Wonderful Watson continues to amaze his fans and peers  PGATOUR.com Editorial Coordinator TIMONIUM, Md. -- Mr. Watson, frankly, still makes it look elementary. Tom Watson, a 39-time PGA TOUR winner, has competed in only 11 official tournaments on the Champions Tour in 2007. Counting his team wins in the Wendy's Champions Skins Game and the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, Watson has four wins and five other top-10 finishes during the year.  Tom Watson won a spirited battle for second place against two much younger opponents on Sunday. (Rogash/WireImage)
He's third in Charles Schwab Cup points and seventh on the 2007 Champions Tour Money List. Watson and Hale Irwin are the only two players in the top-10 on the money list who haven't played in at least 20 events, but even Irwin has played in 19 to Watson's 11. As Jay Haas put it earlier in the week, if the 58-year-old Watson were to play in as many tournaments as the rest of the Tour, he'd still be walloping the competition like he did on the PGA TOUR. "When I first started in the late '70s and early '80s, Tom was the guy. He was on the leaderboard constantly and was the best player for a long stretch of time," Haas said. "When he won a tournament it was never an upset. So to see him playing well, I think self-admittedly he's hitting the ball as well as he ever hit it in his life. "He probably doesn't practice as much -- I don't think physically he's able to do that because his hip is giving him problems -- but I think if he was totally committed, focused and played 25 events that he would be our best player hands down," he added. Watson admitted at the start of the week that he "has a little rust in the wheel" and a hip that's just waiting to be replaced, but he still gets his "jollies" out of playing and wants to keep it up for as long as possible. And why wouldn't he when he's still a threat week-in and week-out? As one of just two players to shoot four rounds under par at the tough Baltimore Country Club course, Watson finished the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship second to Loren Roberts. It was his fourth top-10 finish in a major championship this season, with Watson winning the Senior British Open, placing fourth at the U.S. Senior Open and tying for sixth at the JELD-WEN Tradition. Tournament winner Roberts made four birdies on his first five holes and Watson was in his group, so thus well-aware that it might take a miracle to come back and win the tournament. "He just closed the door so early in the round and he went 4 under in the first five and then really locked the door on No. 9 when he made that tap-in birdie with a great second shot at No. 9 to go to 15 under par, and that was it," Watson explained. But second place was still up for grabs, with Fred Funk and Scott Simpson challenging World Golf Hall of Fame member Watson for the honors. So Watson kicked it up a notch and made three birdies on the day with just one bogey. At the start of his day, he barely missed several birdie putts that would have sent a message to Roberts that Watson was right behind him and not going down without a fight. "I had a good birdie putt at No. 1 and No. 2. I three-putted No. 4. I'm even par after four holes, but if I had made all my putts then I'm 3 under. [But] I made about a 30-footer at No. 5 for a three so that kind of got me going a little bit." It was on No. 10 that he logged his only bogey of the day. Calling his play there "stupid," Watson tried to send an 8-iron into the green to settle close to the hole instead of opting for the safe approach by leaving a 9-iron below the hole for an easier uphill putt. The gamble didn't pay off, as Watson found himself plugged in a bunker to the left of the green when the pin was in the back left as well. "Now, how dead are you there? And I was lucky to get away with a bogey," he explained. "And I was muttering to myself, 'How stupid is this, thinking 9-iron in there, keep under the hole; no, I'm going to fit an 8-iron in there, make sure I get it back there.' Well, that's the ego involved. This is a game of ego." Still, he birdied Nos. 12 and 14 and made routine pars on the others to post his third consecutive round of 68 on a classic venue that he considered major-championship worthy. "This is a good golf course ... the uphill shots play difficult because they test your judgment skills. We played with a couple different winds. We played with hot conditions and we played with the easiest conditions we can play," Watson said after shooting a 7-under-par 273 on the week. He was just unfortunate that Roberts, known as one of the Tour's best putters, didn't have as much trouble with the tricky greens as the rest of the field. Watson tied for second in number of birdies for the week but had some putting difficulties, needing an average of 30.5 putts per round. "[Loren's] putting stroke is buttah," Watson said, adding with a chuckle, "mine's cream cheese." For his part, Roberts claimed that winning the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship -- his third major championship on the Champions Tour -- was his best victory yet. And that was partly because of his on-course company, since Roberts and Watson were paired together in the first, second and final rounds. "I love to play with Tom," Roberts said. "I've said this numerous times; that I love to watch him play because he's so positive about everything. He plays with good rhythm and I like that." Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. |
