Impossible still means nothing to ace Watson

TOM WATSON is the gift that kept on giving.

In winning eight majors, five of them on British links courses, Watson has more than earned his place in the golfing pantheon, and in almost adding another at Turnberry two years ago at the age of 59, he gave middle-aged men everywhere the belief that anything was possible, an “is féidir linn” for the wrinklies, if you will.

Yesterday at Royal St George’s, Watson was at it again, not just making the cut at the 140th British Open at the age of 61 but doing so with a hole in one.

It came in mid-morning, at the par-three sixth hole, Watson taking his four iron and hitting 160 yards into the wind and straight out towards the English Channel. The huge crowds in that corner of Sandwich erupted into a massive roar as the American, looking somewhat surprised, smiled, then raised his hands aloft, turned to face the gallery behind him and gave a bow.

“I didn’t see it,” he admitted afterwards. “You can’t see it go in. I just saw it on the replay in there. It was a slam dunk. If it missed the flag it would’ve been 30 feet by. But it was lucky. They’re all lucky when they go in. But that’s what I was aiming at.

“Old guys hit four irons 160 yards into the wind. The kids are hitting six irons.”

It was a magical moment; another magical moment in Watson’s love affair with the links and his 15th hole in one all told.

“It was ironic, this morning I was watching Pádraig Harrington and Colin Montgomerie on the [Open’s in-house television] show discussing the Open venues, and what do they show?

“They show Gene Sarazen on the Postage Stamp [at Troon] making his hole in one with a five iron.

“He hit a heck of a shot in there, beautiful swing right there, and maybe that’s what inspired me today; I don’t know.

“That’s the second one I’ve had in a major championship. I had one at the US Open in 1980 at Baltusrol on the fourth hole in the first round. Maybe it was bookends.

“Most of them have been in competitive rounds of some sort. Probably one of my most favourite was at Oakmont in 1969, I was playing in the US Amateur, and I got off to a very bad start, four over par for the first seven holes, and the eighth hole was a 230-yard par three.

“I hit a three iron in the hole. Then I birdied the next hole to get back to one over par and ended up shooting 75 the first round, and that’s a really tough golf course, and that kind of got me back into the tournament. And I ended up qualifying for the Masters by finishing fifth. So that kind of propelled me onto that.”

His first is also recalled vividly, from half a century ago.

“The first one is a good story,” Watson said.

“When I was a lad of 11 or 12, I was playing by myself, Kansas City Country Club, and the second hole was a little short par three, and I made a hole in one.

“I went into the pro shop, and the only guy there was John Cosnotti, who was the assistant pro.

“I had read in Golf Digest, there was an advertisement there, if you made a hole in one with a Dunlop ball, you sent it in and you got it connected to a plaque, a number one wooden plaque, and they sent it back to you.

“So I said, ‘John, I made a hole in one, I want to get this plaque’. So we go look at the advertisement, and John looked at it, and he said, ‘Tom, we’ve got a problem. You have to have a witness. You have to have somebody that had been there for the whole round’.

“My elation went from here to, oh, man. He walked over to the window looking down 400 yards to the second hole and said, ‘You know, Tom, I saw that go in’. Put his signature on the scorecard.

“I still have that number one ball and I still have that number one plaque with the Dunlop number four ball on it.”

And Mrs Tom Watson now has number 15, thanks to her ever generous husband.