Final Fore

LAST WEEK Tom Watson played what he expects to be his final competitive round at Pebble Beach, the same course on which he made one of the most famous shots in golf history. The eight-time major winner teed it up in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am with his 24-year-old son, Michael, a six handicapper who looks like his mother, hits the ball like another Watson--Bubba--and uses the type of long putter that his father campaigned against for years. Watson senior, 57, went out on a high note, seldom missing a shot, and the father-son team finished second in the amateur portion of the event, four shots behind the winners, Phil Mickelson and Harry You.

Tom Watson's father, Ray, won the amateur portion of the event, then known as the Bing Crosby Pro-Am, in 1941 playing with Leonard Dodson, meaning that Michael is the third generation of Watson to play in the tournament. Of the three, none will be associated with Pebble like Tom (right), who twice won the Crosby and who won the '82 U.S. Open at Pebble when he held off Jack Nicklaus by chipping in from an impossible lie just off the 17th green. Playing through the wind in a cashmere sweater last week, Tom Watson brought to mind visions of his younger self, a sight we won't see again--except in highlight reels.

? DO THE FOLKS at the USGA not really consider the PGA Championship a major? Last week the USGA announced that the 2010 U.S. Senior Open would be played at Sahalee, near Seattle. The USGA release noted that the '98 PGA took place at Sahalee, making it "the first of golf's 'majors' to be played in the Northwest since 1944." Putting the word majors in quotes almost begs for so-called to precede it. Yet in other USGA releases referring to its own events or to players who've won them, it uses major without quotes. What gives? It was probably just an oversight. Or an "oversight."

? IN A TWIST of irony, the Western Open, which was renamed the BMW Championship and made part of the new playoff system, may be returning to the West. Harding Park, the public course in San Francisco, will reportedly host the 2009 Presidents Cup and the '10 and '11 Charles Schwab Cups, and could get the BMW in the next 15 years.... Mickelson is paying the college tuition for Holli Dobler, daughter of former NFL lineman Conrad Dobler, who has fallen on hard times after he endured a series of medical problems and his wife suffered an injury that left her paralyzed. Mickelson has never met Dobler but heard about his struggles and offered to help. At least last week, the nice guy finished first.... Scott Draper, the former tennis pro who was once ranked 42nd in the world but gave up the game to pursue a pro golf career, won the New South Wales PGA Championship by shooting 20-under 268.

? WOODS BABY NAME OF THE WEEK Danny Gans.

? For Gary Van Sickle's Inside Golf column, go to SI.com/golf.