On the Wednesday afternoon before the U.S. Senior Open began at Notre Dame University’s Warren Golf Course in late June, Tom Watson stood on the practice tee grinding away, at times hitting shots from divots with a hybrid.
The 69-year-old Watson was searching for something and found it, shooting his age or better in three of the four rounds while finishing T17. Watson was asked afterward if the 2020 U.S. Senior Open would be on his schedule.
He paused and said he wasn’t sure.
“I don’t know when I’m going to stop playing,” Watson said back in June.
He has a better idea now.
Watson’s announcement last weekend that the Senior Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St. Annes was his final start in an Open Championship put an end to his days as one of the game’s greatest links players. Like Seve Ballesteros, Peter Thomson and a handful of others, Watson had a gift for playing along the sea and it rewarded him with eight Open titles – five in the big Open and three Senior Opens.
As he aged, Watson maintained a majesty whe...
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