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)

What to Watch For: Sunday at the McDonald's LPGA Championship

In Sunday's fourth round of the McDonald's LPGA Championship, all of us will of course be watching to see who wins the thing, the second major of the LPGA season.

But I'll also be curious to see what the long-hitting veteran Sophie Gustafson will do. A while back, I ran into her husband, former LPGA commissioner Ty Votaw, now a PGA Tour executive, and asked how his wife had fared in the 2008 season. He answered modestly that she was still at it. And how! Last year, a look at the record book revealed, she played in 23 events, made 17 cuts, earned $646,000 and had a rock-solid 71.85 stroke average. At 34, turning 35.

At Bulle Rock, she has shot rounds of 67, 74 and 70 and she's not in striking distance to win, but if she goes low on Sunday she could easily have a top-5 finish. She's a player who has often played long, difficult courses well and she's been a powerful edition to the European team in Solheim Cup competitions. This is a Solheim Cup year. 

Votaw is the Tour's leading proponent for getting golf to return to the Olympics, and international play means a great deal to his wife, too. Gustafson would have to start winning again to make the team, if not on the LPGA circuit than in Europe. It's a total long-shot. But a stout finish on Sunday at the LPGA would be a step in the right direction. Imagine if she made it: what a delicious rooting-interest problem her husband  would face.

McDonald's LPGA Championship: Round 3 Recap | Scores | Photo Gallery | Notebook

What to Watch For: Saturday at the McDonald's LPGA Championship

It's hard not to root for Stacy Lewis, the ancient -- 23 years old! -- LPGA rookie. She has a lively and exuberant manner, rhythm-to-die-for, and a back story that just won't quit: she spent over a year in college in a back brace to correct a childhood issue with scoliosis. She turned pro less than a year ago, at last year's U.S. Women's Open, at which she finished in a tie for third.

Now, in her third major as a pro, she's going into the weekend of the LPGA Championship at Bulle Rock in shouting distance of the lead. She opened with a 68 and had an even-par 72 in the second round. If that's her bad round of the tournament, watch out. Bulle Rock is a course where a lot can go wrong and with major-championship pressure it's unlikely anybody is going to go low four straight rounds.

But Saturday's the day she has to do it. There are too many good players bunched near the top to think that some kind of spectacular Sunday finish is going to win the thing. It feels like a U.S. Open, an event for  which Lewis has already demonstrated she knows how to play, and Saturday is the day you must make some progress and at the very least hold steady. Anything 70 and under on Saturday and she'll be in position to win, for the second time in three majors. She's a major talent, and I'll be watching her.

McDonald's LPGA Championship: Round 2 Recap | Scores | Photo Gallery

What to Watch For: Friday at the McDonald's LPGA Championship

Did you see one of the names at 68 after the first round of the McDonald's LPGA Championship? Miss Aree Song, twin sister of Naree, checking in, for the first time in long time. She posted a good-looking four under card that included a bogey on the par-5 11th.

Talk about your blasts from the past! True, Aree is only 23, but she's been a brand-name golfer for a decade. Last year, fighting various maladies including burnout, she played in only seven events and made just two cuts. But you can't just come out of nowhere and shoot 68 on a demanding course like Bulle Rock without some serious talent, which she's always had. Aree Song doesn't have to win or even come close to winning to take her first big step back into mainstream women's golf. If she could play the next three rounds in par or better, that would be an important first step. In any event, I'll be eager to see what she does in Round 2 on Friday. She's bound too be nervous. On the plus side, she's only 23.

What to Watch For: Round 1 McDonald's LPGA Championship

I won't be able to make to the McDonald's LPGA Championship until Sunday, but in the meantime I'll be able to follow it on ... Golf Channel. All four rounds are on GC, Thursday and Friday 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on the weekend. I'm lucky enough to get Golf Channel. What's that? You don't get Golf Channel? You're accustomed to watching the women play their majors on network TV? You're not alone. Four rounds of the women's second major on cable TV is an experiment of the Carolyn Bivens administration, one that I don't pretend to understand.

In any event, it's a great event, as are all the women's majors. In the Thursday opening round I'll be eager to see what Se Ri Pak can do. The Hall of Famer had her only top-10 of the year last week, a second-place finish at the State Farm, when she closed with a 66, and I hope she can pick up where she left off. I think Pak still has one of the most good-looking swings in all of golf, in the tradition of Ernie Els, and there is much to learn from it. I first covered her as a LPGA rookie sensation when she spoke no English and was on a short leash by her father. Now she expresses herself beautifully in English and she's a role model for the scores and scores of elite South Korean women golfers, both on the circuit and those trying to get there. It's inspiring to see what she has been able to accomplish. Pak's too good not to contend often and win again. Maybe this will be one of those weeks.

McDonald's LPGA Championship: Round 1 Scores | Preview

What to Watch for: Sunday at the Triton Financial Classic

AUSTIN, TEXAS – Second-round leader Bernhard Langer and his pursuers will be thinking ahead to the par-3 18th hole at The Hills Country Club. It’s no big deal – a straight-forward shot of 178 yards or so – but an old pro like Langer raises a wary eyebrow when he hears that the 18th is usually the 16th. Par-3 finishes are rare, and this one has been contrived to please the Golf Channel. The cameras love the guarding tiers of boulders, spillways and waterfalls, and if a faltering pro has to watch in horror as his ball ricochets from rock to rock to rock before splashing in the creek – well, that makes for good television.

What I WON’T be watching for is an amateur entrant forgetting himself and diving on his ball as it rolls across the green. The eight Heisman Trophy winners in the field have retired to the clubhouse, where tournament-within-a-tournament winners Ty Detmer and Chris Weinke will be buying drinks for their bummed-out peers – those, anyway, who aren’t out with the other vultures at the faux 18th. If I were a betting man, I’d wager that this one will be decided on the closing hole – or, as a television director might put it, “I’d like that ‘on the rocks.’” 

