British Open: Tom Watson’s last walk over famed bridge full of nostalgia

As dusk turned to twilight — or as the Scottish fancy it, “gloaming” — came Friday, ceremony and nostalgia trumped all at the British Open on the Old Course.

Tom Watson walked across the Swilcan Bridge, the crossover from the 18th tee to the 18th green, for the last time.

It was 9:45 p.m. Even here, in the northern reaches of the United Kingdom, it is quite dark at that time. But the Royal and Ancient, the group that runs the British Open, let Watson and his playing partners, Ernie Els and Brandt Snedeker, play on.

That final walk across that legendary bridge, made in years past by such legends as Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, deserved to be done by Watson, a five-time British winner and an American who endeared himself for so long to so many Britons.

Watson knew this would be his last walk across the bridge. He needed to finish in the top 10 in this tournament to earn another five-year exemption, and he pretty much knew that wouldn’t happen.

Watson is 65.

“I can’t compete with the kids anymore,” he said this week. “I don’t have the necessary tools in my tool box.”

He posed on the bridge with Els and Snedeker, plus all their caddies. Then he posed with his son and caddie, Michael.

After, finally alone, he waved his cap left and right, and looking skyward, applauded. It was almost dark, but the flashing cameras lit up the scene.

Watson had won his five titles elsewhere. In 1984, he had come close here, hitting a shot too close to the stone wall on the No. 17 Road Hole and taking a bogey that allowed Spain’s Seve Ballesteros to win.

A ceremonial final walk across the Swilcan Bridge is the ultimate symbol of the British Open.

Watson was so overcome by emotion, and understandably so, that he bogeyed his last five holes, including the easy 18th after his stop on the bridge, and shot a 42 on the back nine for an 80.

The score didn’t matter. What did was the way his final goodbye was celebrated.

Willett leads

When Mother Nature pulled the curtain on Friday’s British Open at the Old Course, an unheralded Englishman was leading the way.

Danny Willett, 27, would occupy the familiar golf term “leader in the clubhouse,” for several overnight hours. That meant the round hadn’t officially been finished, but it certainly would be by the time most of the United States awakened Saturday.

Willett’s 69 Friday, on a day that started 3 1/2 hours late because an early morning downpour flooded the course, put him at nine under par, a 135 that would have to stand up against early morning Saturday play from, most likely, first-day leader Dustin Johnson.

Johnson was 10 under par when play was called. He had finished 13 holes.

Former winner Paul Lawrie and Australian star Jason Day each were at eight under. Lawrie had six holes to go, Day seven.

Willett, from Rotherham, England, and Jacksonville (Ala.) State, has won two European tour events.

“It’s kind of a childhood dream,” Willett said, “and looking up there [at the scoreboard] it’s a little bit surreal.”

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Jordan Spieth struggled a bit more than he had Thursday and was at five under with five to play.

Tiger Woods was still five over par with seven holes to play and had little chance of making the cut, which was set at 83 players at even par or better as play was stopped.

Another crossing

Earlier in the day, before Watson, Nick Faldo also made a last walk across the Swilcan Bridge and was properly accorded attention for his British career, which included 37 appearances and three victories.

Faldo, a prominent network golf commentator, is 57.

bill.dwyre@latmes.com

Twitter: @DwyreLATimes