David Cannon/Getty Images
Stewart Cink (left) took the Claret Jug when he defeated 59-year-old Tom Watson in a playoff at the British Open.
Jul. 20, 2009
Welcome to PGATOUR.COM's newest feature. Each Monday, the Backspin will provide insight and analysis on the latest results, happenings and news on the PGA TOUR. We welcome your feedback; click here to let us know what you think!
What are our writers thinking about after the British Open and the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee? Tom Watson's close call, Stewart Cink's first major victory, Ross Fisher's crushing quadruple bogey and, of course, Tiger Woods' missed cut.
WATSON'S MEMORABLE WEEK: In the end, two things did in Old Tom Watson at the 138th Open Championship: A notoriously balky putter and tired legs.
|
For a video version of Monday Backspin, click here.  |
|
For 71 and ¾ holes, Watson was terrific, making us and himself forget that he is 59 years old. "I don't like Augusta because I feel like I'm a ceremonial golfer," said a teary-eyed and hoarse-voiced Watson. "Out here, I have a chance, and I knew I had a chance starting out."
But if there's one thing that's been an Achilles Heel in Watson's game throughout his Hall-of-Fame career, it's his putting. Even while he was turning back the clock at Turnberry, Watson was only able to do so by, in part, bombing in a bunch of long putts throughout the week.
Sunday, the short ones got him. The 8-foot putt to win on the 72nd hole was the only tentative stroke Watson took all week and it came at the most inopportune of times.
"If you go back throughout four rounds of a tournament, you've made some putts and you got away with some bounces that you shouldn't have gotten away with," Watson said. "I had my plan. I wasn't going to think about [winning] until it happened."
Unfortunately, as Watson said, it didn't -- not in regulation or the playoff, when he simply looked gassed. "It didn't feel like it, but it just looked like it," said Watson, who also admitted that his legs simply didn't work on his errant drive on No. 17 in the playoff.
"I really felt I was playing well [coming into this week]," Watson said. "This would have been a great memory. The dream almost came true."
Almost. But it wasn't any less of a great memory. -- Brian Wacker
SCOTLAND, MEET STEWART CINK: Understanding the Scots' abiding affection for Tom Watson, I wondered how Stewart Cink's maiden major championship victory would be received. Turns out I didn't need to worry that he would get his due.
I bought three Scottish newspapers while I was waiting for my flight Monday morning at the Glasgow airport. Each one used a photo of Cink holding the Claret Jug with Watson standing beside him. The headlines ranged from "Cinking Feeling" to "Cruel in the Sun" to "Stewart Sinks The 'Old Fogey.'"
Then there was the "Wrong American But Right Winner," and that may have summed up the tumultuous day the best. Sentiment was overwhelming on Watson's side, but Cink came up with the clutch shots when it counted and deserved the win.
While the Scots love Tom Watson, they love the game more. What happened Sunday at Turnberry was unforgettable, but Cink simply played better and that should be celebrated, too. And trust me, the Scots will learn to love Cink, too. -- Helen Ross
FISHER'S MAJOR MISTAKES: Anyone who says they weren't pulling for Tom Watson in the final round of the 138th Open Championship is a liar. However, it's safe to say that the locals would have been quite pleased to see either of the two Englishmen -- Lee Westwood and Ross Fisher -- hoist the Claret Jug if the Watson story fell through.
Both Westwood and Fisher began the final round near the top of the leaderboard, and it looked as though Fisher might be the guy to do it when he birdied his first two holes to take a two-shot lead.
Fisher, while not exactly a household name, has proven himself as a legitimate major contender after a tie for fifth at last month's U.S. Open. That's why Sunday's flameout was totally unexpected.
After a bogey on the fourth hole, Fisher took a devastating quadruple-bogey 8 on the fifth hole and was never able to recover.
Here's how the 8 played out: Tee shot right and into thick rough; second shot that hardly moved; third shot with baseball swing dead left and into more heavy rough; unplayable lie; fifth shot just short of the green and failure to get up and down.
Fisher went on to shoot a 5-over 75 to tie for 13th. That's a major mistake that cost him a major. -- T.J. Auclair
TIGER'S TROUBLES: It's a shock anytime Tiger Woods misses a cut, but maybe we shouldn't be completely surprised at his failure to reach the weekend at Turnberry.
