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Featured Sport News

Watson steals the headlines

Author: Brandon Barker
Date: 21/07/2009

They say that in sport no-one ever remembers who came second, but there are always exceptions to the rule and this year's thrilling Open at Turnberry will surely be a case in point.

Tom Watson may have been a five-time winner of the event, but the 59-year-old's last success came 26 years ago and he was a 1,500-1 outsider to claim the Claret Jug when the first ball was hit on Thursday morning.

He was 1,374th in the rankings but came within one putt of securing a stunning victory.

Watson's nerve appeared to fail him on the 72nd hole though before he imploded in the four-hole play-off to allow the unassuming Stewart Cink to claim his first Major.

The 36-year-old Alabama-born golfer has been a consistent rather than high-profile member of the tour and his success at Turnberry was by some margin the biggest win of his career.

It was unfortunate that virtually everyone watching the closing stages of the tournament were willing Watson to roll back the years and complete one of sport's greatest ever stories, but Cink held his nerve to banish talk that his form was on the wane.

He was part of the USA squad that regained the Ryder Cup last autumn but certainly benefited from other peoples' failings at Turnberry.

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Tiger Woods, who Cink was runner-up to at last year's Accenture Match Play Championship, and was the online betting favourite to win this year's Open, failed to even make the cut while Lee Westwood's impetuousness got the better of him in the closing stages.

Worksop's finest led by two shots midway through his fourth round but dropped four shots on the back nine including three in the final four holes.

After picking up a birdie at the 17th, his drive at the 18th ended in a bunker but a brilliant second shot left him on the green.

However, he went for glory with his third shot and ended up three-putting when a more conservative approach would have left him in the play-off.

Elsewhere, Chris Wood finished on one-under after firing an impressive final-round 67 and was the clubhouse leader for a long time.

Indeed with Watson and Westwood dropping shots in the closing holes, it did appear that the Englishman would claim an unlikely success.

It was not to be and Wood can merely reflect on what might have been, along with Matt Goggin who dropped out of contention on the final day and Watson, who is widely tipped to announce his retirement from the game next year.

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