Tom Watson believes his most famous performance has been eclipsed by the Scandinavian thriller staged by Henrik Stenson last Sunday but the American golfing great is anxious that the stage on which ‘the Duel in the Sun’ took place is used for future Open Championships.
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The 65-year-old was enthralled by events at Troon, stating emphatically that the Swede’s performance in closing out Phil Mickelson was better than his own when he famously held off Jack Nicklaus further down the Ayrshire coastline on the championship's final day in 1977.
“You just look at the facts of the matter… Henrik shot 8-under par in the last round of a very tough golf course,” he said.
“It was a shootout right from the start. Great shot after great shot. Great putt after great putt. It was one for the ages… something special and we live for that.
“The Open Championship, sometimes you come right down to the wire where somebody may make a birdie in the last hole to win, but there are a lot of people that can vie for it.
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“This one, you knew from the start, it was a two-man race. It was a two-man tournament, which made it so unique. You don't have that, you rarely ever have that in championship golf.
“The aura of this championship won't wear off. It's there. It's always going to be there. People, when they talk about The Open, they will say, yeah, Stenson, Mickelson at Troon. They will always talk about that in the highest echelon of conversation about The Open Championship.
“Jack and I, we had a pretty good contest, but you look at the facts, they were 13-under and Jack and I were 9-under. If you had to rank it, you had to rank that above ours, that's for sure.”
Watson, who is this week taking part in the British Seniors Open at Carnoustie where he won his first major title in 1975, meanwhile offered his enthusiastic endorsement to Turnberry - the venue for his great win over Nicklaus - being used for future Opens in spite of coming under the ownership of his controversial compatriot Donald Trump.
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“The political thing is anybody's guess what might happen. I'm just saying the golf course is A1. I would be very disappointed if they don't go back to Trump Turnberry,” he said.
“I don't like to rank, but to me it's right at the top. It's not just good; it's excellent.”
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