Of the four majors, the British Open is the biggest wild card for American golfers, who must deal with overseas travel, a links course and rapidly changing weather conditions, among other things. There's a reason why the worst round in Tiger's professional career came in the 2002 Open when he posted a third-round 81 at Muirfield in horrific wind and rain.
Plus, Tiger's a creature of habit. He feasts on venues he knows well. He certainly lacked familiarity with Turnberry, a course he had never played until last week. "I can't rely on past years' experience," he acknowledged.
That won't be a problem next year when the Open Championship returns to St. Andrews. Tiger has won the last two Opens at the Old Course. And by missing the cut at Turnberry, you can bet he'll be determined to make amends. -- Mike McAllister
|
| Stock up |
Retief Goosen: A final-round 72 wasn't enough to get Goosen the one trophy he so desperately wants to win, but he finished even par for the week and in a tie for fifth. That marks Goosen's third straight top-10 since a tie for 16th at the U.S. Open and certainly has him trending upward.
FedExCup rank: 16 (17 last week) |
Jerry Kelly: Having fallen off the wagon swing-wise since his victory in New Orleans earlier this year, Kelly put in some serious work the past few weeks and it paid off with a third-place finish in Milwaukee that included a bogey-free 65 on Sunday. Next up: Trying to make the Presidents Cup team.
FedExCup rank: 21 (25 last week) |
Jeff Overton: Sans the AT&T National, which he withdrew from with a wrist injury, Overton has finished in the top 15 in three of his last four events. His 67 Sunday at the Open Championship also tied for the low score of the day. Only a third-round 76 kept him from being in serious contention.
FedExCup rank: 55 (66 last week) |
|
|
| Stock down |
Ben Curtis: Not that anyone expected the 2003 Open champion to be in serious contention, but shooting 65-80 is puzzling. Thursday, Curtis birdied four of his last six holes. Friday, he bogeyed six of his first eight on his way to a front-nine 42 and a plane ticket home.
FedExCup rank: 82 (80 last week) |
Ian Poulter: Last year's runner-up was one of the favorites going into the Open, but he finished near the bottom of the board at 14 over after rounds of 75 and 79. That was almost as inexplicable as Watson's run at a sixth title. Poulter's line for the week: 8 bogeys, 2 doubles, 1 triple and just one birdie.
FedExCup rank: 29 (26 last week) |
Lee Westwood: It's hard to get on a guy who finished third in a major championship, but Westwood is going to be thinking about this one for a while. You simply can't bogey three of the last four holes on Sunday when the Claret Jug is nearly in your grasp. You wonder if he'll ever get this close again.
FedExCup rank: n/a |
|
| A Quick 18 |
| Front Nine | Back Nine |
| Unlike Greg Norman, this loss won't haunt Tom Watson. Partly because he's already won five British Opens and eight majors on the PGA TOUR. Partly because he's 59 years old. Partly because that's not the type of guy he is. It was draining and deflating, but nothing more. | How bright is Chris Wood's future? The skinny 21-year-old kid from England with the Brooklyn blowout finished in the top 5 for a second straight year, this time tying for third as a professional. Time will tell if he is Justin Rose or something more. It could have been the latter if not for a bogey on No. 18. |
| What will Watson remember? "The one memory? I think coming up the 18th hole again," Watson said. "Having the crowd cheering you on like they do here for me. The feeling is mutual. That warmth makes you feel human. It makes you feel so good." It made us feel good, too. | Along those lines, Andres Romero eagled both par 5s Sunday to move from T43 to T13. That's significant because Romero hadn't finished in the top 30 in 12 of 13 previous starts on TOUR this year. At the Open, he now has three career finishes in the top 13 (T8 in 2006; 3rd in 2007). |
| You can debate whether Watson should have chipped instead of putted from behind the 18th green in regulation, but, as Arnold Palmer said, that's second guessing. "I'm a big advocate of putting the ball and he did," Palmer told GOLF CHANNEL. "But I would have questioned the fact because the ball was hanging in the fringe." | Speaking of Wood, who was last year's low amateur, this year's low amateur Italy's Matteo Manassero shot a final-round 69 to end his week at 2 over and in a tie for 13th. That also tied him with Francesco Molinari for low Italian in the field. Oh, and Manassero is just 16 years old. |
| As much as Watson was the story, let's not overlook Stewart Cink. Long before he closed out the playoff with back-to-back birdies, Cink made four birdies on the back nine in regulation. Sunday was as much about Cink winning as it was about Watson letting it slip through his fingers.
