Watson leads Open at 59

Two monster 60-foot putts gave 59-year-old Tom Watson a share of the halfway lead at the British Open on Friday and left him marvelling at the game of golf.

Those two ‘bombs’ brought him in with a par 70 in a battling second round and left him at five-under for the tournament and level with fellow American and Open rookie Steve Marino.

That followed a tough, five bogey front nine from Watson when it looked like he would meet predictions that he would fall away after his heroics of Thursday.

‘It was two nine holes, put it that way,’ said the five-times former Open winner who will turn 60 in seven weeks time.

‘The outgoing nine was not very spectacular, was pretty awful, as a matter of fact. Lady Turnberry took off her gloves today and she had some teeth.

‘I knew the outgoing nine was going to be tough, and I hit some poor shots and ended up making five bogeys going out.

‘But I never gave up hope because I knew that the incoming nine was going to play, you know, a little bit easier going downwind.

‘It turned out I made two no-brainers from 60 feet at the 16th and the 18th holes.’

What faces Watson at the weekend can only be described as the impossible dream to win a major world sporting event at the advanced age of 59.

That would make him the oldest winner of a golfing major pulverising the existing mark set by Julius Boros who was 48 when he won the 1968 USPGA title and smashing the record for the oldest winner of The British Open which currently stands to Old Tom Morris who was 46 when he won back in 1967.

But that is something that he refuses to contemplate though citing Greg Norman's similar assault on the Auld Claret Jug at Royal Birkdale last year at the age of 53.

‘He had a kind of the same situation,’ Watson said.

‘Greg was thinking just stay in the present. You stay in one shot at a time - the old cliche and that's the way I think.’

Norman led by two shots going into the final round but faded with a closing 77 and he settled for a share of third place.

What did give Watson confidence, though was that physically he felt in the best shape he has been for years following a hip replacement operation last October that allowed him to sleep better and gave him more rotation on his swing.

‘No aches and pains fortunately. For 59 years old, that's pretty remarkable,’ he said.

Also remarkable is the fact that in Saturday's third round, Watson, arguably the greatest links player of all time and hugely experienced, will go out in the final pairing in the company of Marino, who had never played on a classic seaside course before winning a late entry to Turnbery last Sunday.

Asked how surprised he was by his compatriot's sudden conversion into a links golfer Watson replied: ‘Well, I never played links golf before I played Carnoustie in 1975 (where he won on his Open debut) and it turned out pretty good for me.’