TURNBERRY, SCOTLAND - That pristine ogre known as golf has struck again, choosing a gorgeous setting by the Irish Sea to unleash its full and singular meanness upon a cherished 59-year-old man.
It enticed him for four days of enchantment. It ushered him to the 72nd hole with a one-shot lead in a British Open and a chance to broaden earthly possibility. It brought Tom Watson down that No. 18 fairway to deeply felt applause, and then it threw in a blaring roar when his well-struck 8-iron approach on an 8-foot putt smacked down and bounded onto the green.
Then, as that ball pranced across the green on Turnberry's storied No. 18, golf ushered Watson to the very brink of becoming by 11 years the oldest man to win a major tournament, before going and dumping him into untold regret and reissuing an ancient lesson.
Never underestimate its capacity for savagery.
One last, cruel rotation - "an inch," as playing partner Matthew Goggin saw it - sent the ball teetering off the back and down into the collar between two cuts of fringe. It sent Watson toward a whiplash bogey and a four-hole playoff he would lose comprehensively to Stewart Cink, the sudden contender who won his first major title at 36. It sent Watson's face from beaming utterly toward utterly crestfallen.
From the man to watch across four days of 60-foot birdies and precise swings and savvy management, Watson became unwatchable in the playoff as his body went drained and his shots went awry. Golf took him from the brink of mirth to sitting around uttering quotations like, and, "It would have been a hell of a story, wouldn't it?" and "The dream almost came true," and, toward deflated reporters, "Hey, this ain't a funeral, you know!"
Nice game.
"It tears at your gut, as it always has torn at my gut," the five-time British Open champion said. "It's not easy to take."
This beguiling sport even cast the affable Cink as some sort of antagonist. It came even as he gained the playoff by withstanding a meandering back nine and becoming the only player among the top 26 finishers to birdie No. 18, rolling in a keen 12-footer to exemplify his reconstructed putting stroke.
"I can understand the mystique that came really close to developing here, and the story," said Cink, who has top-three finishes in all four majors and won on his 49th major try. "But in the end, you know, it's a tournament to see who lasts the longest. ... It's a survival test, and I don't know what else to say. I don't feel ashamed. I don't feel disappointed. I'm pleased as punch that I've won, and also very proud of the way Tom Watson played."
