Open 2009: Cink lands title after Watson lets history slip away

Published on Sunday 19 July 2009 23:30

IT PROMISED to be the most extraordinary story written in golf since the Open began up the road from the Ailsa at Prestwick all of 149 years ago. Tom Watson, 59 years young, faced an eight-foot putt on the 72nd hole at Turnberry to win his sixth Open title.

Instead, he left it short and wide and opened the door for Stewart Cink, the unassuming American Ryder Cup player, to win the 138th staging of the oldest major thanks to an unflinching display in a four-hole play-off.

Like a heavyweight boxer who buckles in the last round after the young pretender throws a combination of punches, Watson was left reeling by the indignity of such a crushing disappointment. He'd played beautifully for four rounds only for age to eventually catch him out. Even so, he kept smiling.

Cink, 23 years younger than the greatest links golfer of modern times, had posted 69 for 278, while Watson carded 72 for the same two-under mark. Having made light of his age all week, Watson suddenly looked weary in the extra holes and shot bogey, par, double bogey and bogey. Cink, with a spring in his step, made par, par, birdie and birdie to win by six strokes. It was hardly the fault of the lanky PGA Tour man his success precipitated such a huge sense of anti-climax among the Scottish galleries.

Twenty years after the R&A introduced the concept of a four-hole play-off at Troon – that was the summer Mark Calcavecchia thwarted Greg Norman – another showdown in Ayrshire, the fifth such decider since 1999, saw Watson arrive on the fifth tee a few minutes before Cink as he sought to compose himself. It was a daunting task.

The older man had the honour and speared his drive. Cink, 36, from Atlanta, preferred a long iron. He then pushed a 4-iron into the right trap. Watson favoured the left side and was also bunkered. Cink, who had the easier task, escaped to eight feet and he smoothed home the par putt. Watson had to negotiate a far steeper face in the sand and just eased the ball out. In the circumstances, Watson's bogey was acceptable.

A crisp ball striker, Cink found the green on the long par-3 sixth before Watson pushed his rescue club short and right into the bank. Amazingly, Watson executed a fantastic recovery from a desperate spot before holing the ten-footer for par. Cink also made a two-putt par.

Lacking Cink's easy power, Watson was forced to reach for the driver on the 17th. This time he pulled it into the rough and needed two hacks to get it out. Cink found the green in two and made a tidy birdie, while Watson carded a double-bogey. The gap between the rivals was now four shots.

After Cink found the 18th fairway, he crushed a magnificent approach on to the green to set up another birdie chance. His welcome from the stands was raucous and unstinting, but like Paul Lawrie before him, may discover this Open is best remembered for the man who lost rather than the champion.

Watson, meanwhile, hit another loose drive into the crowd on the right and, after a free drop, pushed the second shot to the right. There was a tired escape, a tidier chip and a tap-in before the curtain came down on the best ever performance by a 59-year-old in the majors.

Always one of the steadiest members of America's Ryder Cup sides, Cink felt that apart from Watson he was one of the most experienced men in the chase for the Claret Jug. "I had experience in the majors," he said, "I just hadn't won one. My plan was to attack the course and keep my composure."

Out in 35, balancing a bogey at the fifth with a birdie at the seventh, the 36-year-old American outnumbered two bogeys with four birdies on the inward half, including a 12-footer for 3 on the last to force the play-off with Watson.

In what was an Open for the ages and the aged, a southwesterly breeze, gusting up to 28mph over the holes near the lighthouse, offered the players a slightly different challenge from the previous round. The core of Watson's game plan, understandably, was to shun the big numbers which always detonate dreams of glory in the majors. True, he began a little shakily, pulling a short iron into a greenside bunker at the first and missing an eight-foot putt for par. And at the third his approach came up shy. The chip to four feet was composed, but the putt wasn't.

It said much about the complexity of the challenge that even though Watson was two over for the first six holes he remained tied for a share of the lead. It was only when Lee Westwood made his move on the sixth and seventh holes that the five-time winner slipped two behind. On the par-5 seventh, he reached the green in two blows and made a two-putt birdie before giving the shot back on the ninth after a pushed drive.

