Watch Watson, Norman, Roberts and Langer at U.S. Senior Open

CARMEL, Ind. -- Here's who I'll be watching in Thursday's first round of the U.S. Senior Open at Crooked Stick.

Tom Watson It's not like we're greedy or anything, but we just want to see another miracle like the one he nearly pulled off at Turnberry. That's all.

Greg Norman He's the best player who's never won a major on the senior circuit, or any event on the senior circuit. He's a part-time player at this point, but he's due to break out. And before you ask, his wife, Chris Evert, isn't arriving until the weekend.

Loren Roberts The Boss of the Moss is coming off a Senior British win, but Crooked Stick is a big hitter's park and he's a big putter. Still, you never know.

Bernhard Langer He's only the best senior player out there now, and always the man to beat.

More on U.S. Senior Open
Scores at ussenioropen.com | Watson practices after illness

If Tom Watson had won, would it have been golf's greatest victory?

For 71 holes, it looked like Tom Watson, at 59, was going to pull off a miracle in the 2009 British Open at Turnberry. He came up just short, but what if he had held on to win? Would it have been the greatest victory in the history of the game? In the history of sports? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Bigger story at British Open: Tiger Woods or Tom Watson?

We can all agree that the first 36 holes at Turnberry were surprising, but there is a debate brewing among (between?) sports fans and golf fans -- What's the biggest story of the day? Some would argue it's Tiger Woods, arguably the greatest golfer of all time, missing the cut at a major championship for only the second time in his career. Others would say it's Tom Watson, arguably the greatest links golfer of all time, leading at age 59 on an artificial hip. Want to join the debate? Leave a comment below.

Video: Tom Watson at Age 59, Shoots 65 at Turnberry

On the course where he defeated Jack Nicklaus in the famous Duel in the Sun, Tom Watson shot a remarkable 65 Thursday at Turnberry. Here what he had to say after his opening round at the 2009 British Open.

Watch Tom Watson Thursday at the 2009 British Open

In the first round of the British Open, I'll be eager to see what kind of score Tom Watson can post. He's playing the first two rounds with Sergio Garcia and an amateur, Matteo Manassero. I've seen Watson interact with a lot of amateur golfers over the years. He asks them questions, and he leads by example. Sergio will learn a thing or two, playing with Watson.

Unless he plays unusually well, Watson's getting near the end of the line. I don't see him making another cut in a Masters, unless the course is really hard and dry. He's become short off the tee and the course has become crazy-long. This week, at Turnberry, he returns to the scene of the crime, where he nipped Nicklaus by a shot for the '77 Open, and where he won a Senior British Open in 2003 in a playoff. Next year, the Open goes to St. Andrews, and then Watson will be 60 and at the end of the line. No more exemptions, unless he plays his way in. Five Open titles. Golf's greatest championship defined his career.

At the Masters, on the practice tee, Watson made the same up-and-down rhythmic swing he's made forever, but he shot a thousand. A links course is a different matter. I know this will sound crazy, and maybe I've been listening too much to my friend Neil Oxman, Watson's caddie, but I think Watson can shoot good scores at Turnberry. Like, within 10 shots of the lead when it's all over.

He belongs to a fading era, when golf was more manly and independent. When he lost, he took it on the chin, almost proud about it. There's something about him: he's hard to talk to, you never feel like you're getting anything like the full story when you listen to his interviews, but I still find him as compelling as anybody in the game. Like a lot of us, I grew up on him. He was never lovable. But if  you loved golf, you respected the man. Sound like somebody else in game today? I can think of one guy.

More on Watson
Watson discusses Duel in the Sun: Interview | Video
SI's John Garrity recalls the Duel in the Sun
Dan Jenkins: A Braw Brawl for Tom and Jack (July 18, 1977)

Watson surprises with top-3 moments list

TURNBERRY, SCOTLAND -- Courtroom lawyers have a rule: Never ask a question you don’t know the answer to. Newspaper reporters have a different rule: Keep asking your question until you get the answer you want.

The latter rule applied today at Tom Watson’s pre-tournament press conference, where a British reporter needed just one strong quote to complete a story that was half-formed in his mind. “It’s been 32 years since your duel with Jack,” the reporter said from his chair, referring to the fabled “Duel in the Sun” between Watson and Nicklaus in the final round of the ’77 Open. “There’s not an Open goes by where it’s not mentioned, and there’s probably not a day that goes by that’s it’s not mentioned somewhere in the world. Do you think it was the greatest afternoon in golf and maybe one of the greatest --”

A smiling Watson cut him off. “No, it’s not for me to [say]. I was fortunate to be able to play some of my best golf against the best player in the world and ended up winning a few times.”

