Tom Watson Turns Back the Clock

TURNBERRY, Scotland -- It started on Wednesday, a rally cry from a generation and a half ago. Jack Nicklaus' wife, Barbara, sent a text message to Tom Watson wishing him luck in the British Open. Watson texted back, saying the tour isn't the same without Jack.

And I'm trying to decide which is more amazing. Is it that Watson, 59, fired the best old-guy round in major golf history, shooting a 5-under 65 Thursday, leaving him just a stroke behind leader Miguel Angel Jimenez? Or that a 59-year old can actually send text messages.

"Don't ask me to twit, or tweet,'' he said. "I don't tweet.''

This is an unbelievable mix of ages. Watson is in the history books here, and I think the pictures are in black and white. It was 1977 when he had his Duel in the Sun here at Turnberry, beating Nicklaus. And on Thursday, Watson's duel was with Italian Matteo Manassero, who was born in 1993.

Watson was already washed up by then.

"I have to admit that I do remember and maybe play off some of the memories of '77 here,'' Watson said. "And that helps me. I can remember every darn shot I hit in '77, the last round.

"I think there was some spirituality out there today. Just the serenity of it was pretty neat.''

Yes, he still says "pretty neat.'' And on Thursday, it was time to listen to your elders, you punk kids.

On Wednesday, I sat in a room with Watson for 45 minutes and heard him tell old stories, and it was kind of sad, really. Mostly, I was trying to figure out how to leave without being rude, or how to catch a quick nap without my head bobbing.

Understand that even for old-guy stories, Watson is old. Golf is the only place where you can do this.

But remember when Nicklaus won the Masters after his time? He was 46.

George Foreman won the heavyweight title again? He was 45. Randy Johnson won his 300th game? Forty-five. Andre Agassi reached the third round at the U.S. Open with back injections each day? Thirty-six. Gordie Howe played for the Hartford Whalers? Fifty-one.

In 7 1/2 weeks, Watson turns 60.



"How am I going to do?'' he said. "That's what you want to know. How am I going to do the next three rounds? Well, I don't know. I don't have a clue ...

"Sometimes when you get to my age, you just don't know how you're going to wake up. That golf swing might be there, it might not be there.''

Watson said Wednesday, when he was still living in the past, that he was playing well in practice, and wondered if he could make a run the way old-guy Greg Norman did last year.

I yawned when he said that.

And on Thursday, someone asked when was the last time he felt this good going into a major.

He paused.

And paused.

Senior moment?

"Don't ask memory questions, please,'' he said, laughing.

How did he do it Thursday?

Let's leave that to the guy standing behind me in the Fish and Chips line by the 18th fairway: "Just straight down the fairway and make those 8-foot putts,'' he said. "That's what he did. Same as years ago.

"Same swing. Same-sized trousers. Same sweater.''

Yes, Watson wore a traditional gray argyle sweater.

These Scottish fans are experts. Watson, a five-time British winner, said he felt the spirits here, and this is the place for it. People live golf here. Fans are still coming up to him, saying "Toom, Toom,'' Watson said, trying to copy the accent, when, he said, no one remembers who he is in the U.S. anymore.

You can feel the ghosts here. The drive into the course takes you on a two-lane street through hills covered with cows and sheep, and past old villages with buildings crowding the street.

"Plot for Sale,'' one sign along the way read. "Save our Golf Course.''

When you leave Maypole, a sign reads, "Haste Ye Back.''

So it's an old-world feel, based on farms and waterfront. And golf.

Watson defended Turnberry with such old-fashioned respect and love, saying that without wind Thursday, the old lady was defenseless.

His putting left him defenseless at Turnberry in 1994. And he remembered the Sunday after the Open, when he and Nicklaus staged their own, private Duel in the Sun. Well, more like Duel near midnight after a few bottles of wine.

"We went down and played the little par-3 course,'' he said. "And here comes the security man. The guy starts walking up very sternly.

"He's going to run us off the course, and 'Oh, Mr. Nicklaus. Carry on, please.' ''

Who won?

"We were just out there having fun.''

It was a stressful time for Watson, who was getting old. He had lost nerve on his putt. Fifteen years later, he's in the lead.

"If he plays the way he did today,'' said Sergio Garcia, who was also in Watson's group, "he can beat Tiger Woods and anybody else.''

Not likely he can keep this up. But for a day, anyway, old guys were having their revenge. Mark O'Meara, who's 52, and Mark Calcavecchia, 49, former British champs also were on the leaderboard.

Watson said he could see the youth in the eyes of his 16-year-old playing partner, Manassero, who shot 71.

"I see some of the kids, they're not playing the shot the way I would play it,'' he said. "Take some of the element of risk out of play.

"That's the way I think I'm playing.''

He also said he's jealous of how aggressive Manassero's putts are, that he remembers feeling that way.

Watson got here playing sure and safe and steady, not with rolled up sleeves but with an argyle sweater.

His official expiration date is in 12 months. You can't play the Open older than 60, unless you earn an exemption by, say, qualifying. So the Open is about done with Watson, but he's not done with it.

For a day, anyway, a call from the past on a course filled with ghosts, made for something that was, well, pretty neat.

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