Watson's game living up to reputation
Senior Tour: MURRELLS INLET, S.C. (Nov. 4) -- Tom Watson's game on the Senior PGA Tour may be catching up with his reputation.
Watson, one of the game's greatest players, has been a winless rookie with the seniors. That could be changing after a stretch of six straight birdies -- "a first for Watson," he said -- on the back nine Saturday. He finished with a 67 to move two shots behind leader Leonard Thompson at the Senior Tour Championship.
Watson's round began unspectacularly with nine pars and a 10th-hole bogey.
"I decided it was now or never," said Watson, who has finished second four times in 12 senior events. "I thought, 'Let me see if I can run the table on the back nine,' and I almost did."
Thompson had no bogeys for his second straight 66 and had a two-putt birdie on the 18th to go to 14-under. He and John Jacobs, who shot a 68 and was second at 13-under, will join Watson in the final group of the season's last event.
"I don't know if you say he's got an advantage because he's Tom Watson," Jacobs said. "He's got an advantage because he's a hell of a golfer."
It's been hard to prove it his first senior season. Watson earned $781,361 in 12 events this year, 20th on the list. He's lost twice in playoffs and most of the time has been a spectator on the seniors tour.
"I don't have any delusions about my game," Watson said.
But with Saturday's run, he looked the grinning young star who whipped Jack Nicklaus head-to-head at the 1982 U.S. Open.
It began at No. 11 when he hit the pin on a wedge approach shot and knocked in the 4 foot birdie.
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