“But when anybody looks back on golf” -- the journalist wasn’t letting go of his premise -- “that afternoon is held up probably in the top three moments in sport. Do you recognize you were part of an amazing afternoon in the history of sport?”

The five-time British Open champ kept smiling, but he wasn’t willing to go the hyperbolic extra mile. “Well, it was pretty good. It was pretty good theater, let’s put it that way.” And just so no one would think he didn’t treasure his Turnberry triumph, Watson conceded that it was one of the top three moments of his career. The other two? “The chip-in at Pebble Beach” -- where Watson topped Nicklaus again for his only U.S. Open title -- “and winning the Kansas City Men’s Match Play when I was 14.”

That last one pretty much blew up the reporter’s quest for the “I-knew-I-was-making-history” quote. (Imagined headline: WATSON COMPARES DUEL IN THE SUN TO SCHOOLBOY TRIUMPH!) But Watson wasn’t trying to be a wise guy. He was making the point that a sportsman’s greatest thrill often comes early in life, when he is only beginning to appreciate his potential. In Watson’s memory, a hot afternoon at the hilly, tree-lined Blue Hills Country Club is right up there with his two Masters titles.

“That was the tournament,” Watson said, “that gave me the boost to say, ‘I can play this game.’”

For the record, the 14-year-old Watson beat Bob Devine, 4&3, in the final. It was (for the winner, anyway) the greatest afternoon in the history of sport.

(Photo: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images)

British Writers Wowed by Wichita

TROON, SCOTLAND –- I’m suddenly the go-to guy for British writers covering the Senior Open Championship at Royal Troon. The number one question: “What do you call somebody from Kansas?”

“A Kansan,” I tell them without hesitation.

“Where’s the windy bit?” asks the writer for The Scotsman. “Is it the whole state, or more toward the west?”

“I’d say central to west,” I reply, drawing on my long tenure as a licensed Kansas Citian. “You’ve got the Flint Hills, which is tallgrass prairie, and then you’ve got the flatlands out west where they grow winter wheat. The wind can really howl out there.”

“Where’s Hutchinson?” asks the man from The Daily Record.

“Near Wichita.” I throw in a freebie: “Lots of grain elevators.”

Why am I in demand? Because our second-round leader, Bruce Vaughan, is from Hutchinson, Ks., and one of his closest pursuers, Tom Watson, lives on a farm pond in Stilwell, Ks. So naturally the local writers want to know if the film version of The Wizard of Oz can be relied upon for pertinent details of Kansas life.

“It’s spot on,” I tell them, “except for that black-and-white business. Kansas is more sepia-toned until winter sets in, and then it’s battleship gray. You don’t get much color until early summer, when the grasshoppers arrive in great clouds and devour everything.”

The Brits take all this in and tap away merrily on their keyboards. If they ask me directly, I’ll have to confess that I am not a Kansan myself, but more of a … well, a Missourian. I can reach Kansas from my house with a driver and 9-iron, but my tax dollars go to Jefferson City, Mo., and my Border War loyalties go to Mizzou. But I see no need to make that distinction to my new friends, who are treating me like Alistair Cooke.

Watson, meanwhile, turned his post-round press conference into a seminar on the Kansas wind. “Wichita and Oklahoma City are the two windiest cities in the United States,” he said, sounding very convincing, “and Hutchinson is not too far from Wichita. That’s where T. Boone Pickens wants to put all those windmill farms and use up all of the natural gas so we can turn energy consumption to different sources.”

The writer on my left leaned my way and murmured, “Who is T. Boone Pickens?”

“A club pro,” I replied.

The Brits are writing on deadline, so I don’t have the heart to break it to them that Tom Watson is actually a Missouri native and a graduate of Pembroke-Country Day School, a Missouri institution. I’ll save that bit of trivia for some tournament where Watson shares the leader board with Hale Irwin -- the pride of Joplin, Mo.

Before I gave them “Kansan,” by the way, one of the Brits guessed out loud with “Kansites.”

I like it.

(Photo: Phil Inglis/Getty Images)

Monotony suits Watson at Troon

TROON, Scotland – “No shanks today.” That was the first thing out of Tom Watson’s mouth this afternoon as he briefed reporters on his 1-under-par 70 in the first round of the Senior British Open. The defending champion could have added, “No tops, skulls, chunks or whiffs, either,” but he didn’t mention any of those calamities yesterday, when he dropped the S-word 13 times in a single press conference.

