How, one might ask, does a near-win qualify as one of golf’s greatest achievements. Well, when the golfer has been playing senior events for nearly a decade and is old enough to be the father of many of his fellow competitors.
Tom Watson came, oh, so close to obliterating the age barrier at the 2009 British Open at Turnberry, Scotland, when at age 59-1/2 he missed becoming the tournament’s champion for a sixth time when he missed a 8-foot par putt on the 72nd and last hole. Fellow American Stewart Cink, who’d never won a major and never led all week, birdied the hole to force a playoff, which knocked the emotional wind out of Watson’s sails.
Cink won the four-hole playoff by six strokes, the largest margin in this tiebreaking format. If Watson had held on to win, he would have been the oldest winner of a major by 11 years! Julius Boros, however, still holds the distinction by winning the 1968 PGA Championship at age 48 and change.
