BRITISH OPEN : Watson Has That Old Feeling--and the Leader in His Sights

Tom Watson’s problem the last couple of years was anger. He didn’t have any.

“Sometimes a player will get a little upset at a bad break, not let it fall right off,” Nick Price said Friday, discussing Watson. “At Augusta, Tom had a couple bad breaks, and it never really looked like he got mad enough.”

Now, Watson is mad, as in concerned. He’s got his golfing game face back on, and the British Open field is taking notice. Watson shot his second straight two-under-par 69 Friday and is just two strokes behind halfway leader Paul Azinger.

Azinger, the leading money winner on the PGA Tour but a rookie in this tournament, had his second straight 68 and took a one-stroke lead.

On his heels are first-round leader Rodger Davis, Gerry Taylor, Nick Faldo and Payne Stewart, who shared low round of the day honors at 66. Another stroke behind that group are Watson, Craig Stadler, David Frost and Bernhard Langer.

Matching Stewart’s low round was one Ross Drummond, who had opened with a 79 Thursday. Go figure.

It’s still a wide-open field, but any time Watson is near the top in the British Open, people take notice. He has won this event five times, and even though he’s been in a two-year slump, Watson is showing signs of life. The anger is back.

He’s even mad at Bo Jackson. Watson lives in Kansas City and is a Royal fan. When the subject of Jackson came up Friday, Watson raised his voice.

“Bo Jackson’s got to make a decision,” he said, angrily. “He’s going for the money, is what he’s doing. The right decision is to play baseball. He can do that and then play football. He can play football, he’s already proven that.”

Jackson was not available for comment on Watson’s game, which seems to be back in the groove. After missing cuts in four of six tournaments this year, Watson found his game in the U.S. Open, finishing second.

“When did I see it come back?” Watson asked rhetorically when asked about the anger, the intensity on the course. “At the second round of the U.S. Open (a 65). It just kind of comes,” he said, snapping his fingers.

“ ‘Yeah’. Now I have the same feeling I had in 1980. . . . It comes and goes. When I first started the tour, every tournament was like the U.S. Open. I wish I could say it is still, but it isn’t.

“But I love to play golf over here. There’s a lot to be said for that feeling (of the British Open), that love for the game. It’s the smell of it, the feel of it, the texture of the grass, the people. This is a wonderful part of the world, and I get caught up in it.”

Part of it is the weather. Watson is possibly the world’s greatest foul-weather golfer. Friday, he played most of his round in a chilly, persistent rain, which drifted away in the afternoon.

When Price checked in after his round (a 71), he said, “It was so cold, my hands were turning blue. I did not have a dry glove, club or towel, and it was very difficult.”

Now listen to Watson, who played in the same weather, and who took to it like Gene Kelly in “Singin’ in the Rain”:

“In Kansas City, we practice during the winter and it’s nothing to tee it up when it’s 30 degrees and windy. We’re like the crazy Scots over here. I don’t mind. Actually this wasn’t really bad. There was no hard rain or wind. I wouldn’t mind seeing the wind pick up a little.”

But more of the same is predicted for today--some showers but no downpours, no monsoons, no tornadoes. Watson will have to rely on his own anger, rather than the weather’s.

Watson, and the others on the leader board, will also have to contend with Azinger, the eager, 27-year-old player who has won three tournaments this year but whose only international experience was a college tournament in Mexico. The best he has ever done in a major tournament was a 17th in this year’s Masters.

Like Lee Trevino, who zoomed to a 74 Friday after an opening 69, Azinger is a low-ball artist whose game is well suited to the British Open-type course, which favors those who can run the ball up to the green, rather than airlifting it.

“I had a feeling I could do well,” Azinger said. “I can hit low as well as anybody. I would’ve played in this tournament even if I had to qualify. I just figured it was time to bring my low ball to Scotland.”

Azinger even promised himself a new Jaguar if he wins this tournament, although his optimism is tempered by the reality of the situation.

“I’ve got myself in a position to feel what the pressure of leading a major tournament is going to be like. I still need to prove something, not just to you guys (reporters), but to myself.”

Greg Norman, the defending champion, had his second straight par round, although his performance was anything but even. He carded five birdies and five bogeys. On the 10th through 15th, Norman went bogey, birdie, birdie, bogey, bogey, birdie.

“I felt pretty good about the round,” Norman said evenly. “I knew we were going to have bad conditions. Maybe five-under will be leading at the end of the day. From that standpoint, even-par is a good position at the moment.”

That puts 30 people in good position, because that’s how many are at par or under. And many of the leaders, if they stay on the board, will need some introduction to the general public.

Gerry Taylor, for instance--tied for second after a 68--is a 5-foot 9-inch Australian who has nine brothers and sisters and whose father is president of a golf club named Indooroopilly. He plays now on the European tour, and the 1980 New Guinea Open stands as his only tournament victory.

A more familiar name is Payne Stewart, who shot a 66 after an opening-day par round and lurks one stroke behind Azinger.

“I played poorly in the U.S. Open and missed the cut,” Stewart said. “Then I spent a lot of time working on my game. It was obvious to me I had been complacent. It comes from all the money from contracts. I’ve made almost $400,000 on the U.S. tour this year and I have to find my incentive to play again.”

How’s this for an incentive: Stewart is in danger of being the second-best plus-fours wearer in the tournament. Rodger Davis also wears the traditional golf knickers, and goes Stewart one better, with socks on which his name, first and last, is spelled out inside diamonds running down the sides.

Wait till the NBA players see this fashion breakthrough.