Today, however, it was Watson’s shankless task to describe a round of unprecedented monotony, a round in which he hit all of Royal Troon’s greens in regulation. “How about that?” he asked. “I’ve never done that before. I don’t think I’ve ever hit 18 greens on Tour, EVER, in my life.”

Despite finding all those greens, Watson had only a few good birdie opportunities this morning, most of his putts being in the 20 to 30-foot range. “I wasn’t that close to the hole,” he conceded. “But I played a good round of golf today.”

The highlight of Watson’s round? Probably the eleventh hole, where a spectator collapsed. “The gentleman was a typical Scot,” said Watson, who went over for a look. “He said, ‘Quiet, they are trying to hit.’ He’s on the ground like this” –- Watson tilted his head and rolled his eyes back to simulate a dying man, gasping. “’Quiet, they’re trying to hit!’”

The afflicted Scot recovered quickly, Watson added, lest we think him heartless.

Anyway, it’s one good round down for the links-loving Missourian, who is trying to accomplish at Royal Troon what he has already done at Turnberry and Muirfield –- win the Senior British Open on a course where he won one of his four five Open championships. But Watson insisted that he looks neither backward nor forward at this stage of his life. He’s all present-tense –- as is Royal Troon, which plays no easier for former champions.

“This course, it takes,” Watson said. “If you hit it in the wrong places, it REALLY takes. You have to avoid those wrong places.”

And you have to avoid the shanks. But that goes without saying.

You’d think.

(Photo: Phil Inglis/Getty Images)

Open cut relief for some, cruel for others

SOUTHPORT, England — Friday is the cruelest day in major championship golf. Tonight half the field earned a passport to the weekend and a shot at winning the British Open. Everyone else will be handing over their passport as they check in for the flight home.

The low 70 players and ties will play the weekend at Royal Birkdale. That puts 83 players inside the cut line at 9-over-par.

Among those breathing a sigh of relief is Ernie Els, who made bogey on his last hole earlier today to fall to 9-over. The easy-going South African slammed his putter angrily into his bag as he walked off the green, then slammed the door of the scorer's hut after signing for a round of 69. Also surviving at that 9-over mark are Davis Love III and England's hope, Lee Westwood.

Phil Mickelson secured his place for the weekend with a second-round 69 that left him at 7-over. Masters champion Trevor Immelman and Colin Montgomerie are also assured to a weekend tee time at 8-over.

For others there will be no reprieve. Stewart Cink and Tom Watson (both 10-over) are finished. Joining them on the boulevard of missed birdie putts are Vijay Singh, Geoff Ogilvy,  Mark O'Meara and Charles Howell III, all at 11-over. Former U.S. Open winner Angel Cabrera and Rory Sabbatini missed by a mile at 14-over.

Also missing the weekend action is former champion Paul Lawrie, Miguel Angel Jiminez, Aaron Baddeley, and a handful of young American prospects: Brandt Snedeker, Hunter Mahan, and J.B. Holmes.

In a category all of his own, dead last in the field, is John Daly. The former champion-turned-train wreck finished 29-over par after rounds of 80-89. He didn't make a single birdie all week. And there isn't even a Hooters in Birkdale for him to spend the weekend in.

Putting woes send Watson packing to TV booth

SOUTHPORT, England — Fans of Tom Watson have long been accustomed to watching their 58-year-old hero climb the leaderboard at the British Open. Over the past two decades, those fans have also become familiar with seeing their hero suffer through spells of abysmal putting that would send lesser men to a padded room.

They saw both this week at Birkdale.

After a solid opening round of 74 in atrocious conditions, during which he briefly held the lead in the Open Championship, Watson shot a second-round 76 to miss the cut by one stroke. And again, the putter was to blame.

"I missed a lot of short putts or I'd be in the tournament, frankly," Watson said after his round. "I hit the ball well enough to be playing and competing in the last two rounds, and competing for the tournament. But the putter is just awful."

Asked if he thought his putting woes were a by-product of the windy conditions, Watson said, "I think it's a by-product of my lousy stroke."

After a run of bogeys on the back nine, Watson gave himself a shot at playing the weekend with a birdie on 17. But a missed birdie putt from 25 feet on the last green signed his ticket out of town. He moves on to Royal Troon in Scotland, where he won the Open in 1982 and where he will defend his Senior British Open crown next week.

"I'm looking forward to it," he said. "I have some good memories of Troon."

Until then, Watson said, he plans to spend the weekend in the broadcast booth with ABC television and work on his putting.