Tom Watson ('72) wins the Senior PGA Championship at age 61

PGA.com - Tom Watson chipping to hole 5.

Tom Watson ('72) became the second oldest player to win a major championship after his win in the Senior PGA Championship at age 61.  An excellent summary of the tournament, copied below, is available at the PGA website --- http://www.pga.com/seniorpga/2011/news/gamer-052911.cfm.  Video highlights of the championship can be found here --- http://www.pga.com/seniorpga/2011/multimedia/video/#.  Here is the video interview of the awards ceremony ---http://www.pga.com/seniorpga/2011/multimedia/video/#.

By T.J. Auclair, PGA.com Interactive Producer

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The late Jock Hutchison was the oldest player to ever win a major championship when he claimed the 1947 Senior PGA Championship at age 62.

On Sunday, 61-year-old Tom Watson became the second oldest to accomplish the feat when he deftly poured in a 3-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff against David Eger at a scorching hot and steamy Valhalla Golf Club to win the 72nd Senior PGA Championship presented by KitchenAid.

Watson shot a 2-under 70 in the final round – to deadlock Eger at 10-under-par 278 – and was the only player in the field with all four rounds under par (70-70-68-70).  He earned $360,000 for the win and took home the Alfred S. Bourne Trophy.

"When you're walking up the 18th hole and you have a chance to win a tournament like this, you're nervous," Watson said. "You're nervous. But you've been there before. And I said, 'okay, I know that level of feeling in my gut and now let's go take care of business.'"

Eger, a four-time winner on the Champions Tour, recorded the best round of the day Sunday, a 5-under 67.

Starting the final frame four off the lead, Eger figured he had no chance and felt 12 or 13 under would be the number required to win or get in a playoff.

“I was very shocked,” he said. “I didn't look at a board on the front nine. And when I parred 12, I looked at the board and said, ‘whoa, you know, there it is.’ And I parred 13 and 14 and birdied 15 and looked at the board again and said, ‘oh, all right.’ 

"And I just wanted to stay in the moment and hit the shots one at a time, as the old saying goes, and there's nothing more true in golf than stay within the moment and hit one shot at a time," he added. "Don't get ahead of yourself.  Don't start memorizing a speech walking up the 18th hole, even with a two-stroke lead.”

Kiyoshi Murota finished alone in third, one shot out of the playoff, and Hale Irwin – who was bidding to become the oldest major champ of all time at 65 (he turns 66 on Friday) – finished in fourth at 8 under.

Murota shot an even-par 72 in the final round with an incredibly colorful scorecard that included six bogeys, six birdies and six pars.

“I played my Murota golf to the best of my ability,” he said. “However, my putting had left something to be desired. Putting on Sunday is extra hard.”

Irwin suffered a double bogey and bogey back-to-back at Nos. 6 and 7 to drop back to 7 under. Another bogey at 12 pretty much knocked him out of the tournament, but he did manage birdies on Nos. 14 and 17 to finish up with a 1-over 73.

Defending champion Tom Lehman tied for 22nd at even-par 288.

Up until this week, Watson had been in a bit of a slump. He had played just two individual Champions Tour events in the last two months, resulting in a tie for 56th and a tie for 32nd. While he was home practicing in Kansas City last week, he said nothing was clicking. Then, just before he arrived at Valhalla, he said he was able to flip a switch.

Suddenly, he was hitting the ball much better. Although he missed a short putt on No. 18 in regulation that could have avoided a playoff, Watson said he made a lot of key putts this week too. When the driver, the irons and the putter are all on, there's a winning formula.

Crucial putts in the final round dropped frequently on the back nine -- a 10-footer for birdie at No. 10 to get to 9 under; a 5-footer to save par at No. 13; and a 23-footer for birdie from the fringe on No. 15.  

At No. 18 in regulation, Watson’s second shot sailed over the green, leaving a difficult chip from the rough that he executed beautifully, but wasn't able to connect on the par putt. Looking back, that miscue helped him when it was time for the playoff.

