May 15, 2010
That stunning performance led to a
revised British Open age limits that exempts him for at least five
more years at the world’s oldest major championship. Watson has won
it five times among his eight PGA Tour majors in a career further
notable
for memorable victories over Jack
Nicklaus, golf’s best ever, on the biggest stages.
Watson won 39 times on the PGA tour with an aggressive, fast-paced
style. Six times he was PGA Player of the Year, five times the
leading money winner. Playing mostly on the over-50 Champions Tour
now, he has won 13 more times there including five senior
majors.
Watson was born in 1949 in Kansas City, Missouri, and has stayed,
true to the Midwest’s solid values. He lives today on a farm
outside Kansas City, and can be found doing chores and riding his
wife’s cutting horses when he’s not on tour (he admits to falling
off a horse only twice).
His father Ray, a long time scratch player, introduced him to golf
at age 6. A young Tom soon developed into a state amateur champion
at age 17, and went on to play for Stanford University, earning a
degree in psychology in 1971. He joined the PGA Tour that same year
and won his first tournament, the Western Open, in 1974. After
losing leads in both the 1974 and 1975 U.S. Opens, Watson had the
reputation of a choker, which was broken following his
break-through year in 1977, where he won both the Masters and the
British Open.
At the 1977 British Open, often referred to as the “Duel in the
Sun” at Turnberry, Tom played the final two rounds in 65-65 to
Jack’s 65-66, finishing with a clinching birdie. It’s been called
the Tournament of the Century. In Watson’s 1982 U.S. Open win at
Pebble Beach, he holed a touchy chip shot from the greenside rough
to birdie the 71st hole—arguably one of the greatest pressure shots
ever—and then birdied the 18th to top Nicklaus.
After competing as part of the U.S. Team in the 1977, 1981, 1983
and 1989 Ryder Cups, Watson captained the 1993 U.S. Ryder Cup team
through a closely contested tournament, pulling out the victory
from behind in Sunday’s singles match.
Throughout his career, Watson has been a respected sportsman and
spokesman for the sport. He received the U.S. Golf Association’s
prestigious Bob Jones Award for distinguished sportsmanship in 1987
and was elected to the PGA World Golf Hall of Fame the following
year. In addition, Watson won Golfer of the Decade for the 1980’s,
celebrating his 19 wins and 86 top-10 finishes over the decade.
For 25 years Watson hosted the Children’s Mercy Golf Tournament, a
benefit golf event featuring famous participants like Nicklaus,
Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino in his hometown of Kansas City, with
proceeds going to a local children’s hospital. Over the 25 years,
the tournament donated over $12 million to the hospital.
In addition to Watson’s fundraising and volunteerism for the
children’s hospital, he has also been tremendously influential in
Clubs for Kids, which began in the 1980’s and was the precursor for
The First Tee of Kansas City, for which Watson is the Chairman of
the Advisory Board.
When Watson’s long-time caddie, Bruce Edwards was diagnosed with
ALS in 2003, Watson began searching for funding for a cure for the
debilitating disease. Following Edwards’ death in 2004, Watson
helped start the Bruce Edwards Foundation for ALS Research and the
subsequent year he began the Bruce Edwards Celebrity Classic with
renowned author, John Feinstein, raising nearly $3 million over the
first five years of the tournament.
Over the past several years, Watson has become increasingly
involved in helping support our troops by participating in trips to
Iraq in both 2007 and 2009, where he celebrated Thanksgiving with
the troops, gave golf lessons and delivered donated golf equipment,
just "delivering a little bit of home" to the troops during their
tours. He has also visited and raised funds for our Wounded
Warriors to whom he says we owe as much help as possible.
Watson succeeded Snead as the second golf professional emeritus at
the renowned Greenbrier resort, located in the Allegheny Mountains
of West Virginia, which has been a favorite destination of his for
over 30 years. He first fell in love with the place during the 1979
Ryder Cup which was the same week as his first child, Meg, entered
into this world.
Watson has a strong work and practice ethic and has admitted to
hitting a “million practice balls” in order to continue honing his
game. He’s considered one of the best foul weather players in the
game, giving credit to his growing up in Kansas City, playing and
practicing in the winter ice and snow.
Especially following his 2008 hip replacement and 2009 performance
at the British Open at age 59 ½, Watson is considered a hero to
Baby Boomers who want to stay active in “the game of a lifetime.”
Top teachers and players believe he’s swinging the club better
today than he was in his prime.
Watson carries solid credentials as a communicator. He does
well-received clinics for charities, such as the First Tee, as well
as his corporate sponsors, with a helpful demonstration of golf
technique usually followed by revealing question-answer sessions
and entertaining imitations of peers. He has done television
commentary for ESPN and ABC.
Watson’s monthly article in Golf Digest is the No. 1 golf
magazine’s most popular instructional feature. He has always
enjoyed helping pros and amateurs alike with straightforward,
tough-love lessons, concentrating on the basic fundamentals of
grip, body posture, and ball position, without which, he tells his
pupils, they can't be taught.
Through Tom Watson Design, Watson has produced over a dozen courses
in the U.S. and abroad with a lot of hands on supervision. He keeps
both the less-skilled players and varying wind conditions in mind
as he works with the existing landscape to build beautiful, high
quality courses. Watson’s first U.S. solo-designed project,
Cassique (Kiawah Island, South Carolina) was named in the top 10
list of America’s Best New Private Courses by Golf Digest in
2001.
Watson’s first instructional DVD, Lessons of a Lifetime, is being
introduced in 2010, and will be followed by his fourth instruction
book in 2011. Both the DVD and book focus on his time-tested swing
tips -- and adjustments he has made and recommends to stay
competitive. An earlier book on the short game, “Getting Up and
Down,” with famed illustrator Tony Ravielli, was a NY Times best
seller and became a golf classic.
Tom constantly gives the credit for his success to the people who
helped him throughout his life and career. In his early years his
dad and Stan Thirsk built the foundation for his swing with a solid
no-nonsense approach which served him well and from which his game
blossomed. His desire, determination, and dedication had a lot to
do with his success. This combination of mentors and a hard work
ethic has been the key to a long and still continuing
career.
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