Golf Roundup : Watson’s Putter Fails Again as He Is Ousted From International

Tom Watson came up a point short and was eliminated in Thursday’s completion of first-round play at the $1-million International tournament at Castle Rock, Colo.

Watson, needing a birdie-birdie finish to advance to the second round of the tournament, birdied the 17th hole and missed from 4 feet on the 18th.

“It’s the same thing I’ve been doing all year,” Watson said. “It doesn’t matter how close you hit it if you can’t make the putts. I had my chance and I blew it.”

Under the modified Stableford scoring system used for this tournament, eagles are worth five points, birdies are worth two and pars are worth zero. Bogeys cost players one point and double bogeys or higher cost three.

He finished with one point, one less than he needed to qualify.

Defending champion John Cook also missed with zero points.

Ben Crenshaw and Mark O’Meara led 39 qualifiers from the 81-player field in the second half of the first round.

Each had six birdies and two bogeys and tied with 10 points to earn $8,750.

Fred Couples, Billy Andrade and Steve Jones had nine points apiece and each won $2,500.

Jose-Maria Olazabal of Spain one-putted seven greens and posted a 6-under-par 66 to lead Vicente Fernandez of Argentina by one stroke after the first round of the $408,000 Irish Open at Dublin.

Curtis Strange, U.S. Open champion making a rare appearance in the tournament, had a 71.