Lessons learned: Under-the-weather Tom Watson looking for finishing touch at Senior Open

Watson ill, misses practice round at Senior Open

CARMEL, Ind. — Tom Watson learned two lessons during his latest trip to Britain: Finish strong and don’t eat Chinese food.

If he follows both rules this week, the 59-year-old British Open runner-up might leave Crooked Stick Golf Course with his first U.S. Senior Open title.

“This is the one I want the most,” Watson said. “I’ve been pretty close a couple of times. A couple of times, I’ve been right there and I sure would like to have this one.”

Who could question the revitalized Watson after his last two tournaments?

He came within an 8-foot putt of winning his sixth British Open at Turnberry two weeks ago, an inspirational performance that still has Watson’s colleagues offering congratulations.

Last week, at the Senior British Open, Watson rallied with a final round 67 to tie for eighth.

Now, after two weeks overseas, Watson has returned to his home country to play in a third straight major. Yes, the British performances jump-started Watson’s game, but the food clearly did not. Watson skipped his first practice round Tuesday because he was ill.

“They have a saying over there that you don’t eat Chinese food in the U.K., and it didn’t quite agree with me,” he said. “I’m kind of down in the dumps right now. My body is.”

Watson hopes to make it onto the par-72, 7,316-yard course, the longest in Senior Open history, on Wednesday though the delay has already put him at a disadvantage.

He arrived in Indianapolis on Monday, hoping to complete at least two practice rounds on a course that has hosted the PGA Championship, the U.S. Women’s Open and the Solheim Cup in previous years. Watson played it in 1991 when John Daly won the PGA title but doesn’t remember much about the course.

Plus, he’s contending with jet lag and a sickness that have caused other complications.

“It wouldn’t be so difficult if the USGA and R&A got together and maybe had a week in between,” Watson joked. “With the travel schedule, that puts a burden on your body. For instance, I go over to the British Open and I go five days in advance of the first round. That’s a minimum amount of time that I like to spend get my body used to the time change. I’ve been over there two weeks, and now I’ve got late afternoon times here.”

Still, Watson has been the headline attraction among a star-studded cast at Crooked Stick. Included in the 156-player field are three-time U.S. Open champ Hale Irwin, two-time Masters winners Ben Crenshaw and Bernhard Langer, two-time British Open winner Greg Norman and two-time PGA champ Dave Stockton.

But Watson is the fan favorite.

At Turnberry, he blew a chance to become the oldest major winner in golf history. After missing the putt, he wound up losing to Stewart Cink in a four-hole playoff.

His senior tour colleagues were more impressed by Watson’s overall performance and greeted him with congratulatory remarks that Watson called “pretty cool.”

“It’s a shame that Tom will probably be remembered for that last putt on the 18th hole, but think of all the putts he made before he got to the 18th hole and the shots he played,” said former Masters champ Fuzzy Zoeller, who lives 120 miles away from this week’s course. “A man that is 59 years old and still has nerves of steel except for a little shake at that last hole? How many people would love to have been in his shoes?”

What many want to see is how Watson responds.

He said he hit the ball better at the Senior British Open than he did at the British Open and is playing as well as he has in more than a decade.

More important, Watson may have found an answer to his putting problems Sunday. The change led to six birdies on the final 12 holes and seven in the final round, giving Watson perhaps a better finishing punch than he had in Britain.

“Right now, I’m playing well, so mentally I feel like I can do it,” he said. “Last week was a good week from a ball-striking standpoint, but I didn’t get the putter working very well. I made an adjustment on the last day, and I’m looking forward to putting that adjustment into play this week.”