Tom Watson's admirers risk becoming hagiographers after his thrilling performance at the British Open.
A senior writer at Sports Illustrated, Bamberger has written better about Watson than probably anyone else. This is an excerpt from his book This Golfing Life. Bamberger wrote the passage after the 2003 golf season, a year in which Watson electrified the U.S. Open with an opening-round score of 65.
Over time, the glimpses of Watson became unattractive. We learned that he didn't handle his public drinking well, that his relationship with his father was strained, that the man who stood up to the country club bigots [Watson quit the Kansas City Country Club when it refused to admit Henry Bloch, who is Jewish, as a member] otherwise followed the crowd, falling into step with the predictable Rush Limbaugh. He broke up with his wife and broke up with his old Ram clubs. (Not passing any judgment here; relationships, even those with inanimate objects, can go stale.)Watson, Bamberger writes, quit drinking in 2003 and made sincere attempts to reconnect with his children, who were hurt by the divorce. He also became an advocate for ALS research after his longtime caddie, Bruce Edwards, contracted the disease. (Edwards died in 2004.)
"Back then, it was always about me," he said. "Winning for yourself and winning for somebody else -- you can't compare the two."Lucky for Watson fans, Bamberger was at the British Open. Find his accounts of the tournament here.
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Tom Watson
It is a shame that some of todays professional golfers don't have the same class and ability of Tom. he exemplifies everything that arole model should be and is one of the bst dressed on any tour. I have followed hsi career from the time it was said he could't win, WOW has he shown them he can.
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