TURNBERRY, Scotland -- Golf had another of its inconceivable dreams Saturday.
In this one, the image of 53-year-old Greg Norman in 2008 walking up No. 18 at Royal Birkdale down the coast in England with a 54-hole lead in the British Open had not been sufficient, for clearly, Norman had been too bloody young.
No, this one starred a man with a phalanx of wrinkles, a bunch of glowing 32-year-old memories and an age just seven weeks shy of 60, so it made sense that somebody asked Tom Watson whether he needed to pinch himself.
"I don't need to," he said. "I'm awake. I know I'm awake."
The reminder did help, because a woozy enchantment just won't let go of the British Open.
It's on the leader board, where the name "T. Watson" somehow appears at 4-under-par, one shot above Ross Fisher and Matthew Goggin, two shots above Lee Westwood, hinting that a man who has not won a major in 26 years could become the oldest major winner by 11 years over 1968 PGA Championship winner Julius Boros.
"The first day here, yeah, let the old geezer have his day in the sun, you know, 65," Watson said. "The second day you said, 'Well, that's OK, that's OK.' And then now today you kind of perk up your ears and say, 'This old geezer might have a chance to win.' ... I don't know what's going to happen, but I do know one thing. I feel good about what I did today. I feel good about my game plan. And who knows, it might happen."
The enchantment is hovering around No. 18 because on Friday Watson holed a crazy 60-foot putt there and did a little one-kick dance, and on Saturday Watson hit his approach onto the green and walked down to roaring applause, then said to caddie Neil Oxman, "Bruce is with us today," meaning Watson's late caddie Bruce Edwards, who died of Lou Gehrig's disease in 2003.
"Don't make me cry," Oxman said.
"So he started crying and I started crying," Watson said.
The magic is even in the putter, an innocent-looking beast that has tortured Watson for decades. Yet he has spent the week making bombs. He made those two 60-footers on Friday on Nos. 16 and 18. He made four nearly absurd up-and-downs Saturday, including a save from a bunker on No. 3 and a rugged 18-footer on No. 14.
And then, just when his round seemed to teeter with a bogey on No. 15 and a plummet to 2-under, that grouchy old short club made a 40-footer on No. 16.
"Every now and then it works, you know," he said. "And, boy, is it working at the right time right now."
