Future of the game's elementary for Watson

HE WAS, as a glittering quintet of Open Championship victories between 1975 and '83 more than amply demonstrates, the premier links golfer of his generation. Armed with a game perfectly suited to the vagaries of golf by the seaside, Tom Watson dominated the world's oldest and most important event to the extent that he remains the only man in almost 150 years to have claimed the Claret Jug on five different courses. Beat that Tiger. Sadly, however, that was then and this is now, in more ways than one. Now 58 and saddled with a bad hip that will eventually require surgery, Watson doesn't hit the ball with as much speed as he used to, nor can he escape from rough in the way he c ould in his pomp. But the natural effects of the ageing process aren't the only things that have diminished the golfing experience for one of the game's... [read full story]