Tom Watson - "The One That Got Away" SHORT TRACK

Intro Music 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle. Then it started.

Bruce Devlin 0:15

So Tom, we you know, talking about the Open Championship. Without speeding forward 26 years after that victory back at Turnbury again. Tell us what was going through your mind. You're 59 years old. Uh, and I I I know you thought you hit the greatest second shot again at Turnbury, uh, and it just wiggled over the green. Tell us, tell us what you were thinking that day.

Tom Watson 0:47

Well, this is this is this is gonna be a long story or gonna be a short story. Which one would you like? It's up to you, boss. You're the man. Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna take the long version here, so we'll uh we'll uh we'll we'll do it that way. You know, in night in 2009, I was playing about my best golf ever from T to Green. I was putting very poorly, but from T to Green, I was really, really uh playing great golf. I could do anything with the golf ball. Uh it was consistent. You know, it was you know, just one week after another, I was I was striping it, striping it. It's just one of those great times in your career that uh you really had a you know it was free and easy. Um so I go into the tournament thinking that uh you know I I gotta find something to work with my putting, something. And lo and behold, on Tuesday I did find something that helped me with my putting stroke. And uh, you know, Wednesday I went back on the practice round and I confirmed it. Um and yeah, I played a great practice round on Wednesday. The wind's blowing from the south, all three practice rounds Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, blowing hard. You know, a lot of the pros didn't even play full practice rounds. They'd go out there and well, I've got to go work out, or oh, the wind's blowing too hard. I don't want to screw up my game. I don't know why they do that. But anyway. Um Wednesday night I was I was in bed with my beautiful wife, Hillary, and I said, you know, I can win this golf tournament. And she looks at me like this, and I said, and and I said, Yeah. You know, three reasons that I could win. First of all, this is this is going to be my sixth major championship playing at Turnberry. Ninety-five percent of the field had never played Turnberry before. Number two, I was playing the the best golf of probably my whole life. And number three, I knew the wind conditions were going to change on Friday. From the south winds and the practice rounds, we're gonna have a strong northwest wind uh on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And I had played that with that wind. I remember Greg Norman played shooting 63, three putting the last two holes to shoot 63 in that wind. I shot 75 and I said, man, I shot a hell, I had a hell Norman shot 63, and Norman played some of the greatest rounds of golf in history of golf. Promise you, that was one of them. Um but I knew that the winds are going to change, and I knew I knew how how to play certain holes in the golf course with that wind. And the rest of the rest of the uh 95% of them didn't know. So I started out, uh, the first day was called it was calling for calm conditions, which they were. I got up to a great start. Um and my my whole game plan was just kind of hang in there. The same, you know, if I could stay around even par the last three rounds uh after a good start on Thursday, you know, I have a good chance to win the tournament. And damned if it almost happened. I mean, I I came into the last hole uh after burning the 17th hole downwind and uh with a one-shot lead, I hit a perfect T ball down there with my hybrid two and and uh had 187 yards of the hole. Uh in 1977, I 107, I had 178 yards of the hole. And when I hit the shot in uh 2009, that ball went up there and it was coming right down the the stack, just like in 77, it was coming right down the stack. Uh and I uh I just really had visions. I said, that's just like 77, right at it. And I said, I hope it stops, hope it stops. And uh it didn't. It didn't. It had a it there was a lot of wind at the back, and I it it hit, yeah, I think it hit it just on barely on a little little little uh hump on the on the front of the green and a down slope, projected the ball through, and it went over the green and uh rolled down the off the short turf and got into the the semi-long turf, which is about about yay yay tall, about like that. And the ball was sitting half down into that, and I uh decided to putt the ball because I could I could kind of top it out of there and get the ball rolling up the upslope without any trouble. And I knocked it about eight feet past, and um then I hit a terrible putt. Got into the playoff, I hit one good shot in the playoff. That was my drive in the first hole. Uh Stuart Sink uh he hit every good shot. He he he and he waxed me. But uh I just have to, you know, the aftermath of it was uh uh something to talk about. I go into the press room, uh the press are just slowly walking in, moping. Uh I said, come on, this ain't a funeral, boys and girls. Let's get it over with, let's talk about this. They asked me about why I didn't chip the ball from the back of the 17th hole and and putt it, but more on that a little bit later in the story. And then we go through all the details uh that you have to go through after I almost went into golf term, but you know what they are, Bruce. You've got television, yeah, you got television, you've got radio. Um, and then uh Hillary and I slowly walked up the steps, got up to the hotel where we changed for dinner. There's a wonderful little restaurant there uh that we we went to dinner almost every night called Wildings. It's down on the little little town of Turnbury, right on the wharf there. Wonderful. So we're preparing for dinner, and and uh Hillary gets a phone call. And she gets on the phone, she says, Hi. Oh, well, hi Babs. Yeah, yeah. Oh okay, just a second. She hands me the phone. Jack wants to talk to you.

SPEAKER_04 6:46

So Jack gets in the phone and saying, Tom, I did something today I've never done before in my life.

Tom Watson 6:53

Yeah, I said, What's that, Jack?

SPEAKER_04 6:55

He said, I watched you play your first shot to your last shot. I've never watched a golf tournament like that.

Tom Watson 7:05

And then he then he decides, you know, he describes the last hole. He describes the last hole, and he said, You hit a perfect drive.

SPEAKER_04 7:14

Your second shot if it stops six inches shorter, you two putt and win the tournament. Your third shot, you hit the shot that wouldn't lose you the tournament.

Bruce Devlin 7:25

Yeah, you learned that. You learnt that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:28

And then the then the pot, you hit it like the rest of us would have hit it, you dog.

Tom Watson 7:39

A friendly needle. You know, and uh yeah, all I have to say is that about Jack was that here I am, and I'm not feeling you know, I have a lot of emotion going through in my body. You know, I just felt like I had it in the palm of my hand, like you know, like Nick Price had uh the 82 open at True and like so many other players have had it and lost it. Uh John Vandevelt at uh uh at Carnoustie had it there. Yeah, I had it and lost. And here's the greatest player in the history of game calling me up to console me. Yeah, knowing what I have inside, the hurt that I have inside. Possibly because of the same hurt that he felt when I chipped the ball in at Pebble Beach in '82.

Bruce Devlin 8:30

I would think so.

Tom Watson 8:31

You know, I I go back to that putt, that long putt I made at Turnbury Bruce uh in 77, the one that got me back to even on 15. Right. When I came off the green in 1982 at Pebble Beach, Jack was waiting for me. And Jack, he looks at me really sternly like this. He grabs me by both shoulders like this. And he said, You little son of a bitch, you did it to me again.

Mike Gonzalez 9:02

We hope you've enjoyed this short track of For the Good of the Game. And please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word, and tell your friends until we tee it up again for the good of the game. So long, everybody.

Intro Music 9:31

It went smack down for away. It's the lady just mid.