TURNBERRY, Scotland — When a development comes along as it did Thursday — when a 59-year- old five-time champion of the British Open returns to the site of his greatest glory and pulls off a memory-jostling performance — the tendency could be to over-romanticize the occasion, to attach meaning to a moment that, in fact, it does not carry.
Yet when Tom Watson discusses this place — Scotland’s West Coast in general, the Ailsa Course at Turnberry specifically — there is no need to suppose the man’s affection for his surroundings, because it is obvious. It would be so even if he hadn’t begun this Open, two months from his 60th birthday, by shooting a sterling 5-under-par 65, a score that tied him with 2003 Open champion Ben Curtis and trailed only a late-charging Miguel Angel Jimenez, who birdied the final two holes for an even-better 64.
Watson’s love of this classic links course along the South Ayrshire coast, and his understanding of his place in its history, is even more obvious on a perfect day such as Thursday. He played as if he were in his prime, making not a single bogey, firing the exact same number he did on a Sunday 32 years ago, when he bested Jack Nicklaus by a shot in the “Duel in the Sun,” one of golf’s most glorious occasions.
“A good day,” was Watson’s initial assessment of what was a remarkable achievement, because no man his age has ever contended in a major championship. He was even a full six shots better than Tiger Woods, the world No. 1, who shot a sloppy 71.
So step back for a minute and give Watson his space to talk about Turnberry, about Scotland in general. He earned that right long ago. Thursday, he reminded everyone how and why.
“Golf is part of the fabric of life over here, in Scotland in particular,” Watson said with relish. During a practice round Wednesday, a couple of Scottish spectators watched the American hit an iron shot, and said, “He’d be Lord Tom Watson — if he were English.” That is the regard with which they hold him, and he them.
“In the States, they don’t know who the heck I am,” Watson said. “But over here — I don’t get a big head about it, but people come up,” and he switched to a mock brogue, ” ‘Tom, Tom, nice to meet you, Tom.’ And it’s much appreciated.”
So now, even as Jimenez’s tremendous 66-foot birdie putt from the front of the 18th green put him in the clubhouse one better than Watson, it is Watson’s prerogative to wonder about the possibility that he could — gulp — contend in, and even win, a sixth Open championship 26 years after he took his last.
“Will I be able to handle the pressure?” Watson said. “I don’t know. I don’t know. Whether I’m in the hunt, who knows? The light switch may go on, and I may play without too much pressure, or the pressure may be too much to handle. But I’ve been there before.”
Albeit waaaaaaay before. Still, that counts, and other older Open champions — among them Mark O’Meara and Mark Calcavecchia, each with 67s — appeared on the leaderboard. “Experience counts for a lot around these links courses,” O’Meara said.
So, too, do the conditions. On a day in which Turnberry lay down for the taking — “defenseless,” Watson called it, with a surprising lack of wind all day — there were no fewer than 50 scores in the 60s. Even Jimenez, though, understood the moment belonged to Watson.
“He’s a legend here with us,” Jimenez said, “and we have to feel very proud to play with him.”
Coming into the tournament, Watson spoke not only of his memories here — including those two 65s on that weekend in 1977, and even the 2003 British Senior Open title he won on this same track — but of his own game, of whether he could, somehow, contend. “The quick answer is: Yes,” he said. And he backed it up Thursday.
“If he plays the way he played today, he can beat Tiger Woods and everybody else,” said playing partner Sergio Garcia, 30 years Watson’s junior. “The only thing he lacks is a little bit of length, but the quality of shots he hit was awesome to watch.”
Wednesday afternoon, before the tournament began, Watson received the ultimate reminder that this is not 1977. Barbara Nicklaus, wife of Jack, wished him good luck — via text message. Watson, caught up in the surroundings — “I maybe play off some of the memories of ’77 here,” he said — messaged back that he regretted the absence of the 69-year-old Nicklaus, who last played the Open in 2005.
“I think there was some spirituality out there today,” Watson said. “Just the serenity of it was pretty neat.”
