Duel in the Sun memories still burn brightly for Watson

Published on Friday 3 July 2009 23:13

AS A young man from Kansas making his way in the game, Tom Watson was once compared by Herbert Warren Wind, the notable American golf writer, to Mark Twain's fictional character, Huckleberry Finn. Beneath a mop of tousled hair, Watson looked a model of innocence all right, but he also knew how to twist the knife.

When Watson tangled with Jack Nicklaus at Turnberry in the 1977 Open – the Duel in the Sun – he found a way to overcome the game's greatest player in the most enthralling championship ever staged in Scotland, or anywhere else for that matter.

If the enduring affection of a golfing icon for the Ailsa is understandable, Watson reckons that a new generation of competitors are unlikely to find the storied links a soft touch even if the weather turns out to be as glorious later this month as it was 32 summers ago.

"I think one of the distinguishing characteristics of Turnberry is how it plays with a lot of crosswinds, and you have to deal with that," he said. "It's not unusual, but the young players who have not played in these type of conditions will not only need to measure the movement of the ball with the crosswind, but also the movement of the ball on the ground. When it hits, it's going sideways and you have to factor that into (the shot].

"I think the golf course will stand the test, even though we have perfect conditions. The flag positions can be managed where it's very difficult to get the ball very close to the hole. You're going to have to be putting your eyes out to score well."

Watson's return to south Ayrshire will mark his 32nd appearance in the Open. Winner of the championship on his debut at Carnoustie, Watson triumphed in five of his first nine appearances between 1975 and 1983. Like Padraig Harrington, the American enjoyed an opportunity to emulate Peter Thomson and win three in a row at St Andrews in 1984.

In the end he came up a smidgen short, a victim of the Road Hole in the final round, and finished runner-up to Seve Ballesteros. It was a sore loss and Watson would never raise the Claret Jug again. The concept of past glory as either a help or a hindrance, however, was alien to Watson. "I never really looked at winning consecutive tournaments," he remarked. "All I concerned myself with was the present time. It didn't make any difference whether I had won the tournament the year before.

It didn't put any added pressure on me. And it didn't reduce the pressure."

Now that past champions are exempt only until 60 – Watson is 60 in September – it's probable this month's return to Turnberry and next summer's championship at St Andrews will be his final appearances in the oldest major. The winner of seven seaside events in Scotland organised by the Royal and Ancient – four Opens, at Carnoustie in 1975, Turnberry in 1977, Muirfield and Troon in 1982 (he also succeeded on English soil at Birkdale in 1983); as well as three Senior Opens, at Turnberry in 2003, Royal Aberdeen in 2005 and Muirfield in 2007 – there's a persuasive case to be made for recognising Watson as no less than the greatest links golfer of modern times.

He still remembers the initial shock of the links on Scottish turf and how a lifelong love affair with the home of golf began with indifference on both sides. "My first experience was at Monifieth and I almost lost my ball off the first tee," he grinned. "I drove down the middle of the fairway and I couldn't find it.

"My playing partners carried on while I took one last guess, and there it was, buried in a tiny pot bunker. I had to take a really awkward stance to get at it. And I didn't really like that, having hit what I thought was a perfect drive. Even though I won the Open in 1975 and 1977, I still didn't like the way the game had to be played on links courses because I was so conditioned to play the ball high in the air. Links was the antithesis of how I played. I started to realise I had a love for links golf in 1979 when I made the decision to stop fighting it and play the ball along the ground and not get upset when the bounces didn't turn out the way I wanted."

A shrewd course manager and effective shot maker as well as a brilliant chipper and putter in his pomp, I asked Watson this week if his mind or body had been the more important asset when he competed on a links.

"Well, I don't know if it was my brain," he laughed. "I always enjoyed the challenge of trying to figure out the correct distance. The most difficult thing in links golf is to judge the correct weight. You want the ball to end up flag-high, and how do you get it there? In American golf, it's a simpler formula: you hit it to a certain spot, it stops, and you're there.

"In links golf, you have the additional factor of the ball hitting on the ground, and that ground may be very uneven, so you have to deal with the uneven bounces. And say you pitch the ball on the downslope, or just on the downslope of the fairway where it bounds forward and goes 60 feet beyond where you're trying to pitch it, or hits on the upslope and stops 60 feet from where you're trying to hit it. Those are the uncertainties about links golf I really enjoy."

Naturally intelligent, as well as gifted and courteous, it's little wonder Watson has been one of Scotland's favourite Americans for the past 34 years. Luckily for us, the feeling is mutual.

"The part that Scotland has played in my life is one of a lot of joy," Watson confessed on returning to Turnberry for the Senior Open. "I've had a lot of joy playing golf here, simply for the fact that the people love the game so much. It's part of the fabric of life over here. It has been a fabric of my life since I was a youngster and my Dad introduced me to the game.

"I watched my Dad hit golf shots and I loved the game the way he did with his passion. It became my passion and I came over here and I saw the passion of the Scots who play the game. They love it with that same type of passion my Dad did. That's what the game means to me in Scotland."