A Day in the Sun: The Open 30 Years Ago

The third round would belong to Watson and Nicklaus. Paired together, both played brilliant golf, matching each other birdie for birdie, posting matching 65s, and pulling away from the field by three strokes clear of second place, held by Ben Crenshaw, who shot a 66 in Round 3. Everyone anticipated that the pair would pick up right where they left off in April, and did they ever deliver!
 
However, the round did not start as anticipated and beguiled the drama that was to follow. Nicklaus birdied the second hole while Watson posted a bogey. He would then birdie the fourth hole. So, by the end of the fourth hole, Nicklaus had pulled ahead by three shots, an often insurmountable lead in the final round of a major by any of his pursuers. Remember, Nicklaus is remembered not only for his supreme skills, but also as one of the most intimidating golfers of all time. Seldom was Nicklaus the first to blink. Not only was he capable of heroics, but he possessed a supreme intellect, the ability to wait until his opponent erred, then exploiting the mistake. What’s more, many doubters began to give each other wayward glances, as if to affirm that here was Watson being the Watson of their accusations; another major opportunity spurned. But, major championships are not won by what other people think of you; they are won by what you have inside, and Watson was ready to prove, again, just how determined and convinced he was of his own mettle.
 
Watson would secure birdies at the fifth and seventh holes to cut Nicklaus’ margin to one stroke. He would tie him with another birdie at the eighth hole and then Watson would bogey the ninth to once again fall one behind. On the 10th hole, Watson would leave his approach shot short of the putting surface and his drive on the 11th hole would find a bunker. On both occasions, however, he would save par. Like a snake waiting to strike, Nicklaus would tighten the noose with a 25-foot birdie on the 12th hole to go back up by two strokes. Watson would bounce off the ropes with a birdie at the 13th hole to slice the margin to one, and the two would post identical pars on the 14th, after Watson missed a 6-foot putt for birdie. On the 15th hole, Watson would make a birdie, putting from 60 feet off the green and slamming his ball into the flagstick, bringing the ‘metal-match play’ to all square.
 
The 16th hole also had its share of the dramatic. Watson’s drive cleared a stream that cuts across the fairway, but settled on the hill above it, in front of the green. For a few agonizing seconds the fate of this Championship lay in the roll of the ball from this precarious perch. If the ball were to roll even a dimple’s worth back down the slope, his ball would have tumbled to the bottom of the stream bed. It held and both men would post par. The 17th hole is a relatively short par-5, just under 490 yards, played from an elevated tee to an elevated green. Both men hit perfect drives that split the fairway. However, Nicklaus caught his ball heavy and left his second shot well short of the green. Watson placed his second shot on the green in two, some 15 feet away for eagle. Nicklaus’ would negotiate his chip 4 feet from the hole. However, his birdie putt slid tortuously past the left side and he would settle for par when he knew he needed more. Watson would take the lead for the first time with a two-putt birdie.
 
The match moved to the final tee. Watson would later admit that prior to the hole playing out he informed his caddy that he would not be playing it safe, as he expected Nicklaus to make a birdie on the hole (it was logical for him to feel that way as Nicklaus seemed to have a habit of making birdie on the final hole, particularly when it mattered. As if being a preview of things to come, Nicklaus birdied the 18th hole in the first round after sinking a long, 25-foot winder).
 
Watson’s 1-iron was played safely down the fairway, leaving a 7-iron to the green from there. Crushing into his drive with his trademark power and fade flight path, Nicklaus’ ball settled into the heather aside the fairway. Upon reaching his ball, he discovered that it had actually rolled under some gorse as well. Up first, Watson would hit one of the finest irons of his entire career, a perfectly struck 7-iron that would see the ball finish only 3 feet from the cup.
 
“I hit it dead flush. It was one of the best shots I ever hit. It’s something I will never forget,” he would later recount.
 
Down one stroke, under gorse and heather and facing incredible pressure, in typical Nicklaus-esqe fashion, Nicklaus somehow found a way, tearing at the ball with his 8-iron and hitting a fabulous golf shot that finished some 40 feet from the cup.
 
In a vision near trademark at the Open, the gallery closed in around the competitors, consumed with frenzy, clearly grasping that they were witnessing history in their midst. Perhaps the greatest pressure putter the game has ever known, Nicklaus proceeded to snake his 40-foot birdie putt over knolls and swales, breaks and valleys, and remarkably, into the hole for birdie. The pressure now shifted squarely on the shoulders of Watson as his 3-foot putt must have seemed much longer at this juncture. If his tenacity at the Masters and through 71 holes of this Open were not enough, finally he had the chance to assert his status as a member of the club which included the greatest golfers the game has ever known. Watson’s putt split the hole, securing his birdie, his triumph, and a bold new reputation.
 
Watson would finish with a final round 65, to Nicklaus’ 66. The pair finished eleven strokes ahead of third-place finisher, Hubert Green. Watson now owed his second Open title, his third major, and with an aggregate score of 268, he beat the previous Open record, set by Arnold Palmer in 1962 at Royal Troon, by eight strokes.
 
Perhaps as lasting an image from the Open as the spectacular play was when the gracious Nicklaus put his arm around the 10-years-younger Watson as they walked off the green. “You’ve seen my best and you have beaten it,” Nicklaus would summarize.
 
And one of the greatest rivalries in the history of the game was in full bloom.
 
Copyright 2007 Matthew E. Adams Fairways of Life
 
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Editor's Note: Matt Adams is a golf journalist, best-selling author (Chicken Soup for the Soul, Fairways of Life) and a golf course general manager. To view Matt's books or sign up for his "Golf Wisdom Newsletter,"go to www.FairwaysofLife.com.