Champions Tour Insider: Watson ruled at the Open

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Tom Watson is back at Turnberry, site of his 1977 win, for the 2009 British Open.

Some things you don't forget or tire of talking about. That's the way it is with Tom Watson and the British Open.

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Watson won the Claret Jug five times in his prime, including 1977 at Turnberry in that titanic duel with Jack Nicklaus. It's a recurring subject, as it should be. One of great moments in golf history deserves to be remembered.

"There have been quite a few questions over the years about Jack's and my final 36 holes in the '77 Open Championship there at Turnberry," Watson said. "And I would welcome any type of questions about it."

Watson returns to Turnberry this week to play in his 32nd Open Championship, which is back at the Ailsa course for the first time since 1994. It is inconceivable that Watson's participation wouldn't be a focus in the events leading up to the first ball being struck Thursday morning on Scotland's west coast.

"I'm looking forward to going back," said Watson, who will celebrate his 60th birthday in September. "It's going to be a different golf course. I played a little bit of the changed golf course three years ago when I won at Turnberry in the Senior Open Championship.

"They had just started to add a few bunkers. They have added, from what I understand, 28 bunkers. They have rerouted two holes: The 10th tee, making a longer hole and hitting over the corner of the ocean, or the beach there, rocks. And No. 16, they have completely rerouted the fairway into the green. They have moved it to the east and down the hill a little bit."

Like so many golfers, Watson has a photographic memory of holes, changes and history. But a remarkable memory isn't necessary to recall the 1977 British Open. Golfers who viewed it, read about it or have belated discovered it, know the circumstances. Nicklaus and Watson, golf legends and great rivals, blew away the field. The chase for the Claret Jug became a two-man contest. Both shot 65 in the third round on the Ailsa Course and led by three shots.

They were still even with two holes to play in the final round. Watson made birdie at the 17th. At the 18th, Nicklaus drove into the rough, Watson into the fairway. Watson's 2-iron approach finished three feet from the hole.

"I've always said probably my most satisfying shot I hit at a particular time was that 2-iron into the 18th hole," Watson said. "I hit it exactly the way I meant to. Ben Hogan said it right. He said, 'If I hit one or two perfect shots in a round of golf - perfect shots - I've played a good round of golf.' Given the conditions and the pressure and all that, I have to rank that right up there at the top."

Nicklaus, who found his ball in heavy rough, muscled the ball onto the green but some 40 to 50 feet away. Watson, with a 1-shot lead and in ideal position, had it won. But, typically, the drama wasn't over. Nicklaus made his unlikely birdie putt, to which Watson would say later, "Of course he did. He's Jack Nicklaus."

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Tom Watson hoists the trophy at the 1977 British Open.

That meant that Watson had to make his short birdie and, of course, he did. He's Tom Watson at the British Open. Watson shot 65 in that final round to a 66 by Nicklaus.

Asked recently to explain how two players could run away at Turnberry, Watson said, "I don't think there is an explanation except that maybe we were just playing that much better than the rest of the field.

"Hubert Green commented, 'Hey, I don't know who won this tournament, but I won first flight,'" Watson said. "I really can't explain it. We both were playing very well. I was at the top of my game at that point, hitting basically on all cylinders and actually going into the tournament, I was in good form and that was one of the few times in my career I really felt I had a great chance winning the tournament going into it."

Watson's Open Championship victories have come on five different courses: Carnoustie, 1975; Turnberry, 1977; Muirfield, 1980; Royal Troon, 1982; Royal Birkdale, 1983. In 1984, he was runner-up to Seve Ballesteros on the Old Course at St. Andrews. His affection for the Open Championship has deep roots, and none of the victories are more memorable than Turnberry.

""I think it was the tournament where I was playing the best," he said. "There's not a question about that. The other tournaments, I went in with mixed emotions about my chances of winning, and what separates Turnberry from the other four is the fact that I just mentioned, I really felt confident about my chances of winning."

It didn't hurt that the man he defeated was Nicklaus, against whom he had some thrilling contests. The best of those duels?

"You're asking a how-many-angels-on-the-head-of-a-pin question," he said. "The U.S. Open (1982, Pebble Beach) and Turnberry and the Masters and '77, playing against the best player in the game, I really can't separate them out. I can just say that playing against the best in Jack and coming out on top was what I was out there to do, and that was to beat the best and try to establish myself as one of the best players in the game.

"I don't go into rating golf courses or rating wins or rating tournament victories, but it certainly was one of the top competitive times I've had in my career."

Next week, Watson will play in the Senior Open at Sunningdale.

"I have played Sunningdale once, and thoroughly enjoyed the golf course," he said. "It had a lot of links character to it. I thought the bunkering has a links character to it. It's going to be a wonderful venue. I'm looking very much forward to playing the golf course because I liked it very much the one time I played it."

Champions Tour Insider notes:

• Watson on the Open Championship being played on an inland course: "Well, I would hope not. They have such a wonderful rotation of golf courses from which they could choose. I would never like to see them go to an inland course.

"Links golf is a different type of golf. It's the real fabric of the Open Championship, the courses on which we play. There is no other golf like it in the world, and that's what makes it unique, and they ought to always think about that, if they ever consider going."

• Bernhard Langer's second straight win, at the 3M Championship, was his fourth of '09 and extended his lead in the Charles Schwab Cup race to 660 points over Larry Mize. Langer has doubled up in the money list with $1,495,386 -- that's more than twice No. 2 Andy Bean ($742,692).

• Mize posted a fifth straight top-10 finish and sixth in seven starts ... Mark O'Meara added a sixth top-10 finish in 10 events this year with a final-round 8-under-par 64 at the TPC Twin Cities ... the sixth-place finish by Steve Thomas was his best ever on the Champions Tour and worth $70,000, the largest check of his career.

• Arnold Palmer, Al Geiberger and Don January teamed to win the Greats of Golf Challenge with a 22-under 122 total. They defeated Billy Casper, Gene Littler and Tony Jacklin in a scorecard playoff.