Watson back on familiar ground

By Mark Garrod, Press Association Sport Golf Correspondent Last updated: 12th July 2010

Tom Watson, the nearly man of The Open last year, is gearing himself up now for a return to the place he calls "the land of almost".

Tom Watson, the nearly man of The Open last year, is gearing himself up now for a return to the place he calls "the land of almost".

It was at Turnberry 12 months ago, of course, that Watson was a nine-foot putt away from one of the greatest sports stories of all time.

But it was at St Andrews, the Home of Golf, that he twice went close to adding to his haul of victories in the championship.

"In '78 I had an opportunity to win and shot 75 in the last round," recalls the American. "And in '84 I had a real good chance.

"I hit the ball on the road at 17 and as I was trying to make par Seve made his birdie putt at 18 to close the door on me. It is the land of almost for me."

The triumph of Ballesteros denied Watson an incredible sixth win in 10 years and kept Harry Vardon as the only player to lift the Claret Jug that many times.

Arriving last year less than two months short of his 60th birthday and just nine months after hip replacement surgery, nobody had any reason to believe that he might mount another bid for the title and Vardon's record.

As for Watson himself: "I went there thinking I could play well tee to green, my putting was the thing that I didn't give myself much of a chance.

"Then on Tuesday the light switch went on for a few magical rounds of golf - I wish that I would find that again.

"It was just a rotation of the shoulders back and through, the timing was good. On Tuesday everything went in, it was easy, it was like the old days."

Come the opening round Watson's sparkling five-under-par 65 - the same score he had produced in the last two rounds of the 1977 "Duel in the Sun" with Jack Nicklaus - left him one off the lead.

A Friday 70 was good enough to make him joint leader and as things got tougher he continued rolling back the years and a 71 put him one ahead with a round to go.

With the pressure at its greatest, the final day was naturally going to be the acid test of whether he could really become the oldest major winner in history by a massive 11 years.

It would have been no surprise to see his age catch up with him, but instead Watson came to the final tee one ahead.

In 1977 he had birdied from two feet to grab victory, but after a perfect drive it was, to nearly everybody's great regret, a different story.

"When the ball was in the air I am thinking '77. This ball was even straighter in the air. The one in '77 I started a bit left with a bit of cut.

"This was drawing and it came down on the hole - I was licking my chops."

However, the ball ran on and on and from just off the back of the green Watson putted that nasty nine feet past and missed the return.

There was still the chance to make amends in a play-off with Stewart Cink, but his fellow American was much the stronger and so the dream died.

"This ain't a funeral, you know," said Watson after coming into a quiet press room full of people who had been ready to file the tale of an amazing triumph.

"It would have been a hell of a story, wouldn't it? It wasn't to be and, yes, it's a great disappointment.

"It tears at your gut, as it always has torn at my gut - it's not easy to take."

Whether he can make his presence felt at St Andrews is now the question, but at least his view of the course has changed over the years.

"I didn't like it at I first played it - the blindness of it, the types of bouncy shots you had to play.

"I liked to play the game through the air high. I didn't learn how to hit the ball low until the 90s when I made the swing change.

"But I have grown to like it, I really have, and when you walk on that tiny first tee you are walking on the tee where just every other great player that has played the professional game and the amateur game.

"They have stepped on that tee and hit a shot off that tee. Sometimes off a pile of sand."

Mark Garrod, Press Association Sport Golf Correspondent