What to Watch For: Sunday at the State Farm Classic

Cristie Kerr is underrated, even with her 12 career wins. Every year she seems lost in the debate of the top LPGA golfers in the world. First it was the Annika Show. Then it was Lorena Ochoa and a slew of teenage upstarts.

All Kerr does is win and often. On Saturday, she shot a 66 in the 20-25 mile an hour winds at the State Farm Classic.

"I'm a grinder," Kerr said.  

I'm going to be watching to see if Kerr can notch her second win of the year, following her victory at Kingsmill. Ever since she won her first major -- the U.S. Women's Open at Pine Needles in 2007 -- Kerr has used the experience to fuel her while in contention. At Kingsmill, she said she was calm the entire final round. She shot 70. I believe her.

I'm also going to see if Kristy McPherson, who is tied with Kerr at 12-under, can notch her first LPGA win. McPherson has been in contention all year. Both McPherson and Kerr finished a shot behind Brittany Lincicome at the Kraft Nabisco earlier in the year.

I'll also be watching Ai Miyazato, the Japanese star who stands two shots back and is also looking for her first LPGA win. Miyazato shot 65 on Saturday with a swing that should be accompanied by a lullaby. It's a slow, smooth action that doesn't send the ball very far, but it sure flies straight.

That's a good recipe in the winds of Springfield, Ill.

Follow more golf and NFL updates at www.twitter.com/si_damonhack

What to Watch For: Second round of State Farm Classic

Se Ri Pak is fascinating, colorful and completely honest. Her career has been a blend of magic moments (five major championships, the Hall of Fame) and strange lulls (injuries, burnout). 

"I'm still learning," Pak said after opening the State Farm Classic with a 66 to share the lead with Jee Young Lee.

Though she hasn't won since 2007, Pak remains LPGA royalty. At 31, she's best known for spearheading the Korean movement on the LPGA, so much so that young Korean players on the LPGA are sometimes called "Se Ri's kids."

I'm going to be watching to see if Pak can string a couple more good rounds together. It's nice to see her playing well, especially one week before the LPGA Championship, which she won in 1998, 2002 and 2006.

I'll probably take a second look at Natalie Gulbis (4-under 68) and Michelle Wie (2-under 70), too. The two players are good pals and it showed as they traded shots and then strolled up the fairways talking the whole way.

Wie had a great round going before closing bogeys on No. 8 and No. 9 (her 17th and 18th holes) dropped her from the leaderboard. On No. 8, her approach shot clipped a branch. On No. 9, she missed a 4-footer for par. If she can clean up the miscues, she should be in the mix on the weekend. The course is wide open, giving her plenty of room to attack.

For more golf and NFL updates, follow www.twitter.com/si_damonhack

What to Watch for: Friday at the Triton Financial Classic

AUSTIN, TX. – There are so many questions to answer as the first round of the Triton Financial Classic gets under way. Will Nebraska-star Mike Rozier, after a couple of decades on the bench, make it to his ten o’clock tee time? Is BYU’s Ty Detmer, a single-digit stick, as good on five-foot putts as he was in the red zone? Can Doug Flutie still deliver the Hail Mary TD when he needs to get up-and-down for par on the eighteenth?

Those questions and more will be answered Friday when nine Heisman Trophy winners infiltrate a Champions Tour field that includes most of the top senior pros, including top-ranked Bernhard Langer and PGA Senior champion Michael Allen. The creaky footballers are playing in a league of their (a two-day stroke play event for guys who have won the Trophy and are willing to expose their golf games to public ridicule), and the winner will get – what? – another trophy? Anyway, I’ll be looking for 60-minute, two-way performances from Nebraska’s Eric Crouch, Miami’s Gino Torretta, Houston’s Andre Ware, South Carolina’s George Rogers, Notre Dame’s Tim Brown and Florida State’s Chris Weinke.

If I tire of watching all that over-ripe athleticism, I’ll save some scrutiny for two-time Champions Tour winner Peter Jacobsen, who hasn’t fired a shot in anger since undergoing left rotator cuff surgery in January. “I’m not in pain,” Jacobsen assured me after he fatted an approach shot in Wednesday’s pro-am, “but there’s a lot of rust.”

Fortunately, the oft-injured Jacobsen is really good at knocking off rust. Look for him to at least get within field-goal range before halftime.

What to Watch For: Friday at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial

Had Greg Norman made the cut at the Masters last month, it would have made for a really nice story. If Ian Baker-Finch makes the cut Friday at Colonial, in his first PGA Tour event in eight years, I think it would make an even better story.

After the 48-year-old CBS commentator opened with a two-under 68 on Thursday (with no sign of the swing demons that drove him from the game) Baker-Finch enters the second round five shots off the lead and tied for 24th.

Baker-Finch was candid about his emotions during the round. He admitted to having had a few negative thoughts, the kind that once led to a loss of confidence and off-the-planet misses. But he was able to beat back any bad vibes and keep his ball in play. Baker-Finch made five birdies and three bogeys.

I'll be watching to see if Baker-Finch, the '89 Colonial champ and '91 British Open champ, can string one more good round together and make it into the weekend. For the record, his 68 tied him with Jim Furyk, Luke Donald and Adam Scott. Not bad company.

I'll also be watching to see if Vijay Singh can keep the momentum from his opening 64, which put him a shot behind Woody Austin, Steve Stricker and Tim Clark. The 46-year-old Singh has been invisible this season. Can his putter remain steady enough to keep him in contention? I think the big Fijian has one more run in him.

For more color from Colonial, with a dash of the NFL, visit www.twitter.com/si_damonhack