Golf World Monday - August 1, 2011

8. 1.2011

at 61, he has won what he has won, and he has lost what he has lost. Just four years shy of being eligible for medicare but still able to skin a links course with the best of them, tom watson last week chose to honor his commitment to an old friend, the greenbrier, rather than play in the u.s. senior open. it was a bit of a folly: he knew better than anyone that the longer clubs he would be forced to hit into the new, firm greens of the old white tpc meant that he was going to be far less of a factor in west virginia than he might well have been at inverness club. it’s impossible to know how watson might have done in the national senior championship in which he has been a runner-up three times, but it is certain he would have been more competitive there than on a course that was simply too long and too hard for him (which was demonstrated in his 36-hole score of six-over 146, five above the cut line). but, whether he was 61 or 21, the one thing watson has always done is keep his word. quite simply, that is the way he looked at it. despite winning the senior pga championship earlier this year and despite the offer from greenbrier owner Jim Justice to let him off the hook, nothing was going to change watson’s mind about that. so, as he said, “here i am.” —Jim Moriarty 06tom watson does his duty