ESPN.550 com
Plenty of 59-year-old men play the challenging game golf. But never has a person that age won a major pro title.
Julius Boros won the 1968 PGA title at the age of 48, becoming golf's oldest major champion.
Since then, there was Jack Nicklaus' win as a 46-year-old at the 1986 Masters, and Hale Irwin's 1990 U.S. Open championship just past his 45th birthday. Greg Norman was 53 last year when he led the British Open through three rounds before finishing tied for third.
Through 71 holes of this year's British Open, it appeared as if Tom Watson had turned back the clock. But then, reality struck, as Father Time and Stewart Cink caught up with Watson as the shadows lengthened late Sunday afternoon at venerable Turnberry.
A bogey by Watson and a birdie by Cink on a 12-foot putt on the final hole of regulation forced a four-hole playoff. Then, the wheels fell off on the Oldie But Goodie Express, and Cink capitalized to win the playoff by six strokes for his first major title.
Still, Watson provided us with a great story. He led by one stroke after the first round and was tied for the lead after two – although the focus at that point was on the failure of Tiger Woods to make the cut in a major for only the second time in his pro career.
Watson again regained the lead going into the final round and stubbornly held on before running out of steam after coming this close to doing what no golfer his age had ever done before.
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