Elementary my dear sexagenarian

At around 6 pm on Sunday July, 20 last, Stewart Cink unwittingly became the most unpopular sportsman on the planet.His outstanding 72nd hole putt in Turnberry got him into a tie with Tom Watson who was set to bogey the same hole and miss the chance to achieve what may well have ranked as the single greatest sporting achievement of all time, by winning a record-equalling sixth Open Championship at the age of 59. A little over six weeks after the ultimate near-miss in sport, the legendary American golfer becomes a sexagenarian on Friday.Tom Watson was born on September 4th 1949 in Kansas City, Missouri and introduced to the game by his father Ray. His early coach was Stan Thirsk at the Kansas City Country Club. Watson joined the PGA Tour in 1971 after a very good amateur career and gradually improved. He seriously contended in a Major for the first time in the 1974 US Open at the Winged Foot Golf Club, but he faded badly in the final round after leading the first three. Following this disappointment, Watson was approached by legendary player Byron Nelson, who offered assistance. With Nelson's guidance on swing mechanics and course management, Watson's game advanced so quickly that he was the Open champion the following year in Carnoustie, when he defeated Jack Newton in a play-off. "Carnoustie is like an ugly olg hag who speaks the truth no matter how painful, but it's only when you add up your score that you hear exactly what she thinks of you," was the new champion's verdict, in those innocent days when 'ugly old hag' didn't offend the politically correct brigade. His mantra that "I learned how to win by losing and not liking it", was already standing to him.His next open win, the 'duel-in-the-sun' 1977 Open Championship victory at Turnberry was especially memorable. It is considered by many to be the finest tournament played in the last half of the 20th century. After two rounds, Watson and Jack Nicklaus were one shot out of the lead and paired for the third round. Both shot 65, ending the third round three shots clear of the field. Watson and Nicklaus were again paired for the final round. On the last day, the two were tied after 16 holes. Nicklaus missed a makeable birdie putt on 17, losing his share of the lead to Watson, who birdied 17. On the 18th, Nicklaus drove into the rough, while Watson drove the fairway. Watson's approach landed three feet from the flag, while Nicklaus, after a drive into deep rough and near a gorse plant, managed to get his approach 50 feet away. Nicklaus sank his birdie putt to finish with a 66, but Watson followed suit with his own birdie, finishing with a second straight 65 and his second Major, with a record score of 268 (12 under par). The two players finished miles ahead of the other challengers - Hubert Green in third place was ten strokes behind Nicklaus.His third Open win came at Muirfield in 1980. "You can't love golf any more than you do when you come down the 18th fairway of Muirfield a champion," he stated abour his four-shot win ahead of Lee Trevino. He loved the course and his remark that "Muirfield without a wind is like a lady undressed - no challenge", would again be a risky comment nowadays. A rare feat of back-to-back Opens arrived early in the same decade with narrow wins at Royal Troon in 1982 (the Claret Jug gleefully accepted after the tournament was blown by many, including our own Des Smyth) and the following year at Royal Birkdale. However, Watson's stellar play on the PGA Tour faded in the late 1980s when he began to have problems putting even though his tee-to-green game seemed to improve. In 1994 when the Open Championship returned to Turnberry, the site of his 1977 victory, Watson commented: "Sometimes you lose your desire through the years. Any golfer goes through that. When you play golf for a living, like anything in your life, you are never going to be constantly at the top". He finished tied for 11th at the Open Championship that year.However, who could possibly have predicted that the same Turnberry this summer would so, so nearly see an astonishing sixth win. Watson needed a par on the 72nd hole to capture a sixth career Open Championship title, but his second shot on the 72nd hole went over the green. Then, from several yards behind the 18th green, he first putted up the slope and past the hole, then nervously missed a second eight-foot putt by about six inches to the right of the cup. His bogey led to a four-hole playoff with Cink, running through the 5th, 6th, 17th, and 18th holes. With several errant shots not typical of the previous 72 holes, he lost the play-off by six strokes. "This ain't a funeral," he said despite the near-funereal atmosphere in the post-competition press room. "A lot of guys who have never choked have never been in the position to do so," he once said and never had this statement more relevance than this year's never-to-be-forgotten events of July 20th. Only a Cink could fail to feel his heart sink at the time!Throw in two Masters titles and one US Open title to the five British Opens and it makes for a hugely impressive CV for this week's birthday boy. He also became involved with golf course design in the early 1990s and he is the author or co-author of several books. He was ranked as the tenth greatest golfer of all time in the 2000 Golf Digest magazine list.Another Watson classic would probably please the politically correct when he suggested that he ironed his own clothes. "My golf swing is like ironing a shirt. You get one side smoothed out, turn it over and there is a big wrinkle on the other side. You iron that side, turn it over and there's another wrinkle." Let's hope that there are not too many facial wrinkles on the new sexagenarian at his birthday bash. The only tragedy is that the Claret Jug that housed the Harrington clan's ladybirds in 2007 and 2008 is not propped up on top of a giant 60th birthday cake in Kansas this Friday.