Yes,, congrats to Cink, but he is a side show. SOMEONE was gonna win.
We ALMOST got to see the greatest single athletic achievement of all time. To win an event of this magnitude so much older than any other winner, ever, is far more than Hollywood. It's just to demanding to keep your concentration and execution under control for that long, with that pressure at that age. Simply stunning. He just about did it.
Watson lost it in 18 fairway in regulation. He HAD to land it short, in that juicy flat spot the announcers told us about, the one Cink hit in regulation to set up his birdie to get to 2. So, Tom's concentration went first because he struck it pure. Just a bad club.
The putt from the collar showed his touch leaving and the par putt showed it gone. Just done, finished.
Amazing. Simply amazing.
Yeah, for that one shot he couldn't overcome the enormity of the situation. He couldn't control his heart rate standing over that approach to the 18th green, and his adrenaline - or whatever - meant that the ball carried a few extra yards. Believe me, he knew what he needed to do (land it a little short), and I'll bet he had the right club to do it.
I think when he got to his ball behind the green, the energy and enthusiasm which had carried him all week was sucked out of him. Standing in the 18th fairway, he had done it - he had won the Open once again - he had achieved the seeming impossible. And, once he saw the ball over the green, 3 inches from a lie that would have all but guaranteed his victory, all of a sudden he hadn't done it quite yet. For him, that wouldn't have been too difficult an up and down - but the fact that he still had to pull it off, after he thought he had already done all of the work he needed to do, was deflating. At least, that's what seemed to me to have happened.
Once they got to the playoff, it was Cink's to lose. He was energized. He had just played himself into the playoff. He had new life. Watson had just let the Claret Jug slip away, and all of the emotions of the week had finally been let in to sap his strength.
I was talking to someone earlier today and said that, if he could win this today, it would be the most transcendent thing that had happened in sports since I've been paying attention - transcendent in that it's power to inspire and touch people's hearts would not have been limited to sporting contexts.
It didn't quite happen - but man it was great thinking that it could for a few days. Thanks again Tom - that was something special.
