Nice Guys Finish Second

By Wyatt Earp | July 20, 2009

Damn.

I spent my weekend off alternating between the Tour de France and the British Open. Both have terrific stories, but the Open – with 59-year old Tom Watson leading most of the tourney – won out in the end. Watson played brilliantly for 71 holes, then missed an 8-foot put to win the championship on the 18th green. That forced a playoff between Watson and Stewart Cink, with Cink being the eventual winner.

It was a terrible ending to a great tournament. Cink is a great, popular player, but no one in the stands or watching on television wanted him to win today. Today, we wanted Tom.

The spirits are with me, Tom Watson told us, over and over again. He didn’t say with the mania of a zealot, or the hollow tone of a man throwing verbal Hail Marys. His eyes were clear. His gap-toothed grin would give way to a tight-lipped smile of confidence and confident nod when he said it. The Tom Watson smile. Of course we believed.

How can it be that the spirits told Tom Watson: No, no. Not in the end. In the end it will be Stewart Cink. Your approach on the 72nd hole will ride our wind too far. Your third will be nervy and run past the hole. And your par try will be everything you weren’t all week – it will lack conviction, and belief. It will have none of the magic dust we’ve sprinkled on you most of your life, since “The Duel in the Sun” with Jack in 1977, and for 71 and one-half holes in the year 2009.

A simple par – Old Man Par – would have gifted the world with perhaps its most improbable sports story ever. The search for perspective is almost impossible. (H/T – Yahoo!)

Again, a damned shame. Watson is one of the true good guys in sports, and nothing would have made me happier than seeing him make that putt on 18 this afternoon.

Good show, Mr. Watson. Good show.

Topics: Golf | 6 Comments »