Watson, 60, leaves them
standing in Masters start
AUGUSTA, Ga. – Tom Watson brought them to their feet at the 18th at Augusta yesterday, and left them standing. That was a knifing 7-iron he hit in there. The ball skipped up the right side, turned off the ridge and swept down and stopped 5 feet from the hole. For years, now, this was bad news for Watson. A 5-footer was right in what observers call a golfer’s “choke range” – too short to miss but too long for sure thing. For older golfers, what used to be near cinches turn into earthshakers, what with the tightened nerves and edgy confidence and all. Better to be putting from, say, 15 or 20. You can almost relax on those. From some distance, nothing is really expected, and anything cashed in pure gravy.
A 5-footer, however, is an enemy, and Watson had time to let it grind on him. Watson has missed the cut in his last seven Masters, and in 11 of his last 12, and that’s something to think about, with a 5-footer waiting on you. He had stepped aside to let Tim Clark and Steve Marino finish their work from longer range.
When his turn came, he was the same steely Tom Watson who took the 1977 and 1981 Masters. He dropped that little rascal cold, bringing the huge gallery to their feet roaring. That was for a 5-under 67, matching his all-time low in 37 Masters, and his first round in the 60s since 1997. This was the same Tom Watson who at 59 nearly won the British Open last year, losing in a playoff to Stewart Cink.
The 67, Watson’s best opening round in his 37 Masters, left him tied for second behind another fugitive from the Champions Tour, Fred Couples, now 50, who after three straight wins on the senior circuit shot 66, his lowest score in his 26 Masters.
And people were wondering about the comeback of Tiger Woods.
And what a beauty Watson’s 67 was on a day of comforting warmth and sunshine and manageable winds. Watson made five fine birdies, had nary a bogey, and scrambled beautifully. Birdies mostly are where you find them. But scrambles – now, these have to be manufactured, and so are born of drama.
“I missed five greens in a row,” Watson said, “and I got the ball up-and-down on every green from 10 through 14.”
Note that this is right into the teeth of Augusta National’s fearsome back nine, and even through the Amen Corner. First, the par at the downhill 10th, going from rough to rough, pitching to 4 feet, and getting the putt down for the par.
Next, the Amen Corner: At the par-4 11th, a downhill, 505-yard par-4, generally, not recommended for 60-year-olds, Watson, hit a good drive but saw the wind carry his second to the right, missing the green. But he chipped stiff and parred.
Then came the little miracle at the12th, that wicked little water-guarded par-3. “I pulled a Fred Couples,” Watson said. That was Couples, in 1992, seeing his tee shot roll back down the close-shaved bank but somehow stopping and hanging there, breathlessly, about 18 inches above the water. Couples kept his nerve, chipped up before that ball could break loose, and got his par. This time, Watson’s 7-iron hung up on the bank, and he chipped up for a gimme and a par. And at the par-5 13th, he hit his second into the water in front of the green, took a penalty drop, and pitched to 6 feet and parred again. He had escaped the Amen Corner unscathed.
Almost as a brush-off, he parred the 14th as well, after an overly ambitious approach that came down short that left him pitching to 6 feet and dropping another earthshaker.
Augusta National, at 7,435, is nearly 500 yards longer than the one Jack Nicklaus and Watson dueled on. And so Nicklaus, now an honorary starter at age 70, has offered that the course is too long for Watson. Watson doesn’t really dispute the point, which makes his 67 all the more spectacular, even though the course had been shortened a bit in anticipation of bad weather.
“There are certain holes that I can’t hit the right shots into the greens,” Watson granted. But he thanked a day of considerate winds and adjustments made to a number of tees. “You know,” Watson said, “as they did last year, they wanted some scores shot in the first round. There’s not a question. And the golf course is receptive. I took advantage of that.”
Indeed: At No. 1, a 7-iron to 30 feet for his first birdie. An 8-footer at No. 3, and then a burst down the back stretch – birdies at 15 and 16 from 30 and 12, and then the put-up-or-shut-up 5-footer at the 18th.
Let the record show that Watson did not succumb to the lure of excitement over his start.
“It matters on Sunday,” Watson said. “That’s all that matters.”
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