Watson is nothing if not a patient man. The 25-footer for birdie on the 11th restored the veteran's place at the head of affairs alongside Westwood and Australia's Mathew Goggin before another bogey at the 14th complicated the issue.

The key to Watson's fate lay on the penultimate hole where he found the fairway and laced a rescue club through the green. Needing to get up and down in two for birdie, Watson trusted his putter and headed for the 72nd hole with a one-stroke lead.

There wasn't a hint of tightness as he located another fairway but the approach ran through the back of the green. He knocked the first putt ten foot past the hole and came up shy with the second. By now Watson was deflated, Cink was ebullient, and the older man's fate was sealed.

A colleague once offered the sage advice that golfers are no more reliable than jockeys when it comes to tipping winners at the Open. There are exceptions to every rule, of course, and Gary Player, Paul Lawrie and Ian Poulter were just some of the cognoscenti lining up before a ball was struck to tip Westwood to make a mark.

Lawrie's reasoning was based on Westwood's outstanding driving and excellent course management skills. Since the Aberdonian also picked Padraig Harrington to end Europe's drought in 2007, the former champion is worth heeding. Sponsored by Dunlop, who haven't paid a penny for their name on his shirt until now – the company would have been due him 1million if he'd won the Open – Westwood overcame the setback of a dropped shot on the fifth before unleashing the double-whammy of a birdie-eagle combination on the sixth and seventh holes.

If his driving wasn't quite so accurate after the turn – the Englishman paid the penalty for missing the fairway on the tenth – Westwood's tenacity on the 12th was outstanding. Again, he was in the deep stuff off the tee, this time hacking out, chipping to eight feet and holing out for par. No longer finding fairways, there was a tightness about Westwood's play which cost him dropped shots at the 15th and 16th. Still, he found the 17th green from the rough with his second and was unlucky not to hole an 18-footer for eagle.

He went up the last on two under, the same mark as Cink, who had alternated birdies with bogeys on the back nine. Although he was bunkered off the tee, Westwood found the putting surface. Alas, he rushed the first one, made five and signed for 71 and 279, one under, for a share of third with fellow Englishman Chris Wood.

Plot lines at the Open rarely unfold in the manner of a straightforward narrative. The denouement of the fourth championship held at Turnberry since 1977 was no exception and could best be described, for much of the afternoon, as anyone's guess.

The first strand of the action was woven by Ross Fisher. He holed a 15- footer for birdie on the first and set the galleries roaring on the second when he chipped in from 30 yards. When the Englishman missed the fourth green with a pushed iron, a bogey was no great calamity. The quadruple bogey 8 on the par-4 fifth, however, was another matter.

Fisher's tee shot into the hay on the right was misjudged, as was the attempt to heave the ball clear. All he succeeded in accomplishing was knocking it deeper into trouble. He got a flier for his third as the ball whisked across the fairway to the rough on the left. This time he took a penalty drop and chopped back onto the fairway with his fifth. The Englishman found the short grass in six and needed two putts for what the Americans call a "snowman". It was the most devastating one-hole calamity endured by any leader since Jean Van de Velde on the 18th at Carnoustie ten years ago.

Wood, 6ft 5ins and around 12 stone, is as narrow as a flagpole. If you'd expect him to be buffeted by the wind on a links, the 21-year-old from Bristol is fast emerging as an impressively steadfast Open competitor. The young Englishman followed up last year's fifth-place finish as an amateur at Birkdale with a top-three placing as a pro.

A keen footballer before a knee injury nudged him towards golf, Wood played some blistering golf around the turn, covering the run of four holes between the seventh and the tenth in four under. Despite a bogey at the last, his 67 for 279 was a splendid effort.

Luke Donald had never finished higher than 35th in his eight previous Open appearances over the past ten years. You wouldn't have been alone in overlooking his challenge for most of the week at Turnberry. Nothing became his performance, though, like a final round of 67 for the level-par total of 280.

"My record in the Open was pretty miserable up until now," said the Englishman, who is based in the United States. "So it's nice to come over and figure it out."

