Golden oldies turn back clock
Returning to Carnoustie will rekindle very different memories for Tom Watson and Jean van de Velde. Nick Rodger reports
CARNOUSTIE is calling. For the legendary Tom Watson it will be a case of going back to where it all began. For Jean van de Velde, it will be a case of going back to where it all went belly up. Senior moments will abound on these redoubtable Angus links this week with the golden oldies rolling back the years in the Senior Open Championship as it celebrates its 30th anniversary.
At this level of the game, there remains a fierce competitive instinct among the entrants while the levels of dewy-eyed nostalgia could almost burst the banks of the Barry Burn.
For Watson, the memories of days gone by always come flooding back as he sets foot on familiar terrain again. It was at Carnoustie, after all, where his love affair with the links game began.
Watson, now a sprightly 65, would make his debut appearance in the Open Championship at Carnoustie in 1975. It wasn’t just any old debut, of course. Watson would win it, the first of five Claret Jug successes, four of them coming on Scottish soil.
“I have vivid memories of that first visit to Carnoustie,” recalled Watson, whose three Senior Open wins have all been achieved in Scotland as well.
“I was excited and wanted to play, but Keith Mackenzie, then secretary of the R&A, told us the course was closed to us, whether we were exempt or not.
“He was very apologetic and offered to fix us up with a game at Monifieth, so that was my first look at the famous links turf. It was hard as a rock that year and really fiery. I hit my first shot on a links course straight down the middle and somehow lost my ball. I dropped another and kept walking – then found my first one 50 yards to the left. I didn’t like it one bit. I managed to put it behind me, even though I didn’t care for this type of golf. I was just fortunate that I was playing well and there was little wind that year. That Open was a steep learning curve for me.”
Nearly a quarter of a century after Watson’s first visit to this neck of the woods, Van de Velde’s steep learning curve was more of a soggy downward spiral. His Carnoustie calamity in the Barry Burn on the 72nd hole of the 1999 Open, when he racked up a triple-bogey seven on the last when a six would have earned him the Claret Jug, remains chiselled into the annals of golfing infamy.
The Frenchman will be a rookie among the over-50s, having just reached his half century, and the Senior Open provides an opportunity to get back into the cut-and-thrust again while offering the chance to settle an old score.
“I don’t get tired of people talking about 1999 and reminding me about what happened,” said Van de Velde. “I know it is part of history. It is part of my life as well as a golfer.
“I will try and be as ready as I can for Carnoustie. I want to play competitive golf with my peers who have the same challenges as me on a daily basis. When they wake up their knee hurts, their back hurts and so does their neck.”
The creaks, niggles, aches and pains may be a bit more pronounced as the years pass but there is one thing that age does not diminish.
“I still love to compete, that’s the buzz,” said Watson.
The rest of the golden oldies teeing-up this week will no doubt agree.
I didn’t like it one bit. I managed to put it behind me, even though I didn’t care for this type of golf