Watson puts Open pain behind him

FOUR days after his heartbreaking play-off defeat to Stewart Cink at Turnberry, Tom Watson shot a three-under 67 yesterday to begin his pursuit of a fourth Senior Open Championship title.

The 59-year-old Watson, who almost became the oldest major champion at the Open last weekend, was tied for sixth place, three shots behind leader Fred Funk.

Funk was among the last finishers and birdied the last two holes for a six-under 64, the lowest first-round score in the history of the championship.

Funk also birdied the first hole and parred the next nine before picking up five birdies on the last eight holes.

"The first nine could have been three or four over, and the back could have been eight under," said Funk, who sank a bunker shot for birdie at 17.

Funk had a two-shot lead ahead of countrymen Jay Haas and Loren Roberts, Des Smyth of Ireland and Christopher Williams of South Africa.

Watson was another stroke back and tied with Tom Kite, Jerry Bruner, Greg Norman and Scotland's Sam Torrance.

Bernhard Langer, leader of the Champions Tour standings after four wins this year, was back in the pack after a 72.

Afterwards Watson said he hadn't watched a replay of his missed putt on the final hole at Turnberry that would have won him the Open. "I don't want to. That was the ugliest stroke in the world. I don't want to relive that thing," Watson said, before admitting he initially wanted to play it over again. "Then I said, 'To heck with it. That's history. That's over and done with.'

Asked if he had ever been in so much demand before, Watson replied: "Frankly, no. Just the outpouring of people communicating with me – I've never had that happen before. It's been great for me."

Watson was told that Norman, his playing partner yesterday who came close to winning last year's Open, had said he'd had people offering congratulations or commiserations for the next 51 weeks. "I guess I'll have to be ready for that," Watson said.

Watson didn't appear to be dwelling on his Turnberry disappointment, and was three under after five holes before making two more birdies and two bogeys during the rest of his round. "I made a few early putts maybe I shouldn't have made and I missed some I should have made," Watson said.

"I had birdie chances on the last four holes but didn't make them. It was a good score. Maybe it could have been better.

"But I just heard this morning that a close friend at home has died of brain cancer. That puts this back in the right light."

Watson said messages from American servicemen he visited in Iraq had also helped him deal with losing the Open.

The American birdied the long first at Sunningdale, then made a ten-footer to save par. He also made par at the third, despite hitting his tee shot into the rough, before birdies on the next two holes – a 15-foot downhill putt and then a 20-footer.

A heavy shower at the sixth changed the nature of the greens, and Watson struggled with his putting the rest of the round. He missed an eight-foot putt at the 13th – the same distance he missed from on the 72nd hole at Turnberry before losing the play-off to Cink. "I'm not very good on eight-footers right now," Watson joked.

Funk had to contend with a heavy shower on the eighth tee. "We just waited. The greens puddled up pretty bad but they dried out pretty quickly," he said.

Haas was also shaky with his putter on the front nine. After three bogeys in seven holes, he did not drop any more shots. "To come back was a nice way to finish," he said. "I felt I needed to shoot low to have a chance here."

Roberts, the 2006 winner at Turnberry, was happy to birdie the last two holes. "I had a three-putt bogey at the 16th, so to finish like that really made the day," he said.

TEE TIMES

Senior Open Championship (at Sunningdale GC; (USA unless stated; all times local; x denotes amateurs):

0700 Tony Charnley (Eng), Ralph McLean (Sco), Antonio Garrido (Spa)

0710 (x) Joel S Hirsch, Yoshi Mizumaki (Jpn), Luis Carbonetti (Arg)