| Don't read too much into Tiger Woods' second missed cut in a major as a professional. Some of his tee shots were stunningly off line -- especially given how he hit it at the AT&T National -- but that's the quirkiness of the British Open. But in case you're wondering, the last time he went major-less was 2004.
|
| Coincidence or cruel irony? Stewart Cink became the second American winner of a British Open played at Turnberry. The other? Tom Watson, 32 years ago in the Duel in the Sun. Cink was also the ninth different American to hoist the Claret Jug since 1995. | Woods has been either really good or really bad in Scotland throughout his career. The three times he finished outside the top 25 in the British Open were all in Scotland (1995 at St. Andrews, 2002 at Murifield and this year at Turnberry). Two of his three Open wins, though, have also come in Scotland. |
| It doesn't matter if your first name is Nostra and your last name is Damus, no one could have predicted this kind of performance from Tom Watson, five Open titles and a Senior British at Turnberry or not. His last top 10 on TOUR came in '02 and last victory on TOUR was at Colonial in '98. | There were actually two playoffs on Sunday. The other one involved Bo Van Pelt and John Mallinger, both of whom were trying to win for the first time in their careers. Van Pelt came out ahead, making a birdie on the second extra hole of the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee to end his eight-year drought.
|
| Of course, as Watson said, he also knew he had a chance in this tournament and at Turnberry. It's the one major he's had more success in than almost anyone else and it was just six years ago that he captured the Senior British Open there. The British is the great equalizer of men. | With his mom and wife undergoing cancer treatment in Houston, Phil Mickelson wasn't at the British Open. He did, however, say via his Web site late last week that both are doing well post-surgery, that Amy's cancer hasn't spread to the lymph nodes and they expect to be home soon. |
| Cink earned 600 FedExCup points for his win, but Steve Stricker is the new leader in the standings. Stricker earned just 15.5 points after finishing T52 at Turnberry, but it was enough to overtake Tiger Woods, who missed the cut. Stricker is the fifth different leader this season and leads by eight.
| Tweet of the week: Stewart Cink's first "tweet" following his victory came a little more than four hours later. It read: "Not sure what to say but this picture should do the trick." That was also his only "tweet" last night and can't say I blame him. |
| Those 600 points earned by Cink, by the way, moved him from No. 56 to No. 13 in the standings. There's still a long way to go before the playoffs, but Cink is in good position to get to THE TOUR Championship, something he's done in the playoffs each of the last two years. | Quote of the Week: "This ain't a funeral, you know." -- Watson breaking the silence and the ice at the start of his post-round press conference. As my colleague Helen Ross noted, it was disarming much the way Greg Norman was at the 1986 Masters. Not to mention classy. |
|
|
| The Forward Spin |
Oh Canada, land of hockey, beer, Elisha Cuthbert and, this week, the world's third-oldest national Open golf championship at venerable Glen Abbey.
Last year, Chez Reavie won the RBC Canadian Open in his first start in the event, becoming the first player to do so since Jerry Pate in 1976. One of the players Reavie beat that week was two-time defending champion Jim Furyk, who shot a final-round 70 to finish in a tie for 14th. Furyk won't have a chance to exact any revenge, however. He's not in the field.
Mike Weir, of course, is in the field and he'll again try to become the first Canadian to win his country's national tournament since Pat Fletcher in 1954. Weir has come close on a couple of occasions, finishing fifth last year and second in 2004. He also finished 10th in 2003. Though Weir missed the cut at the British Open, he is having a solid year with four top-10s, including two in his last four starts. He also hasn't missed two cuts in a row all year. |
|
PGATOUR.COM'S Brian Wacker wrote the Quick 18, Stock up/Stock Down and Forward Spin.
PGATOUR.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network