position in ‘03, and that was my biggest
chance to win a major championship.
“I got close in ‘05 at Baltusrol, but
that was my biggest chance. I’ve always
promised myself I’ll keep going and
keep going. People can do whatever
they want, write you off, and they can
do whatever they think is the right thing
of looking at you, but when you live in a
career that’s there ahead of you, you try
and make the best of every single day.
And that’s what I’ve done.
Watson keeps making memorable
moments at the Open Championship.
This year’s model was a hole-in-one
on the 160-yard, par- 3 sixth hole during
Friday’s second round, Watson’s 15th
career ace and his second in a major
championship. He first came at Baltus-
rol in the 1980 U.S. Open.
Watson didn’t see his ace go in the
hole and wasn’t afraid to admit he hit a
4-iron from 160 to get through the wind.
“It was a slam dunk,” Watson said.
“If it missed the flag, it would have been
30 feet by. But I was lucky. They’re all
lucky when they go in. But that’s what I
was aiming at.”
Watson made the cut with a shot to
spare at 2-over 142.
Rickie Fowler
clawed his way up the
leaderboard to a tie for third after three
rounds with a 2-under 68 in Saturday’s
third round, which was one of only
three under-par rounds in the entire
field on a difficult day. While watching
with admiration the way his friend
Rory
McIlroy
won the U.S. Open, Fowler
also felt a pang of envy that he wasn’t
the young star who won his first major
championship at Congressional.
SANDWICH, ENGLAND |
Two weeks
after creating a firestorm with his
comments at the French Open,
Bubba
Watson
was trying to move past the
controversy, saying he intends to
return to the tournament next year.
Bubba
Watson
“It’s a learning experience,” Watson
said prior to the Open Championship at
Royal St. George’s. “Even if it was just
bad golf and the media didn’t go wild
with what I said, it was a learning
experience about the bad golf and what
to improve on. With the media stuff, it
helped me, hopefully, grow as a per-
son. It’s behind me and, hopefully, I’ll
learn from it and, hopefully, I don’t have
any more mistakes like that.”
Watson blamed his poor play in
France on the behavior of spectators
and a lack of player security on the
course, complaining about the use
of cell phones and cameras on the
course. Asked if he thought there had
been too much attention drawn to his
comments, Watson said yes.
“I’m afraid of heights. I’m afraid
of the dark and I’m afraid of big
crowds,” Watson said.
Ron Green Jr.
had reminders of him at almost every
turn, from silhouettes around the 18th
green to signage at the various en-
trances to the course.
“I miss Seve more than Tiger at Royal
St. George’s,” said 80-year-old
Peter
Alliss
, the voice of golf on the BBC for
more than half a century. “I feel privi-
leged to have seen Tiger achieve some
wondrous things but he has an ominous
presence with his security people lurking
in the background. Whereas the world
was a better place when Seve smiled.”
Jim Nantz
has broadcast more than
two dozen Masters, almost as many
Final Fours and multiple Super Bowls.
But he always wanted to work the Open
Championship.
Now he does. What began as a cam-
eo appearance on the BBC broadcast A
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