|
 |   |
EVENTS
CENTERS
CNNSI.com GROUP
|  |
We got game Older players fare well for championship
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Jack Nicklaus wasn't there to witness it, but a couple of famous 50-year-olds did the Senior PGA Tour proud Sunday at the PGA Championship. Tom Watson and Tom Kite turned back the clock with inspiring performances that left many feeling as if the flat-bellies weren't only ones who could tame Valhalla Golf Club. There was Watson's sliding downhill 20-footer for birdie on No. 9 to get to 9-under for the tournament. Then we saw Kite blast a one-hopper out of a cavernous bunker on No. 6 to birdie to get to 7-under. Those and many others were performed to the accompaniment of encouraging shouts to the veteran twosome. "Show these kids!" "Get one for our set!" Even the hackneyed cheer from another generation "You 'da man!" Watson and Kite, who spend their golf time on the Senior Tour these days, still have enough game to play with kids 20 and even 25 years younger and they showed it Sunday. They started at 5-under; Watson on the strength of a sterling 65 Saturday that tied the course record of the moment. Only an opening day 76 kept Watson from a real shot at the one major title that eludes him. Kite put together three solid under-par rounds. At one point, they were on the first page of the leaderboard, tied for ninth at 9-under. "I'm there. I'm close enough to make a run," Watson remembered thinking. "I was thinking hard about it." Alas, the back nine did not keep up. Six legitimate birdie putts lipped for Watson. Kite had three bogeys. They are nearly golf icons. "A hundred years between us," said Watson. Watson's trophy case misses only the PGA from the majors section to go along with his five British Open titles, two Masters and a U.S. Open. When he saw the leaders backing up for a time, Watson dreamed. "I could see that Wanamaker Trophy," Watson said. Kite won his major with a U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and was once the all-time leading money-winner on the PGA Tour. Kite was captain of the 1997 Ryder Cup team; Watson was captain in 1993. They seemed to feed off each other and the encouraging galleries along the fairways at Valhalla Golf Club. Both birdied the par-5 second hole to start their runs. Watson, his putting troubles seemingly a thing of the past, rolled in more bombs Sunday, just like he did on Saturday. There was a 20-footer on No. 4, a 6-footer to test older nerves on No. 8 and even a horseshoe on No. 13 that went in, came out and back at him, leaving a tap-in for par. Kite scrambled, mixing clean irons with occasionally wayward ones. A soft flop from way below the green on No. 12 saved a par. "It was fun playing well," Kite said. "We knew if we played as well on the back side as we did on the front, we had a chance." The other seniors in the 82nd PGA did not fare so well. Nicklaus, 60, on his valedictory tour of major tournaments, nearly holed an eagle wedge on his 36th hole that would have made the cut. But a wrenching week, that included the death of his mother, sent Nicklaus home early. Lanny Wadkins, another former PGA champ, also left before the weekend. Ed Sabo, 51, got in as a club pro, but also played in four senior tour events this year with a 15th place finish in the U.S. Senior Open. He did not stay around for the weekend at the PGA, missing the cut by three strokes. Bobby Nichols, a 64-year-old regular on the Senior Tour and winner of the 1964 PGA Championship, withdrew before play began because of ailing hips. Kite and Watson were special invitees to the tournament, neither earning his way in. But Watson's finish earned his way back to the 83rd PGA where he will give it yet another shot at filling that space in the trophy case. "It says at 50 years old, I can still play with the kids," Watson said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
