interview Open passion, Open pressure .
Watson is an expert. He has won eight majors in a professional career that has spanned almost 40 years. At 61, too, he has the bedside manner of the veteran but also has the experience of those who have been buffeted by pressure. “Everybody chokes,” he said yesterday. “It is just a matter of degree. Pressure will get to you, but not in every tournament. Some tournaments you deal with it better than others. But everybody is affected by it.”
This is the central theme in a conversation that encompasses Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods and, of course, the Himalayas. The last, of course, are not those mounds in Asia but the authentic hills beside the Old Course at St Andrews where an 18-hole putting layout attracts seekers after the ultimate, if unusual, golfing experience.
Watson talks with unrestrained affection of the day he paid his pound, took on the course and ended up playing with a partner who could not quite believe she was treading on sacred turf in the company of a legend.
It was the day of a championship for lady members of the putting course and the American had remained to present the trophy. This act is unnecessary testimony to his innate decency, but it also speaks to his love of the game.
It is a passion that has come at a cost. Watson knows about pressure. He talks fluently about how it affected him, how it has strengthened McIlroy and how it and physical vulnerability may hamper the return of Woods.
Of the Northern Irishman, he said: “The speed with which he plays reminds me of me. Keep it simple: yardage, club, hole, hit it.” McIlroy, too, shared with Watson a history of a spectacular “choke”. Watson laboured under the burden of being seen to come up short in his early career. McIlroy endured a meltdown at the Masters so complete it was a mercy for the psychological well-being of young fans that it occurred after the watershed.
Watson spoke to the 22-year-old about both that trial and the subsequent triumph at the US Open. “He learned a lot more by losing one than he did by winning one,” he said of the major experience of his young friend. “The one thing about playing under pressure, you do not know what it is until you are in it. It is like being thrown off the boat and you do not know what the water is like. Certain make-ups deal with it better than others. I had a hard time dealing with it when I first came on the tour. I was not a winner. Fortunately I was good enough to put myself in a position to win and learn how to get into that pressure situation and learn more about myself and how to deal with it. I dealt with it in different ways. I breathed a little bit more deeply, walked a little more slowly.”
Watson consequently strolled into golf’s hall of fame. But will McIlroy follow him?
“He is just a kid. He has won a major but whether he is going to be the next great player -- and people always ask you that and speculate -- we will check his career 10 years down the line.”
Of Woods, the genuine great compromised by a dodgy knee, he said: “He has had two gut shots: one his personal life, the second his knee. I do not know much about knees. But the knee takes a lot of stress. Whether he has to have a total knee replacement, who knows? That may be a very difficult thing to come back from, if he has to do that. I am sure he is thinking he does not want to do that under any circumstances. The most important thing is for him to get well and get his knee to a state where it can handle the forces he puts upon it. The concern is whether the knee is going to stop him dominating. The game has never been dominated by a guy, ever, like he has …whether he will get back to that point, who knows?”
Watson, who does have an artificial hip, is much more certain on how he rates players. In a discussion on world rankings, he said: “I have a keep-it-simple method. Whoever wins the tournament is a lot more important than who finishes second. You should put more weight on major championships. You should give a lot of credit to people who win. That is the most important thing out there.”
It is no surprise, then, that he chooses Luke Donald, who has won three tournaments this season, as the most likely winner at Royal St George’s.
“Luke is playing great. You have to go with the horses that are running well,” said Watson, who is aware that links courses are “equalisers” and can thus throw up a surprise winner in the shape of Ben Curtis, Todd Hamilton or Louis Oosthuizen.
Turnberry in 2009 almost produced the greatest sensation in the history of golf. A 59-year-old was one putt away from the Open Championship. “That round was as serene a round of golf as I have ever played,” he said of his efforts on the Saturday. “The pressure was almost minimal,” he said, before adding: “I felt it on the Sunday.”
Watson missed a putt to win and lost in a play-off to Stewart Cink. He remembers the tournament with great affection, recalling how his experience helped him deal with both the weather and the pressure.
“That performance was the perfect storm,” he said with the air of a man who has witnessed everything that golf can produce, from Turnberry to the Himalayas.
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