A brace of past champions, Justin Leonard, 68 for 281, and Ernie Els, also 68 for 281, jumped into the top ten while Padraig Harrington, 73 for 12 over, never threatened to emulate Peter Thomson and win three consecutive Opens. That said, the Irishman was philosophical about his fate. "It's come to an end and it's been a good two years," he said.

"Inevitably it always would. I've another 28 of these to come back to, so I look forward to that. Tom Watson has shown that's it's possible (for me] to be competitive for another 28 years."

Unsurprisingly for such a stalwart competitor, Harrington is already plotting to win the Claret Jug back in St Andrews next summer.

LEADERBOARD

278

Stewart Cink (US) 66 72 71 69

Tom Watson (US) 65 70 71 72

(Cink wins four-hole play-off by six shots, playing the fifth, sixth, 17th and 18th holes in two under par. Watson was four over.)

279

Chris Wood 70 70 72 67

Lee Westwood 68 70 70 71

280

Retief Goosen (Rsa) 67 70 71 72

Luke Donald 71 72 70 67

281

Richard S Johnson (Swe) 70 72 69 70

Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 71 72 69 69

Justin Leonard (US) 70 70 73 68

Mathew Goggin (Aus) 66 72 69 74

Ernie Els (Rsa) 69 72 72 68

Soren Hansen (Den) 68 72 74 67

282

Francesco Molinari (Ita) 71 70 71 70

Ross Fisher 69 68 70 75

Jeff Overton (US) 70 69 76 67

Metteo Manassero (Ita) 71 70 72 69

Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 69 72 69 72

Justin Rose 69 72 71 70

Andres Romero (Arg) 68 74 73 67

Miguel A Jimenez (Spa) 64 73 76 69

Boo Weekley (US) 67 72 72 71

Camilo Villegas (Col) 66 73 73 70

Henrik Stenson (Swe) 71 70 71 70

283

Peter Hanson (Swe) 70 71 72 70

Oliver Wilson 72 70 71 70

Angel Cabrera (Arg) 69 70 72 72

284

John Daly (US) 68 72 72 72

Nick Watney (US) 71 72 71 70

Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 68 76 71 69

James Kingston (Rsa) 67 71 74 72

Mark Calcavecchia (US) 67 69 77 71

Davis Love III (US) 69 73 73 69

Kenichi Kuboya (Jpn) 65 72 75 72

285

Jim Furyk (US) 67 72 70 76

Graeme McDowell 68 73 71 73

Martin Kaymer (Den) 69 70 74 72

Richard Sterne (Rsa) 67 73 75 70

286

Steve Marino (US) 67 68 76 75

Vijay Singh (Fij) 67 70 75 74

Sergio Garcia (Spa) 70 69 76 71

Nick Dougherty 70 70 73 73

Thomas Levet (Fra) 71 73 71 71

287

Bryce Molder (US) 70 73 67 77

Anthony Wall 68 72 75 72

Branden Grace (Rsa) 67 72 73 75

Paul McGinley 71 71 70 75

288

Rory McIlroy 69 74 74 71

Zach Johnson (US) 70 71 77 70

Paul Lawrie 71 73 76 68

Paul Casey 68 76 74 70

Gonzalo F-Castano (Spa) 69 72 73 74

289

Steve Stricker (US) 66 77 70 76

David Howell 68 73 72 76

Billy Mayfair (US) 69 73 73 74

Darren Clarke 71 71 78 69

Johan Edfors (Swe) 71 73 72 73

Graeme Storm 72 72 74 71

Kenny Perry (US) 71 72 75 71

Robert Allenby (Aus) 70 74 73 72

290

David Drysdale 69 73 75 73

Kevin Sutherland (US) 69 73 73 75

Tom Lehman (US) 68 74 74 74

Paul Broadhurst 70 72 74 74

291

Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 74 69 79 69

292

Sean O'Hair (US) 68 75 75 74

Stuart Appleby (Aus) 71 72 76 73

Padraig Harrington 69 74 76 73

Fredrik A Hed (Swe) 71 70 78 73

293

J.B. Holmes (US) 68 70 75 80

295

Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 70 72 77 76

Mark O'Meara (US) 67 77 77 74

303

Paul Goydos (US) 72 72 77 82

304

Daniel Gaunt (Aus) 76 67 79 82