ALTHOUGH the Senior Open, which starts today at Sunningdale, will attract more attention than in past years because of Tom Watson's amazing runner-up performance at Turnberry on Sunday, Sir Nick Faldo has warned against reading too much into the veteran American's mastery of the links.
While lavishing praise on the 59-year-old from Kansas for an "astonishing" display in Ayrshire which he believes "will go down in history as one of the greatest", Faldo, who missed the cut on the Ailsa, added a cautionary proviso about making general
isations on the basis of an individual display.
"Don't get drawn into thinking golf is an old man's game," the six-time major winner, who now commentates for American television, told Sky Sports. "Because I can promise you it isn't. Tom is finely tuned, as you can tell. He can still turn, he's still got a flat belly and still got a strong mind."
Gary Player, on the other hand, believes Watson sent out a positive message about the prevailing standard on the senior circuit. "It's been quite frustrating for the seniors to get this message across, especially outside of America," remarked the South African. "Well, last week was the best example that could be applied.Tom Watson at nearly 60 years of age was so unlucky not to win the Open. That was a great (shot] in the arm not only for senior golf, but also for world golf."
Greg Norman, third behind Padraig Harrington last year, also insists a senior golfer will soon win a major. "It may not happen on a course like Bethpage Black (for the US Open]. It may not happen at a course like Augusta National in April when it's cold and wet and damp. But it will happen at a PGA Championship, it will happen at the Open somewhere down the line."
Watson, of course, isn't the only fifty-something golfer making light of time moving on. Bernhard Langer, who was fourth in the Senior Open at Troon a year past, finished ninth in the BMW International Open on the European Tour as recently as last month.
The German is the dominant figure in America on the Champions Tour this season with nine top-ten finishes and earnings of nearly $1.5million, more than twice as much as Andy Bean in second place.
Langer believes the impact made by Watson at Turnberry and Norman at Birkdale should tempt the organisers of the majors to make a few exempt spots available to the best players on the Champions Tour and the European Seniors.
"I don't think people realise how high the level of play is on the Senior Tour and the Champions Tour," he said. "It's difficult to do well, because there are so many great players. We are actually very surprised that there are no world ranking points on our tour. You take Tom Watson and Greg Norman, they both came very close, finished second and third in one of the majors.
"I played my last two European Tour events, I was in contention right up until the very last six holes and finished in the top ten in both of them (sixth at the UBS Hong Kong Open and ninth at the BMW International Open). There's a lot of us out there who can play at the very highest level and compete on the regular tour.
"The weird thing is we don't get much opportunity to play in major championships. I haven't been exempt in the Open for five or six years now. I think it would be a good move either to give us some world-ranking points so we can qualify for the events, or maybe invite two or three of the top-ranked players on the tours."
Sandy Lyle, fresh from a week of mudslinging at Turnberry, will have an opportunity to catch the eye for the right reasons in the company of both Norman and Watson over the next two days. Bearing in mind how the Scot was 20th at the Masters earlier this year, it would be encouraging if he managed to let his clubs do the talking at Sunningdale.
One of the side issues, incidentally, which arose from Watson's fabled effort at Turnberry was the question mark it placed against the less-imaginative gifts of a younger generation which hits the ball much further but struggles when difficult questions are asked about shotmaking in a crosswind. (Watson, incidentally, is unlikely to play any part in the final major of the year, next month's US PGA at Hazeltine, which measures a whopping 7,600 yards, even if he receives an invitation; the veteran knows his limitations.)
While it's human nature to think everything in sport was better in the past, the 2009 Open served as a pertinent reminder that the generation of Watson, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player truly were in a different league from today's cash-rich competitors who only know how to hit the ball harder and higher.
When Sam Torrance, 55, was asked at Sunningdale if the gift of competitiveness was the main quality which set the old champions apart, he replied: "No, (it's] skill. That's what you have. That's what Tom Watson has done, he's mastered the game and just keeps going. And even Bob Charles, 71, he breaks his age regularly on Tour."
Sunningdale means a great deal to Torrance – he was an assistant there in the early Seventies – and is a long-time member of the club. "I know the course better than any other player in the field," he reflected. "If I won the Senior Open at Sunningdale, it would be my best achievement as a player."
