Watson Is Feeling a Different Pressure

To paraphrase Lee Trevino, pressure is playing a $20 Nassau with a $5 bill in your pocket.

Others, of course, may have differing definitions.

On the leader board as the Buick Invitational’s final round commenced Sunday at Torrey Pines, golfers ranked 135th, 137th, 155th and off-the-board in 1992 earnings were in the top 10.

Their names were Robert Wrenn, Mike Springer, Chris Tucker and J.P. Hayes. Of this group, only Wrenn had previously won a PGA Tour event . . . and that was in 1987.

Obviously, these fellows had to be feeling some pressure. A victory would look nice on the resume, but you don’t take your resume to the grocery store. Hunger is pressure, too.

However, of all the names on the leader board, I submit the greatest pressure was on the one who had won the most.

Pride is also pressure.

Pride may be the greatest pressure of all.

Mr. Pressure, in my mind, was the guy with the largest gallery. He was playing with Brad Faxon and Springer. They were along for the stroll, at least in the eyes of the crowd.

Crowds flock to the biggest names, at least until they prove themselves unworthy on a given occasion. On this occasion, Tom Watson was proving himself quite worthy. He had opened Thursday with a 63 and he entered Sunday’s round in a tie for first with his playing partners.

For Watson, winning a golf tournament did not used to be news, unless Secretariat winning a horse race or the Celtics winning a championship or the Yankees winning a pennant were news.

Tom Watson has won 32 PGA tournaments plus five British Opens. Added to his majors were two Masters championships and one U.S. Open. He has been the leading money winner five times. His $5,758,808 in career earnings are second only to Tom Kite.

What happens to everyone is that time marches on and it is a matter of keeping step.

Folks, including Watson, have to be wondering if time has outrun him.

You see, Watson has not won a tournament since he took the Nabisco Championships of Golf in 1987. And that stands as his only victory since 1984. That comes out to one victory in seven-plus seasons for one of golf’s greatest players.

The pressure to sustain greatness, or reinforce it, can be monstrous.

An added incentive to do well, which might also be translated as pressure, was that Watson’s 9-year-old son, Michael, was following him for the first time at a tour event. He might have spoiled the kid a bit with that 63 Thursday. Regardless, hopes were up on a brilliant and warm Sunday morning.

The gallery was clearly in Watson’s corner. Wrenn was winging along in the lead until the roar of the crowd at the eighth green told a story. It was a Watson roar for a Watson birdie.

Until that hole, he had been stuck at 13-under. But now he was at 14. Another birdie at nine and another roar and he was at 15-under. Wrenn was in his grasp.

A near-miss for a birdie at 10, which followed similar attempts on Nos. 4 and 6, kept him at 15-under. He would never get to 16.

“I didn’t make the most of my opportunities,” he would say later. “I hit a lot of putts that skimmed the edge of the cup.”

The road took a turn for the worse on the par-three 11th, when his tee shot landed just off the right side of the green, hit a cooler and careened crazily to the rough all the way to the left. He was walking across the green to where he thought the ball had landed, doing a double-take when the crowd re-directed him.

The pin, you see, was cozily on the right side.

“That was kind of a bad break,” he said. “I would like to have had the little chip.”

And he would like to have something other than a bogey. He had no more birdies. Another bogey, a three-putt on 15, left him right where he started the day, 13-under, and that would only be good enough for a tie for sixth.

Watson would take $30,250 to the bank.

He has plenty of that in the bank already.

He wants what used to be so routine. He never worried much about his next victory because the last one was always to fresh in his (and everyone else’s) mind.

That has changed.

When it was over and he was rushing to catch a plane, he was asked about his thoughts going into this final round.

“The only pressure,” he said, “is to win again.”

Unfortunately, that, too, grows with time.