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 Contender again? Victory at Colonial has given Watson confidence
Posted: Tuesday June 16, 1998 08:58 PM
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The yips are gone, at least for the time being. At age 48, Tom Watson surprised even himself by figuring out a way to win a golf tournament again. So Watson had reason to smile Tuesday when it was suggested that he has a chance to win the U.S. Open on a course where he came agonizingly close to winning his last major 11 years ago. "To possible winner from not a chance is a big upgrade for me," Watson said. Not a chance would have been the appropriate description before Watson managed to overcome his putting woes and resurrect his career over the past few years. He won only once since he last contended here before capping a streak of good play to win the Colonial last month. He returns to the Olympic Club this week as much a contender as he is a curiosity, eager to play his 27th U.S. Open on a course where a putt that fell a fraction of an inch short on the last hole gave Scott Simpson the win in 1987. Watson's putting nerves seem calm and the swing that helped him win eight majors is still intact. More importantly, he believes he can win again. That confidence was built at Colonial, where he shed tears after his first victory in two years and only his second since the 1987 Nabisco Championship. "I was honestly thinking maybe this was my last tournament I'll ever win on tour," Watson said. "It was great to be there again. That's one reason a tear or two came out." The win at Colonial was unexpected, but perhaps not so shocking after Watson started the 1998 season with two ties for second and a tie for first in the still-to-be-completed AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am. He missed the cut in the Masters after shooting 78 the first day and was in the middle of a string of mediocre finishes when he shot four straight rounds in the 60s to beat Jim Furyk by two shots in the Colonial. "I still believe that I can still swing the golf club and hit the ball straight," Watson said. Hitting the ball straight is the key at Olympic, where some of the most severe rough in U.S. Open history awaits those who stray from the tight, manicured fairways. Those who miss the fairways and greens will find themselves in wet deep grass that grabs clubheads and will force most players to simply try to get the ball somewhere back in play again. "It's clingy rough," Watson said. "You just don't know what it's going to do. When you hit a shot out of it around the green, 15 feet from the hole with just a simple shot is your average." The big test for Watson, though, figures to come on the greens, where he will have to demonstrate the yips are not there under major tournament pressure. He succeeded at Colonial by quickly hitting his short putts, but the greens of the Olympic may be another matter. Just watching Watson frozen over a 2-footer during his period of yips was excruciating enough. Just imagine what it was like for Watson, who prides himself on keeping his composure on a golf course. Simpson, who birdied three holes on the back nine during the 1987 Open to overcome Watson's lead and beat him by a stroke, recalled a time a few years later when he and Watson were paired together in a PGA Tour event. By then, Watson had the yips bad, and his frustration and anger boiled over as he walked off a green after three-putting yet another hole. Still, always wanting to seem under control, he waited until he reached the woods and was out of the gallery's view before taking his golf ball and flinging it through the trees. "I had never seen Watson do anything like that before," Simpson said. "Now it seems like he's conquered it. He's putting the ball well and hitting it great." Does that mean he should be considered a contender to become the oldest U.S. Open champion ever? "Who's to say Watson couldn't win?" Simpson said. Who indeed.
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