Another Tiger triumph in 2005 ... but look who stole his thunder!
OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP: 2 DAYS TO GO
WITH the Home of Golf hosting the 150th Open Championship this week, Sportsmail continues its look at some of the enduring tales to have emerged from St Andrews down the years. In 2005, Tiger Woods won his second Open at the Old Course and his tenth major title, but still had to share the limelight with Jack Nicklaus.
AS A tide of emotion swept over St Andrews, Tom Watson was trying to hold it all together. Yet, like many others around him, he was fighting a losing battle.
Perched on the Swilcan Bridge, smiling as he waved farewell to competitive golf, Jack Nicklaus had reduced his close friend and long-time sparring partner to a blubbering mess.
‘Here’s the greatest player who has ever played the game, in his final championship and final round of his career, and I had the privilege of being able to play with him,’ reflected Watson.
‘I lost it. I was walking up the fairway crying and Jack grabbed hold of me and said: “Tom, come on, get a hold of yourself. You have a golf tournament to play here”. I had to par the last hole to make the cut. He knew my position. Even in that moment, he had a concern for me, which he always did. I appreciated that very much.’
Some 28 years after their Duel In The Sun at Turnberry, their respect for one another and the generosity of spirit they shared burned as brightly as ever.
‘Tom was far more emotional than I was,’ said Nicklaus. ‘He had tears running down his face. He was even doing it on Tuesday when we played a practice round!’
In the end, Watson made the par he needed. But it was Nicklaus who brought the house down when he sunk a 15-foot putt for birdie.
Few other sports, if any, could allow a 65-year-old to go out in a blaze of glory during competitive play. But, on July 15, 2005, the greatest golfer of a generation signed off in style. Tiger Woods would be the man to rival Nicklaus’ mantle as the game’s most gifted and dominant star.
As for which of them ranks as the best of all-time? Well, it depends who you ask. It’s a generational debate along the line of Messi versus Maradona.
What is beyond doubt is that Woods was very much the man to beat when The Open came to St Andrews in 2005.
He had won the Masters earlier that season and was chasing a tenth major before the age of 30. He had also recovered from a relative slump in 2003 and 2004.
At that point, it felt only a matter of when and not if he surpassed Nicklaus’ record of 18 majors.
Woods had won his first Claret Jug when St Andrews had last hosted The Open Championship five years previously.
That victory in 2000 remains one of the all-time great performances in a major, with Woods blowing the field away to win by eight shots. At that point, the Old Course had 112 bunkers and Woods successfully managed to avoid every one of them over 72 holes. His route to victory in 2005
was a little more testing, despite the fact he led from start to finish and eventually won by a margin of five shots.
Over the weekend, he spent the final two rounds going head to head with home favourite Colin Montgomerie, who was still seeking that elusive first major.
Playing together in the final pairing on Saturday, Monty began the weekend four shots adrift of Woods but had the full backing of the galleries on home soil.
‘I couldn’t believe the support,’ said Montgomerie. ‘Woods normally gets the crowd behind him — he was the world’s favourite golfer at the time. But not in Scotland on that Saturday. For the first time in my life, I was...
‘The Scottish flags flying, the Union Jacks — it was quite incredible.’
By the time they turned for home on the back nine on Sunday, the Scot had cut the gap to just one shot. He had Woods, and the Claret Jug, very much in his sights.
St Andrews was daring to dream of a home winner, just as Carnoustie had done with Paul Lawrie six years previously.
Trying to hunt the Tiger was far easier said than done, however, Monty faltering on the inward nine and carding three bogeys as his challenge faded.
Woods prevailed to complete a second career Grand Slam, saying: ‘It’s as good as it gets. You never thought in your wildest dreams as a kid that you could have ten majors in your 20s. You maybe think you can get one or two here and there.
‘I have ten. I’ve passed some legends of the game. It’s hard to comprehend. I battled this week. I battled conditions, battled the field, battled the golf course and somehow came out on top.’ Back in those days, it took something truly extraordinary to steal Tiger’s thunder. Yet, if not stolen completely, his thunder was definitely shared that week in 2005.
Nicklaus had stolen the show and his farewell on the Swilcan Bridge remains the abiding image of The Open of 2005 just as much as Tiger lifting the Claret Jug on the Sunday afternoon.
His farewell on the Swilcan Bridge was an abiding image