On the Open result

Tom Watson’s collapse in the playoff was inevitable. His 3 putt on 18 signalled a tiredness which many younger players would have felt after his heroics. But was there ever a worse story than Cink wins the Open? The man is greyer than John Major. Doubtless the American press will dredge up a story in which the 15 year old Cink tells his dying grandpappy, the man who put his first club in his hands, that one day he will win a major just for him, but at the end of the day, Watson would have been a fairytale. Cink is a drain.

But to Tom Watson, all you can say is good on you (and back Arnold Palmer or Walter Hagan for a top 5 next year)

It was an Open of surprises. The early departure of Woods and the way in which John Daly completely outdid Poulter on the trousers front. Number One Sports fan loves Daly. He has grit, true grit, and his swing is still a thing of beauty.

Woods is another matter. After two days of surly faces, angry swishes of the club and a general lack of graciousness, it was no loss to lose him. Contrast, if you will, the demeanour, and indeed the swing, of Woods and Watson. Who would you rather see? A gentleman and a player to the life. Had it been Woods who had battled Watson all the way to the line, could you see them walking off arm in arm? More likely Woods would have sent his minder, the brutish Steve Williams, to ask Watson to stand back lest he get in any camera shot.

Yes, winning is important, never more so than in a major championship, but Woods must learn to mask his disappointment. He could take lessons from Jean Van De Velde, who famously said “Nobody died” after losing his way in the Barry Burn.

The greatest moment for me in golf, and possibly in sport, was the sight of a 46 year old Jack Nicklaus walking up the 18th at Augusta in 1986. The adulation of the crowds was intense. They loved Jack, and he loved them. The normally verbose American commentators, displaying a hitherto unsuspected perception, said only one thing. “There are times in sport when a commentator should shut up, and this is one of them.”

Had Watson won this week, tht might have been another. But not so if Woods had been the victor.