"No. 18 gave me a little bit of understanding about how not to play the hole in the playoff," he said. "Don't go over. Being in the bunker was the right place to be. And my second shot in the playoff hole, frankly, I was just trying to hit the ball as high as I could and if it got lucky and hit the front edge of the green and stayed on, fine.  But if it went in the bunker, it is just where I wanted to be. 

"It ended up in the bunker in a perfect lie, an uphill, slightly uphill bunker shot, and hard sand, and I made a good bunker shot out there and didn't take very much time on the putt just one practice stroke and said, let's get this over with. And I made a pretty decent stroke and the ball went in and that was the tournament."

Eger found the left rough off the tee in the playoff, was forced to lay up and then just barely missed his birdie try from about 10 feet.

"I'm pleased," Eger said. "I went out there and played a good solid round of golf, I did make a bogey late in the round which kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but then I came back and birdied 17, I just failed to birdie 18 both times I played it. So that's it."

The win was the 14th of Watson’s Champion’s Tour career, his sixth senior major and second Senior PGA Championship (2001). The 10 years between Senior PGA Championship victories ties Watson with Hutchison for longest span between victories in Championship history.

This latest victory was the first for Watson since he won the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai in 2010.

“I'm thinking to myself I'm saying, ‘how do I do this?’” Watson said about being able to win into his 60s. “And I guess that I just ... every day I say about my mom and dad, ‘thank you, mom and dad, for giving me the genes to be able to play injury free. And the talent that you put into me.’ 

"My dad put a lot of passion into me as far as the game and work ethic. And my mom, she could give you that look. And I just, I look at this, it makes you want to go out and play more.”

In his days on the PGA Tour, Watson racked up an amazing 39 wins, including eight majors – five Open Championships, two Masters Tournaments and one U.S. Open. Despite his tireless efforts, the best Watson could muster in his attempt to complete the career grand slam with a PGA Championship win was a second-place showing in 1978.

While it wasn’t the same as winning the PGA Championship, Watson felt he at least picked up a morsel of vindication with his 2001 Senior PGA Championship triumph.

Now, he has two of those.

“I would have liked to have won the real PGA Championship, but this is a great substitute for it, sure,” he said.

Tom Watson ('71) wins hearts of golf world as runner-up in British Open

photo from the Open Championship website

Hall of Famer Tom Watson ('71) makes history at age 59 by finishing runner-up at Turnberry in the British Open. In a tournament that captured the world's interest like few other sporting events ever have, Tom stood on the precipice of winning his 6th British Open, needing a par on the 72nd hole to complete what he called was a "spiritual" experience.

After hitting a perfect hybrid tee shot and a flushed 8-iron on 18, the 2nd shot bounded over the green into a tight lie. Putting from off the green, Tom was unable to make the winning putt and he settled for 2nd place after a 4-hole playoff won by Stewart Cink.

Tom's historic effort will no doubt go down in sporting annals as one of the most dramatic and amazing accomplishments as he completed the tournament with grace and dignity fighting to the end, bringing back memories of the Watson of old as the finest links golfer of the 20th century.

He has made all Stanford grads and golfers everywhere proud. A collection of articles about Tom's magical week will be added here in the next few day.

The official Open Championship website can be found here including video and audio of Tom's experience as well as others speaking about Tom's tournament.

John Beers, teammate of Tom Watson, on his 1971 -72 years on the Farm

Conrad Ray, head golf coach at Stanford, has asked former team members to share their experiences while on the golf team. Former player and now attorney in SF, John Beers, responds as follows:

Back in those days, we played in far fewer tournaments than the team does currently. Our season did not even begin until January or February. The season
consisted of numerous dual matches, plus three tournaments, and then the Pac 8 Championship, and finally the NCAA Championship, if invited. The 72 hole Pac 8
Championship consisted of 36 holes a day, on back to back days. There was no such thing as All Conference teams nor All Academic teams.

Each dual match was played against one other team, which usually was another school, but sometimes would be a club team of some kind. Each of the two teams
would be represented by six players. A dual match consisted of six individual medal play matches (2 points for the front, 2 for the back, 2 for the 18),
plus a medal play best ball match (same 2-2-2 scoring) in each of the three foursomes. The team with the highest combined point total won.

