One more historic first for Watson
AUGUSTA, Ga. - Three men hit a tee shot and then embraced on the first tee.
But when those three men happen to be Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson and the setting is Augusta National Golf Club and the start of the 86th edition of the Masters, it is a moment washed in nostalgia.
Nicklaus, the 18-time major winner and winner of six Green Jackets here, wearing a yellow sweater and hat, was the eighth person to become an honorary starter, a tradition at the Masters dating to 1963.
“I personally just felt lucky to be out there. Period,” said the 82-year-old Nicklaus, who bowed out of the Par 3 Contest this year.
Player, 86, in his trademark black, joined him two years later and posted to social media his training regimen with an eye on outdriving Nicklaus.
“I get quite choked when I get on that tee in the morning,” Player said. “I’m not embarrassed to say that.”
Watson, 72, looking resplendent in a light purple quarter-zip jacket, became the 11 th honorary starter, one year after Lee Elder’s one-year stint.
“When Chairman Ridley called my office and said, ‘We’d like to speak with Tom at 10 in the morning on Monday,’ I was kind of expecting maybe that he might ask me to be an Honorary Starter, but I was overjoyed and actually humbled because the way I look at these old goats right here, I can’t carry their shoes. I don’t kind of belong in the same realm as these two players here,” Watson recalled. “I said, ‘I’m more than happy to do it.’ Then he followed up very quickly and he said, ‘Tom, you can do it for as long as you’d like,’ which I - wow. That meant a great deal to me. The good Lord willing the creek don’t rise.”
Overnight rain slowed to a steady mist but pushed tee times back half an hour. The first sign that the Hall of Fame trio would soon be approaching occurred eight minutes before their scheduled 8:15 tee time as patrons applauded Barbara Nicklaus’s as if Queen Elizabeth II had arrived on the tee. Player and Nicklaus stood under umbrellas with the Masters logo while Watson didn’t seem to mind the rain drops. He said he had attended the ceremonial start to the season’s first men’s major many times since he first played in the tournament as an amateur in 1970.
When Player stepped to the tee to get the festivities started, Watson cracked, “Aren’t you going to do a pushup?”
“I did them while you were asleep this morning,” Player crowed.
Laughter ensued. “I was up at 4 o’clock this morning,” Watson replied.
Player smacked his drive and showed he can still kick his leg high in the air. Then Nicklaus waddled to the tee. “If I can do this without falling over,” he said. “Yes, success!”
“That a boy,” Watson said as Nicklaus’s drive flew off to the right. He waved and smiled widely and gave way to Watson, a two-time Masters champion (1977, 1981).
“Now on the tee for the first time, it is my privilege to introduce our newest honorary starter,” said Augusta National Golf Club Chairman Fred Ridley.
The 72-year-old Watson stepped to the tee, but first he had a request. “May I say something?” he asked as if anyone would ever think of stopping him.
“I would like to say how honored I am to be with Gary and Jack. I’ve watched this ceremony many times in the past with Arnie, Gene Sarazen, Byron Nelson and to be a part of this thing I’m truly humbled,” he said.
More applause. Watson readied to hit and paused.
“How far did you hit it, Gary?” he teased. “I could hear it land,” Player said. “Not very far.”
And when Watson connected, he received the largest round of applause.
“I was definitely the shortest,” Nicklaus would later say. “Gary was close to Tom. Gary and Tom were pretty close probably.”
Competitive to the very end, Watson couldn’t resist piping in. “Oh, I got him by 50,” he said.
But where the drives flew was immaterial. Before they left the tee box, these three fierce competitors and legends at their craft grabbed hold of each other as if in a football huddle and embraced.
As one photographer who captured the image put it, there was nothing posed about it. “That was genuine,” he said.
For the rest of us, it was a patron giving fatherly advice to his son who may have said it best, “Take a mental picture.”
Who could ever forget a moment like this.