| Born: 4th September 1949, Kansas City, Missouri |
| US Tour wins: 32 |
| Ryder Cup appearances: 4 (1977, 1981, 1983, 1989) |
| By July 1975, Tom
Watson was called a 'choker', a cruel label
applied to this articulate Kansan because of the
manner in which he had wasted opportunities to
win the US Open in 1974 and 1975. Subsequently,
nobody could have more vehemently made the point
that he was a champion rather than a chicken. Watson won his first Open Championship that July of 1975.By 1983 he had won his fifth. Only Harry Vardon, with six, has won more; only Braid, Taylor and Thomson have won as many. Furthermore, by 1983 Watson had also won the Masters twice and the US Open once, and still found time to lose playoffs for the Masters and the US PGA Championship. Like Palmer, the lack of the PGA title may eternally frustrate Watson in his attempt to complete a personal Grand Slam. By 1984, Watson had taken over from Jack Nicklaus as the best golfer in the world, and he cemented that position by topping the US Money List for the fifth time, although at St Andrews Ballesteros had denied him that coveted sixth Open. And then...crash! Between the end of 1984 and the start of the 1993 season, Watson won just once on the US tour (in 1987) plus the Hong Kong Open in 1992, a year after he came to the last hole of the Masters needing a par to force a playoff but instead finished with a double-bogey. But the glory days were glorious indeed. Two of Watson's triumphs will be remembered forever. His head-to-head confrontation with Nicklaus at Turnberry for the 1977 Open may have been the greatest major championship in history. The Young Pretender, then aged 27, prevailed with a final two rounds of 65-65 to Nicklaus's 65-66. In 1982 he got the better of Nicklaus at the US Open, largely because he holed an outrageous chip shot on the penultimate hole. In those days, Watson's short game was magical, and never did he show it off to better effect than on the last nine holes that day at Pebble Beach, as he sank several lengthy putts and one monster, from 60 feet at the 14th. When, just a month later, he won the Open Championship for a fourth time, he became only the fifth man to win both major Opens in the same year, the others being Jones (twice), Sarazen, Hogan and Trevino. Which makes it one more thing that Watson has over the great Nicklaus. "There is no surer nor [more] painful way to learn a rule than to be penalized once for breaking it." - Tom Watson |
 Watson was a golfer who had his share of glory days - and grim years.
Watson lifted the Open Championship trophy five times between 1975 and 1983. |
