Tom Watson - "Winning at Carnoustie 1975" SHORT TRACK

Intro Music 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle.

Mike Gonzalez 0:13

Then it's well at Carnousti time you had to make a pretty sizable putt just to get in the playoff on the last, didn't you?

Tom Watson 0:22

Yeah, the last day was uh a windy day. It uh the first three days it was very calm, and scores are really low. 66s, 65s or a shot at Carnoustie, and that was unheard of. Yeah. Such a tough golf course. Very tough. But again, there was no rough. If you kept it out of the bunkers, you you're you're gonna be okay. Um but the last day uh it blew. It blew hard. And I'll never forget, we uh Mahaffey and Green and I, we we warmed up at Montafeeth because the practice ground at Carnoustie wasn't very good. So we warmed up there and then drove up to Carnoustie uh to tee off. And I we drove up there, I was there plenty of time. And I drive by the the media tent and out at coming out out at the kind of the entrance in there was Chris Schenkel and Byron Nelson. And I stopped to say hello uh to both of them. And uh and and Byron says he was very complimentary about the way I was playing and all this, and I said, Byron, do you mind me asking you a question? What should I what should I try to do today? He said, What you should try to do today is shoot even par because the wind is blowing. I I I don't know what my position was. I think I was maybe three shots behind or something like that. I said, he's and he said, if you shoot even par, you're gonna be right there at the end. And that's exactly what it did. I shot even par. It was a tough day to play with the wind blowing. Um and it you know, the blue the wind blew from the south hard. And then uh I was fortunate enough to make that putt in the last hole. I remember Johnny Miller when I were tied coming in the last hole, and he had it in the right fairway bunker there, and he Johnny he could hit the ball high, and he took a seven-iron to come out of that bunker and he hit the lip, came back at his feet. Then he swung in it again, hit the seven iron, and knocked it up there about you know, six feet from the hole. Uh I knock it on the green about 20, 25 feet from the hole. And uh, you know, I'm you know, I we I I knew but looking at the scoreboard, that big yellow scoreboard that, you know, I've got to make this putt. Uh the good, you know, but I didn't, you know, I was still a couple shots behind, uh, but those guys still had to play the last four holes at Carnoustie. And uh sure enough, I made the putt, and everybody fell by the wayside, Bobby Cole, uh Nicholas, uh they all fell by the wayside, and uh the you know the last man standing was Jack Newton. And so we got into a playoff. The next day we teared up and the wind changed 180 degrees and blowing hard from the north. You know, I hit a I had a driver and a nine-iron to the 18th hole at Carnousti on the on uh the final round on Saturday, and on Sunday, I hit a good drive and a two-iron to the 18th grade. Uh that's how the course changed. But it was a uh it was a yeah, it was nip and tuck the whole match there. And I got a uh I've got maybe the luckiest break in my career on the eighth hole, it's a par three, and the wind's blowing right and left. And it's uh it's a really tough uh green that sits up in the up up in the air as a par three, sits up there like that, and there's out of bounds right to the left. And I I I was hitting a cut shot in there trying to hold it the green, and uh, and I pulled it and it didn't cut. And it hit the side slope and it was going to go out of bounds, and it hit a out-of-pound stake and stayed in bounds. And I got that ball up and down, pitched back up into the wind like this, and and got it up and down for three. I mean, that that uh that may have been the luckiest break in my career right there.

Mike Gonzalez 4:05

Yeah, and then uh Eagle on 14, was that the turning point?

Tom Watson 4:10

Well, turning point was uh not that ball not going out of bounds at eight. Nobody nobody writes about that. Yeah, this podcast is uh is uh you got the inside information right here.

Mike Gonzalez 4:24

Then it started to 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 4:46

Whack down the fairway. It went smack down the fairway. When it started just like just smack it off line. It had it for two, but it left off line. My head is as long as you're still in the stage you're okay.