Old Tom Watson, 60

today and looking for

another Senior Special

FROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH WEBSITE
By IAN CHADBAND, Chief Sports Correspondent
Tom Watson turned 60 today, the opening day of the Walmart First Tee Open seniors' event in California, and was offered this brainwave about how best to celebrate the landmark.
"Somebody said 'Tom, now why don't you go out and shoot 60?' " he smiles. "And I thought, yeah, that sounds reasonable " Then he came up with a more workable idea.
"It'll be fun to go into these restaurants like Denny's and just be able to look 'em in the eye and say 'You know, I need the Senior Special menu today'.
"The thing is you don't get as much food – but you get it quite a bit cheaper. And of course I don't need as much food these days anyway!"
The mischief in dear old Tom's rich baritone tells of a man who evidently can't take the landmark too seriously. And why would he? Just seven weeks ago when he was a stripling 59 year-old, he felt like the youngest freckled swinger in town, 29 going on 30, as he wrote all but the perfect pay-off line to one of sport's most enchanting stories at the Turnberry Open.
Some of us still haven't quite got over our misery at seeing Tom miss that eight-footer on the last which would have made him the most venerable winner – and certainly the only one with an artificial hip – of any major sporting event in modern professional sport. The good news is that he has.
"I made a terrible stroke on the last putt and if you want to call that choking, go right ahead. But, nope, it doesn't haunt me and it hasn't changed me in the least," he says.
Except in one way. "I think it's made me more humble. The messages and warmth from people humbled me more than anything I've ever felt in my life.
"Like today; this photographer told me he sat watching it all in a bar in Austria and said, 'Honestly, I couldn't leave my seat for five hours'. In Austria!"
In defeat, a golfing legend was astounded to find himself repackaged as the ultimate winner. "One of the most extraordinary sports stories of our generation? Honestly, I could only see it as a missed opportunity," he says, wondering why anyone would still want to talk to "an old fart" like him.
"But I've been so taken aback by the response. People have told me, 'I'll always remember where I was when you had that putt' and I say, 'Err, but I didn't win it.'"
But he was a winner, nonetheless. A gentleman to be hailed for age-defying skill and nerve, and ageless dignity and good humour. What did it feel like to be a new hero for the sexagenarian set? "Oh yes, all power to us. Power to the old geezers," he laughs.
"You can't imagine how many people of my age or older have come up to me and said 'You've lifted my spirits. I wanted to go right out there and start playing golf with a passion again. If you can do it Watson, I can do it!'
"Maybe that's the loveliest reflection on what I did."
The kids know him now, too. The First Tee Open pairs Champions Tour greybeards such as Watson with talented teenage juniors – he celebrated his birthday partnering a 17-year-old lass, Gianna Misenhelter, from his home town of Kansas City – and they all think he's pretty cool.
"There used to be these blank stares and 'who is that old guy?' but now it's big smiles, saying 'Yeah, saw you in the British Open'."
What moved Watson most, though, was the reception he received when driving back home to his beloved 400-acre farm, 25 miles south of Kansas City. On the gates, his neighbours had hung up a salute to their huntin', fishin', hay-baling and tractor-driving pal. It read simply: "We're proud of you, Tom."
It wasn't the only celebration at the homestead. Last Saturday, Watson was settling in for a quiet weekend in when wife Hilary sprang a surprise 60th birthday party for him, with friends having flown in from around the States to toast him. Including a certain Jack Nicklaus.
"All my loved ones in one place. Jack's like family; he watched Turnberry and was a big help in my commiserations. When I'd played my approach at the last, I hit it just exactly the way I meant to. In the air, it was one of the most glorious feelings in the world when the ball was in the air and then, as golf is, it turned out to be the cruellest feeling too as it went through the green. All in one shot.
"But Jack put it in perspective. He told me 'Tom, you hit a perfect drive, you hit a perfect second shot and putting the ball from the fringe was the right play too'. You know, that soothed me."
The rest, of course, was agonising history. Watson bogeyed then imploded in the play-off with Stewart Cink, who instantly became enshrined as the man who shot Bambi. Not to Watson, though, who recalls seeing his conqueror later that night at the Turnberry Hotel.
"He had a grip so tight on that Jug like an American footballer and when I looked at that smile on his face, I had a wonderful amount of pleasure because it reminded me of my own when I once held it." That's the gent for you.
The reason Watson is so adored by his sport, the reason why on Friday they were cutting a birthday cake for him before he teed off at Del Monte, the Californian course which is sharing the tournament with priceless Pebble Beach.
Playing at 60? "When I was 40, I said, 'I'll never play after 50'. Well, here I am," he smiles. "It's hard not to go out there and get the excitement of teeing it up in competition. That's what keeps me going – it's the thrill of competition, of still putting it all on the line."
It sounds as if Turnberry has re-energised him into the live wire who was once told by the then USGA President, Sandy Tatum: "Damn it, Watson, you're practically radioactive. They ought to use you as a cure for cancer."
Today, he plays Pebble Beach again, the glorious course where he'd persuade the starter to let him play for free when he was a Stanford student, the dream parlour where he'd imagine beating Nicklaus in the US Open and then actually went out and did it with his heavenly chip at the 17th in 1982.
"Just perfect to be back here," he smiles. "I am lucky playing this game at 60. Not a question. Out there working in the greatest office in the world; the golf course." No time for regrets then. The Turnberry disappointment?
"You know, one of the things it seems I've always been able to do is come back from a disappointment with something special. Maybe it's just the response of a cornered man."
Remember this is a bloke who this time last year couldn't sleep properly because of the pain and could not be sure he would ever play again as he awaited hip replacement surgery.
What, so can Tom Watson come out and shake up the world again at 60? "Who knows?" he laughs. After he's tucked into his Senior Special at Denny's, anything's possible.
Big treat for St Andrews
Tom Watson will mark what could be his last Open Championship at St Andrews next year by making it a family celebration, with his 26-year-old son Michael caddying for him.
The R&A’s age limit of 60 for former winners means that St Andrews will be the five-times champion’s swan song unless he can manage a top-10 finish, which guarantees a place the following year, or a victory, which brings a 10-year exemption.
“It could be my last Open and would be fitting for my son to be there with me,” Watson said. “It would be a big treat for me and him.
“And you never know. Maybe we could do something special.”
Like ensuring that it turns out not to be his last Open Championship? “Took the words right out of my mouth,” Watson said.