TEE TIMESSenior Open Championship (at Sunningdale GC; USA unless stated; all times local; x denotes amateurs):
0700 (x) Brady Exber, Richard Masters (Eng), Denis Durnian (Eng)
0710 Wes Burton, Simon Owen (Aus), Ikuo Shirahama (Jpn)
0720 Noel Ratcliffe (Aus), Curt Byrum, (x) Niall Lavin (Irl)
0730 Jerry Bruner, Gary Koch, Bob Larratt (Eng)
0740 Domingo Hospital (Spa), Simon Wood (Eng), Mike Reid
0750 Chris Starkjohann, Jose Maria Canizares (Spa), Jay Don Blake
0800 Stewart Ginn (Aus), Russ Cochran, Torsten Giedeon (Ger)
0810 Mark Wiebe, Bertus Smit (Rsa), Olin Browne
0830 Bobby Lincoln (Rsa), Alastair Webster (Sco), Mike Goodes
0840 Ross Drummond (Sco), Jeff Sluman, Joe Ozaki (Jpn)
0850 Roger Chapman (Eng), Joey Sindelar, Michael Allen
0900 Jay Haas, Sam Torrance (Sco), Bruce Vaughan
0910 Mark James (Eng), Loren Roberts, Tom Kite
0920 Sandy Lyle (Sco), Greg Norman (Aus), Tom Watson
0930 Eamonn Darcy (Irl), Larry Mize, Gordon Brand Jnr (Sco)
0940 Wayne Grady (Aus), Juan Quiros (Spa), Gary Player (Rsa)
1000 Peter Mitchell (Eng), Graham Gunn (Can), Bobby Wadkins
1010 Gordon J Brand (Eng), Fulton Allem (Rsa), Peter Fowler (Aus)
1020 Marc Farry (Fra), Tim Simpson, David Ogrin
1030 Graham Marsh (Aus), Bob Cameron (Eng), David Eger
1040 Mike Cunning, Peter O'Hagan (Irl), Jose Rivero (Spa)
1050 Gary Hallberg, Manuel Pinero (Spa), Andrew Murray (Eng)
1100 Tom McKnight, Stephen Bennett (Eng), Doug Johnson
1110 Ronnie Black, (x) Randy Haag, Bill Mccoll (Sco)
1130 Ralph McLean (Sco), Tony Charnley (Eng), Antonio Garrido (Spa)
1140 (x) Joel S Hirsch, Yoshi Mizumaki (Jpn), Luis Carbonetti (Arg)
1150 Giuseppe Cali (Ita), Jeff Hawkes (Rsa), John Morse
1200 Philippe Dugeny (Fra), Robert L Thompson, Jim Rhodes (Eng)
1210 Philip Blackmar, Glenn Ralph (Eng), Mike Donald
1220 Bob Boyd, Kevin Spurgeon (Eng), Bob Gilder
1230 David J Russell (Eng), James Mason, Isao Aoki (Jpn)
1240 Nick Job (Eng), Denis Watson (Zim), Christy O'Connor Jnr (Irl)
1300 Katsuyoshi Tomori (Jpn), Scott Simpson, Jimmy Heggarty (NIrl)
1310 Fred Funk, Mike Harwood (Aus), Angel Franco (Par)
1320 Andy Bean, Carl Mason (Eng), Mark McNulty (Irl)
1330 Ben Crenshaw, Costantino Rocca (Ita), Tony Johnstone (Zim)
1340 Tom Lehman, Eduardo Romero (Arg), Ian Woosnam (Wal)
1350 Bernhard Langer (Ger), Sir Nick Faldo (Eng), Mark O'Meara
1400 Des Smyth (Irl), Craig Stadler, John Cook
1410 Bob Charles (Nzl), David Merriman (Aus), Gene Jones
1430 Bill Longmuir (Sco), Lonnie Nielsen, Christopher Williams (Rsa)
1440 John Bland (Rsa), Jerry Pate, Tom Purtzer
1450 Don Pooley, Pete Oakley, Peter Dahlberg (Swe)
1500 Frank Kiddie (Eng), John Chillas (Sco), Shinji Ikeuchi (Jpn)
1510 Morris Hatalsky, Delroy Cambridge (Jam), Kirk Hanefeld
1520 Denis O'Sullivan (Irl), (x) Paul Simson, Tim Planchin (Fra)
1530 Terry Gale (Aus), Tony Allen (Eng), Mark Balen
1540 (x) John C Davies (Eng), Angel Fernandez (Chi), Carl Baker
