Nicklaus-Watson Match.

Nicklaus-Watson Match. The 1977 British Open golf tournament, one of the most memorable games in the history of the sport, became a close contest between American golfers Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus. . Watson and Nicklaus Duel in the Sun It was one of those rare and delightful duels: two of the best players in the sport performing at the top of their game in an important competition, and doing so with spectacular shots in a head-to-head match that built to a dramatic ending. Such was the scene in Turnberry, Scotland, home of the British Open, on July 7 through 9, 1977. The match between golfers Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson became known as the Duel in the Sun. The final two rounds of the tournament were among the most captivating in the history of golf. Nicklaus, already the sport's most successful player ever, and Watson, who had emerged that year to challenge Nicklaus as golf's best, fired identical scores on the first two rounds. They then each shot a sizzling 65 on the third day to tie for the lead. Matched together on the final day, they left the rest of the field far behind but stayed remarkably close to one another. "Two men had never played golf like this before, side by side," wrote Frank Deford in a 1986 Sports Illustrated article commemorating the tournament. "This wasn't just golf," the New York Times said the day after the tournament, "it was theater." Trailing by a stroke on the 15th hole, Watson canned a 60-foot putt. On the 17th Nicklaus missed a 4-footer to fall a stroke behind. Nicklaus's tee shot on hole 18 went awry, resting buried just in front of some spiny brush, while Watson drove a beauty that seemed to set him up for the win. But Nicklaus wasn't finished. He dug his second shot out of the shrub with a miraculous shot, but one that still left him more than 30 feet from the cup, while Watson's second shot lay closer than 30 inches. Most observers figured Watson had the tournament wrapped up. But Watson wasn't so certain. "You know, I believe Jack will make this," Watson told his caddy, Alfie Fyles. "I expect him to make this." Fyles was skeptical, but as he watched Nicklaus's putt wind its way along the green he thought, "The bloody ball is going into the hole." Watson and Nicklaus staged some of golf's greatest battles. The 1977 and 1981 Masters were memorable, as was the 1982 United States Open. In that tournament Watson chipped in a ball from outside the green on hole 17 in what became known as simply The Shot. But none of their matches was as breathtaking as the 1977 British Open. Watson, age 27, entered the tournament threatening to unseat Nicklaus as golf's best. Earlier in the season Watson defeated Nicklaus in the Masters, one of four victories for Watson so far that season on the Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) tour. Nicklaus was ten years older than Watson but still in the prime of his game. He had captured the PGA Player of the Year Award the previous two seasons. Nicklaus, who eventually recorded 70 tournament wins, including a record 18 victories in major tournaments, was not only a complete golfer, he was notoriously tough to crack playing one-on-one. As golfer Sam Snead once said, "When you go head-to-head against Nicklaus, he knows he's going to beat you, you know he's going to beat you, and he knows you know he's going to beat you." For some reason Watson saw Nicklaus differently, and Nicklaus sensed that. "I always felt as if he played with blinders on," Nicklaus said of his rival. Watson also had a knack for winning in the British Isles, capturing the British Open five times in his career. "Tom's a good thinker," Nicklaus said, "and you have to think well over there to win. You're playing in adverse conditions, and there are just a lot of guys who can't do that for 72 holes." Surprisingly, the conditions at Turnberry weren't adverse; they were ideal. The course, one of Scotland's most magnificent, had never been used for the British Open until 1977, primarily because golf officials felt that there weren't enough hotel rooms in the area to attract and accommodate the crowds. But officials finally relented, deciding that the majestic course deserved to stage golf's most noble tournament. The sun shone brightly over this scene for the July event. Nicklaus and Watson were both on the leader board after the first two rounds with identical scores of 68-70138. Their dramatic play began in the third round, on Friday. Nicklaus jumped ahead on the first hole that day, scoring a birdie (one stroke less than par) after a brilliant approach shot with a wedge. Through 13 holes Nicklaus led by two strokes, but he missed a putt on 14 to register his only bogey (one stroke over par) of the day, while Watson made par on the hole. Watson evened the score with a birdie on 15. They both finished the round with a 65, on six birdies and one bogey apiece, giving them a three-round score of 203, 7 under par. The tournament wasn't yet a twoman affair; Ben Crenshaw was only 3 strokes back. But a few holes into the final round, virtually everyone in the gallery followed the Watson and Nicklaus pairing. In the final round Nicklaus surged to an early lead, as he had the previous day. On the second hole he sank a 10-foot putt for a birdie while Watson was short on his approach and finished with a bogey. Watson charged back with birdies on the fifth, seventh, and eighth holes, tying the score at 9 under par. But he bogeyed hole 9 and Nicklaus birdied the 12th to go ahead again by two strokes with six holes to play. "Who can give Nicklaus two shots over six holes ...?" Sports Illustrated wrote in 1977. "Who would even contemplate it? Only Tom Watson in this day and time." Watson birdied hole 13 to draw a stroke closer. On 15, a par-3, 209-yard hole, Watson's drive landed 60 feet from the pin on the hardpan off the green. Calmly, he pulled out his putter and smacked the ball dead off the flagstick and into the hole. Tie game. "This is what it's all about, isn't it?" Watson said to Nicklaus, who responded, "You bet it is." On hole 17, a par 5 of 500 yards, Nicklaus knocked his second shot wide right and short of the green, while Watson's second attempt rested on the back of the carpet. Nicklaus's soft chip left him a mere 4 feet from a birdie, but he missed that shot. Watson 2-putted for a birdie and a one-shot lead. That brought the golfers to hole 18. Off the tee Watson cracked a one-iron that carried 260 yards, coming to rest in a prime location for a second shot at the green of the par-4 hole. Nicklaus opted for a wood, and he swung so hard that the ball pulled right, landing in a deep rough surrounded by gorse. Many wondered whether Nicklaus could even get a good swing at the ball, much less maneuver it near enough the hole to have a chance at birdie. To make matters more difficult for Nicklaus, Watson smacked a seven-iron 170 yards to land the shot only feet from the hole. But since this was perhaps the greatest head-to-head match in golf history, there was no time for a duff. Nicklaus wrangled a mighty swing right through the brush and sent the ball bounding toward the right side of the green--an unbelievable shot that caused the frenetic gallery to rush the fairway. Fyles, Watson's caddie, was knocked over in the scramble, injuring his wrist so badly that he never played golf again. At this point both golfers were more than ten strokes ahead of the field, which included Lee Trevino, Arnold Palmer, Raymond Floyd, Johnny Miller, Seve Ballesteros, and Gary Player. Going into the last shot, Nicklaus and Watson had played magnificent, excruciating golf for two days on one of the world's most scenic courses. A spectacular finish seemed too much to ask for. Nevertheless, Nicklaus attempted to deliver one, sinking his putt from about 32 feet. This meant that Watson had to make his 30-inch putt to register his seventh birdie of the day and win the tournament. Such a putt wasn't difficult ordinarily, but there was nothing ordinary about this affair. Watson eyed the hole, pondered history, shrugged off pressure, and sank the putt. Watson's tournament total of 268 set a British Open record by eight strokes. Nicklaus's 269 was, of course, the second-best score. Dan Jenkins, writing in Sports Illustrated just after the tournament, compared the 1977 British Open to a handful of other classic golf duos. "History will likely see it as better than any of those," Jenkins wrote. "Better than any golf--ever." Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.