Cink won after never leading. Watson led, and Ross Fisher led, and Lee Westwood led, and Watson led again.
It would be to select the most merciless aspect of an early evening on the west coast of Scotland.
Maybe it would be that the nightmares to come would happen on the same hole officially named "Duel In The Sun" to extol Watson's famous win over Jack Nicklaus here in 1977. It could be that one of the all-time famous chippers chose a putter from that collar below the green and, if he could have it back, "I wouldn't have hit the putter as hard." Or it could be that the nine-foot par putt he left himself looked like it had buzzards circling overhead from the moment he struck it, meandering off short and to the right as the audience groaned.
Surely, though, golf's ultimate turn of viciousness had to be that it took Watson after four days of energy and vitality from one just seven weeks shy of 60. And then it left him out there for four last holes through which he suddenly looked absolutely 59 and completely sapped.
"The swing just wasn't, you know, it just wasn't quite there," he said.
Suddenly, the galleries who urged him on saw Watson in the rough almost as much as in four holes as he had been in 72. Watson walking up toward a search party hunting his ball. Watson at the grandstand where his drive flew in on No. 18. Watson self-deprecatingly suggesting Cink not come over too far to help out because, "The way I'm hitting it, it might hit you."
He would stand in a waiting area with his arm around his wife afterward, resonating disappointment. He would gamely stand as the runner-up for the closing ceremony, chatting amiably after Cink said into the microphone, "Tom, I don't know what to say." He would rank the disappointment "right up there with '94 when I played so well here" in the Open "then came up with nothing" on Sunday.
He would say those wretched words, "In retrospect, I probably would have hit a 9-iron rather than an 8-iron" going into No. 18. "I hit the 8-iron just the way I meant to."
But before he said all that, he would stand on the No. 18 tee, four shots behind the steady Cink after three playoff holes, the suspense departed, the day exhausted. At that very same spot he had stood in just the previous hour looking completely energized, inspired and young. Now, after one unfortunate rotation of one ball, he looked shattered, tired and 59.
That was very mean.
Leader board
The winner ...
Stewart Cink...66-72-71-69 - 278
(won in 4-hole playoff)
... selected followers
Tom Watson...65-70-71-72 - 278
Chris Wood...70-70-72-67 - 279
Lee Westwood...68-70-70-71 - 279
Luke Donald...71-72-70-67 - 280
Retief Goosen...67-70-71-72 - 280
Mathew Goggin...66-72-69-73 - 280
Soren Hansen...68-72-74-67 - 281
Justin Leonard...70-70-73-68 - 281
Ernie Els...69-72-72-68 - 281
Thomas Aiken...71-72-69-69 - 281
Richard Johnson...70-72-69-70 - 281
Jeff Overton...70-60-76-67 - 282
Inside
Despite loss, Watson and his fans renew link. PG 10