0720 Giuseppe Cali (Ita), John Morse, Jeff Hawkes (Rsa)

0730 Robert L Thompson, Philippe Dugeny (Fra), Jim Rhodes (Eng)

0740 Philip Blackmar, Glenn Ralph (Eng), Mike Donald

0750 Bob Gilder, Bob Boyd, Kevin Spurgeon (Eng)

0800 David J Russell (Eng), Isao Aoki (Jpn), James Mason

0810 Nick Job (Eng), Christy O'Connor Jnr (Irl), Denis Watson (Zim)

0830 Scott Simpson, Katsuyoshi Tomori (Jpn), Jimmy Heggarty (NIrl)

0840 Fred Funk, Angel Franco (Par), Mike Harwood (Aus)

0850 Mark McNulty (Irl), Andy Bean, Carl Mason (Eng)

0900 Ben Crenshaw, Costantino Rocca (Ita), Tony Johnstone (Zim)

0910 Eduardo Romero (Arg), Tom Lehman, Ian Woosnam (Wal)

0920 Mark O'Meara, Bernhard Langer (Ger), Sir Nick Faldo (Eng)

0930 Craig Stadler, John Cook, Des Smyth (Irl)

0940 David Merriman (Aus), Bob Charles (Nzl), Gene Jones

1000 Bill Longmuir (Sco), Lonnie Nielsen, Christopher Williams (Rsa)

1010 John Bland (Rsa), Tom Purtzer, Jerry Pate

1020 Peter Dahlberg (Swe), Pete Oakley, Don Pooley

1030 Frank Kiddie (Eng), John Chillas (Sco), Shinji Ikeuchi (Jpn)

1040 Delroy Cambridge (Jam), Morris Hatalsky, Kirk Hanefeld

1050 Denis O'Sullivan (Irl), (x) Paul Simson, Tim Planchin (Fra)

1100 Terry Gale (Aus), Mark Balen, Tony Allen (Eng)

1110 Carl Baker, Angel Fernandez (Chi), (x) John C Davies (Eng)

1130 Denis Durnian (Eng), (x) Brady Exber, Richard Masters (Eng)

1140 Simon Owen (Aus), Ikuo Shirahama (Jpn), Wes Burton

1150 Curt Byrum, (x) Niall Lavin (Irl), Noel Ratcliffe (Aus)

1200 Bob Larratt (Eng), Gary Koch, Jerry Bruner

1210 Domingo Hospital (Spa), Mike Reid, Simon Wood (Eng)

1220 Jay Don Blake, Chris Starkjohann, Jose Maria Canizares (Spa)

1230 Torsten Giedeon (Ger), Russ Cochran, Stewart Ginn (Aus)

1240 Mark Wiebe, Olin Browne, Bertus Smit (Rsa)

1300 Alastair Webster (Sco), Bobby Lincoln (Rsa), Mike Goodes

1310 Joe Ozaki (Jpn), Ross Drummond (Sco), Jeff Sluman

1320 Joey Sindelar, Michael Allen, Roger Chapman (Eng)

1330 Sam Torrance (Sco), Jay Haas, Bruce Vaughan

1340 Tom Kite, Loren Roberts, Mark James (Eng)

1350 Sandy Lyle (Sco), Tom Watson, Greg Norman (Aus)

1400 Larry Mize, Gordon Brand Jnr (Sco), Eamonn Darcy (Irl)

1410 Gary Player (Rsa), Wayne Grady (Aus), Juan Quiros (Spa)

1430 Peter Mitchell (Eng), Graham Gunn (Can), Bobby Wadkins

1440 Fulton Allem (Rsa), Gordon J Brand (Eng), Peter Fowler (Aus)

1450 David Ogrin, Marc Farry (Fra), Tim Simpson

1500 David Eger, Bob Cameron (Eng), Graham Marsh (Aus)

1510 Jose Rivero (Spa), Mike Cunning, Peter O'Hagan (Irl)

1520 Manuel Pinero (Spa), Andrew Murray (Eng), Gary Hallberg

1530 Stephen Bennett (Eng), Doug Johnson, Tom McKnight

1540 Ronnie Black, (x) Randy Haag, Bill Mccoll (Sco)