Senior trio enjoys moments of nostalgia at British Open

GULLANE, Scotland — The three senior musketeers of professional golf walked the links of Muirfield in the British Open on Thursday with pride, few regrets and less-than-great results.

Was this golf or nostalgia? Does it matter?

Tom Watson, Nick Faldo and Fred Couples teed it up at 9 a.m. in Scotland, on a day on which the weather resembled Palm Springs in March. The knowledgeable and appreciative Scottish fans surrounded the first tee in a show of respect.

These three totaled 172 years on Earth, eight British Open titles and 15 major titles in all.

Watson, 63, with five British titles, two Masters and one U.S. Open, could play here because he finished second in his stunning, near storybook run in 2009, when Stewart Cink beat him in a playoff. Thursday, he shot a four-over 75.

Couples, 53, with a Masters title to his name, could play here because he won last year’s Senior British Open. He shot the same as Watson.

Faldo, 56, known around here as Sir Nick, has three British and three Masters titles and can play in the British as a past winner until he reaches 60. He hadn’t played in a tournament for a long time, decided recently to give it a shot at a Muirfield course where he won in 1987 and ‘92, and suffered the humiliation of rust with an eight-over 79.

Couples and Watson still can smell victory and have stayed competitive at times recently. Not so Faldo, who had his son caddying for him and the day in perspective.

“That view, standing on the first tee, with the crowd and the people in the stands and everything,” he said, “that was — I’ll take that as my shot of the day.”

And later: “I’m here to walk and enjoy.”

Faldo revisited

Faldo kept it light in the leadup to his nostalgic return.

Tuesday night, at the European Golf Writers Dinner, he said his caddie/son came to him and told him his betting odds had been set and they were 1,000-1.

“I told him he better put a pound on me,” Faldo said.

It had become tradition at the winner’s news conference for the moderator to ask the Open champion to go through his birdies and bogeys for the reporters before the questions began. After his victory in 1987, the moderator began the news conference as usual, Faldo smiled, got up and began to leave. He had made no birdies and bogeys, just 18 pars.

Elders’ magic

The senior theme played out elsewhere Thursday.

Mark O’Meara, 56, who won the Masters and the British Open in 1998, made an eagle on the par-five 17th and finished at four-under 67, just a shot behind early leader Zach Johnson. O’Meara’s birdie putt on No. 18 circled the cup and stayed out. Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez, 49, known for his cigar, his taste for good wine, his pony tail and a warmup routine that consists of wiggling both ankles and bending at the hips a couple of times, shot 68 and said, “One under par is good. More under par is better. At the moment, three under par is nice.”

Roughing it

Rory McIlroy matched Faldo’s eight-over 79 and said afterward, “I played brain dead.”…Defending champion Ernie Els slipped away with a three-over 74, despite hitting his approach shot on the 18th eight rows up into the bleachers . … Former champion Todd Hamilton, 47, who has missed the cut in both PGA Tour events he has tried this year and whose win at Troon in 2004 is clearly his standout moment, shot two-under 69 and said, “I’m much more recognized by people here [in Britain] than in the States.” ... 2010 Open champion Louis Oosthuizen, playing with Tiger Woods and Graeme McDowell, withdrew because of a recurring neck injury after a bogey on the eighth hole. He was four over for his round.

bill.dwyre@latimes.com

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