran around some artificial bases (parked cars, trashcans, lampposts, etc) it was stick-ball (the poor kids’ version of baseball).
Watson is a class act all the way around.
GM Roper (d53336) — 7/18/2009 @ 6:39 pmHe is prolly some hick from fly-over country.
JD (083e45) — 7/18/2009 @ 6:48 pmI still remember watching him on the back nine at Augusta in 1991 when he eagled 13 and 15 to pull within one of Woosnam, only to see him hit it into the woods on 18 and place 4th. He was considered an old timer even then.
Leading after three at 59 is unbelieveable, winning it would be surreal.
Go Tom!
harkin (3769c8) — 7/18/2009 @ 7:19 pmThe last time I watched golf was when the Shark made a Sunday run at The Open Championship a few years ago. Looks like I’ll have reason to watch again tomorrow.
tjwilliams (831c6e) — 7/18/2009 @ 7:24 pmAnd now I see that Norman’s run was last year. Wow. The last two British Opens have each seen someone set the record for oldest player to hold a 54-hole lead; first Norman and now Watson.
tjwilliams (831c6e) — 7/18/2009 @ 7:29 pmI get to go to the practice rounds and tournament of the US Senior Open next week.
JD (083e45) — 7/18/2009 @ 7:36 pm54-hole lead ?
What don’t I understand?
nk a/k/a Sarah (b57bfb) — 7/18/2009 @ 7:37 pm18 holes a day over 4 days, nk.
JD (083e45) — 7/18/2009 @ 7:45 pmThree days. And a one stroke lead?
nk a/k/a Sarah (b57bfb) — 7/18/2009 @ 7:53 pmYes.
JD (083e45) — 7/18/2009 @ 7:56 pmLet me see if I understand the basis for Watson’s sainthood: spends life as member of anti-semitic club; then has Jewish friend rejected for membership; his own ox thus gored, Watson quits the club to applause all around.
Scott Kaufer (5d18a5) — 7/18/2009 @ 11:14 pmi played golf once and with
pdbuttons (bbdd05) — 7/19/2009 @ 3:05 amevery shot i’d put the ball
on a tee…
and my dad said u can’t do that
but i replied i paid my money like u old man
and i like to see the ball go in the air cuz thats fun… golf is suppossed to be fun..
don’t be a don’t bee
Well said, Scott. I have always thought Watson was a sanctimonious prig. Never liked him. In addition, all those years before his moralizing grandstanding about the club he grew up in, he failed to be outraged about that very policy while his wife (at that time) was Jewish as well.
Jack Moorman (c503fc) — 7/19/2009 @ 3:34 amI was rooting for Tom Watson until I read that piece in Sports Illustrated. Watson had the right attitude at first
“There was no warning that Watson would step forward on this issue. As recently as last summer, when the Shoal Creek controversy brought the discriminatory practices of private clubs into focus, Watson defended the status quo. He said that people should “chill out” and that private clubs had the right to choose their members.
He had every right to resign, of course. Certainly, however, Jews, black lesbians, and even white gentiles have a right to be among their own kind.
hortense (aka horace) (ebed0f) — 7/19/2009 @ 4:36 amThis was nineteen years ago, right?
Goddamn them Jews that won’t let me talk to Obama, and who crucified little black Jesus, along with those Eytalians with their long, garlicky noses.
nk (c20555) — 7/19/2009 @ 5:10 amYou guys are really pricks (Scott and horace).
Watching him walk up 18 with the lead is extraordinary. Magical.
JD (0d131e) — 7/19/2009 @ 10:19 amExcept he choked on the green!
Hope he can get it back-together in the playoff.
AD - RtR/OS! (e2278d) — 7/19/2009 @ 10:34 amI wouldn’t want to be Stewart Cink right now, with everyone but him (and apparently Scott, Jack and horace) rooting for the other guy in the playoff. If he wins, Watson will have made him earn it.
M. Scott Eiland (5ccff0) — 7/19/2009 @ 10:36 amCink is prolly the best American golfer that has not won a Major, and is a great guy. Shame Watson siezed up on his putt, but that has been his downfall – short putts – throughout his career.
JD (0d131e) — 7/19/2009 @ 10:45 amHe did the same back on the 14th, wasn’t it?
AD - RtR/OS! (e2278d) — 7/19/2009 @ 10:57 amStroking those two putts smartly, he would have won this by two strokes.
Well, it wasn’t to be.
AD - RtR/OS! (e2278d) — 7/19/2009 @ 11:35 amCongratulations, Stewart Cink!
Stewie played -2 in the playoffs and won The Open Championship. Watson did not play well, but Cink won it. These are a couple classy guys.
JD (0d131e) — 7/19/2009 @ 11:40 amWas horrible watching Watson on the 18th but then I don’t know how he held together up to that point. Cink is a great guy and Watson was all class.
Will look for Scott, Jack and Martha Burk at Augusta in April.
harkin (3769c8) — 7/19/2009 @ 2:02 pmMartha Burk Too funny but it is very likely to happen.
The announcers were totally for Watson. Too much so. Congratulations to Stewart Cink. (Besides he’s from my home state.)
PatAZ (9d1bb3) — 7/19/2009 @ 7:32 pmWatson choked unbelievably on the last put on 18. His short putting stroke isn’t that good anyway but that was awful. It’s a shame. Good for Cink, though. He choked, as I recall, and four putted to lose a previous British Open a few years ago.
I was glued to the TV the past three days, watching it on TNT Friday. My pulse was up the last four holes today. No wonder he choked but it would have been a real blow for us old guys.
Mike K (90939b) — 7/19/2009 @ 7:37 pmMike K – I think you are referring to his 3-jack from about 10 feet @ Southern Hills in the US Open, where Goosen went on to win his first US Open.
JD (d71a7a) — 7/19/2009 @ 7:47 pmYeah, that’s probably it. I’ve missed a few under pressure but not that kind of pressure. Well, he won today and Watson has won his share but it still would have been something.
Mike K (90939b) — 7/19/2009 @ 8:56 pmIf the world was fair, Watson would have won. I wanted him to win.
But, the world’s not fair and Cink should be congratulated on his victory.
I like Cink and Watson. I hope that this propels Cink to the upper echelons of golf.
What a great Open. What a great drama.
Tom Watson is a great man and one of the greatest golf players ever. No one can take away what he did in the past four days. Or, for that matter, what he’s done in his career.
Ag80 (a71b80) — 7/19/2009 @ 9:08 pmI just hope he is not too exhausted to play in the Senior Open this week …
JD (870a39) — 7/19/2009 @ 9:16 pm