About fifteen years ago, Wally Goodwin graciously allowed me to make copies of all of the records of the team's scores and results from the various matches
and tournaments during my freshman (1970) and sophomore (1971) years. I have used those records to refresh my memory and to make sure that I get the details right.

I admit to being very proud of my sophomore (1971) season. That year, I won all eleven of my individual dual matches. (Note: I have excluded the alumni
clambake held after the season ends.) I won seven of those matches by 6 - 0, three by 5 - 1, and one by 4 - 2, for a total point differential of 61 to 5.
When we beat USC, it ended their years-long streak of something like 60 consecutive dual match wins.

I also finished in the top ten individually in three of the four tournaments that preceded the 1971 NCAA Championship(Fresno Classic, tied for 8th; U.S.
Intercollegiate Invitational, tied for 8th; Pac 8 Championship, tied for 9th). After two rounds, we led the Pac 8 and I was tied for individual lead,
but the team slipped to 3rd and I fell back to a 9th place tie. Our team finished 8th in the NCAA Tournament. After two rounds, we had been tied for
4th with eventual Champion Texas (Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite, and friends).

The "bio" for me on the website mentions my scoring average for 1971. I carefully double-checked the computations to make sure that the scoring average
information is accurate. The numbers show the following: In 1971, Tom Watson's scoring average was 72.9 for 30 rounds; mine was 74.6 for 28 rounds;
Gary Vanier's was 76.0 for 28 rounds; Pete Harpster's was 76.0 for 26 rounds; and Jim Dwulet's was 76.2 for 14 rounds. (As noted above, I did not count
the alumni get-together as an actual competitive round, as I do not believe any of us considered it to be such. If counted, it would raise my scoring
average to 74.8.) These scoring averages, and all of our scores from that year, can be confirmed from the 1971 results in the team "book", pages 250 to 270.

Something that the numbers cannot show is what a special treat it was to be part of Tom Watson's team. He had not yet perfected his game, but he was still
scary good. The golfing greatness lurking inside him, just waiting to break out, was palpable. He always treated me well, but I know that my game puzzled
him, as he was such a long hitter and I was one of the shortest hitters ever to play college golf. When we played together, my good drives seemed to be a
full sand wedge short of the bombs that he routinely hit.

A good insight into Tom's character involves my youngest brother Joe. In about 1975 or 1976, at age 14 or 15, Joe finagled a job at the driving range
during the Phoenix Open. When Joe said hello to Tom on the range (they had played whiffle ball together in my parents' backyard when Joe was 9), Tom
could have been merely polite. Instead, to Joe's delight, Tom took Joe under his wing and introduced him to a whole slew of his fellow touring pros.
It was a wonderful gesture that both Joe and I greatly appreciated.

Our 1971 team had some other very good players and fascinating individuals. Gary Vanier was an obviously excellent golfer. In addition, his blunt
and uniquely phrased observations added humor and levity to the team chemistry. Jim Dwulet, who was a big part of that team, including the five man
NCAA Championship squad, had the best golf swing I have ever seen. If Jim's putter had behaved, he could have beaten just about anyone I ever saw.
He was also as charismatic and entertaining as anyone could hope to be. If Jim Dwulet cannot charm you, then you do not have a pulse. Pete Harpster
was the consistent rock of the team, who could always be counted on for a solid performance.

So many other golfers were important members of that 1971 team. Freshman Dennis Conrad played extensively and had several excellent rounds. He was
our lowest individual finisher at the Western Intercollegiate at Pasatiempo, one shot lower than Tom. Clem Richardson, Jeff Heiser and Sandy McCall
contributed numerous solid tournament and dual match rounds. Denny Colvin, Vic Benson, Ed Grasty, Peter Fox and Steve Ross played in varsity matches.
Denny Colvin was just a year away from coming into his own, with outstanding seasons the next two years. And of course there was the one golfer who
had my number, who seemed to beat me every time we played together (which was often), Visalia's own Jim Eddy.

Ah, those were the days.
John Beers, Stanford golf team member 1970-73.