As the sun set on the ancient town of St.
Advertisement
In keeping her promise, she talked of being treated royally at St Andrews, with so many people talking affectionately about the departed champion, including Arnold Palmer, who had finished runner-up to Nagle, 55 years ago.
Tom Watson left the 18th hole on what may be his penultimate Open Championship round with mixed emotions. Jones had won the 1927 Open and the 1930 British Amateur, the first leg of his unprecedented and unrepeated Grand Slam.
Faldo hinted that this will be his lot in the Open despite previously suggesting he would keep going for another two. Neither did a badly missed chip at the final hole.
He concluded: “To be able to say that I was part of winning something at St Andrews, like I did in the 1988 Dunhill Cup, remains one of the highlights of my career”.
Watson wasn’t the only player to bid farewell to the Old Course.
Watson, a 65-year-old Kansas City native, received appreciative ovations not only in that fading light on arguably golf’s most famous grounds but throughout his final round at the home of golf.
Willett, from Rotherham, England, and Jacksonville (Ala.) State, has won two European tour events.
Groundsmen worked feverishly to soak up the many puddles of standing water that made it look, at one stage, like play could even be abandoned for the day. He won major tournaments at the expense of the great Jack Nicklaus. He would finish two shots out of a three person playoff.
He missed that putt, then another.
In a way the circumstances made the five-time champion golfer’s farewell all the more poignant. He finished T22 in 2011, and in 2014, he would set the record as the oldest player to make the cut at The Open at the age of 64. For Watson, however, he refused to compete if he did not think he could win.
“I struggled and I played, and I just fought it, didn’t like it, I hated the game, but a couple of people got in the back of my head”.
This is what Watson told media members after finishing dead last in his 38th and final British Open. And as Watson walked down the first hole, he was compelled to wave at the fans giving him a standing ovation in the grandstands.
Because of a rain delay early Friday, Watson didn’t wrap up his news conference until 10:48 p.m., and he was asked if his party for his family and friends was still on for Friday night. As darkness loomed, the R&A officials kept play going until the 17th hole, when they gave players the option to either continue playing or to stop.
Watson had crossed the Swilcan Bridge to the fairway one last time, stopping to pose for photographs alongside playing partners Ernie Els and Brandt Snedeker, and with his son, Michael, who was caddying and appeared to be close to tears.
Advertisement
United States’ Tom Watson embraces his caddy Michael Watson after… Several thousand people stayed to the end, serenading the five-time Open champion with raucous cheers and a chant of “hip, hip, hooray!”
