A happy ending for Tom Watson after all

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Remember Tom Watson in 2009, becoming everyone's darling by cruelly losing out at the Open Championship at the age of 59? Well on Sunday he won the Senior USGPA Championship, at the age of 61, which in Senior terms is still pretty remarkable, as most Senior major champions are in their early 50s.

Watson beat out the "young guns" like Nick Price, Tom Lehman, Corey Pavin and Hal Sutton for his latest major (his 14th, including now 6 Seniors ones).

[Duncan Gardner]

A happy ending for Tom Watson after all

Surely it's comparable to one of those terrible 'masters' 5-a-sides on channel five, where occasionally the fit 40-somethings can beat a team of recently retired ex-pros who've been at the corpo bar all afternoon.

Do they really equate the big four tournaments with these pensioner events in measuring individual wins?

[Janik]

A happy ending for Tom Watson after all

It's absolutely not comparable with that sort of event. Masters Golf is taken very seriously, and is worth significant prize money, meaning that pros recently retired from the main tour (or simply eligible, and playing on both) dominate.

Though I've not seen them totally equated before, especially in terms of majors.

[Janik]

A happy ending for Tom Watson after all

Question for Rogin. Do you reckon the Masters tour at a better standard than the no age restriction 2nd tier tours?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

A happy ending for Tom Watson after all

Well, standards are hard to judge comparatively, because players from each play each other so infrequently. The second-tier tours (especially the one in the US) are almost "junior" tours, really, almost all the players are kids aiming to get their main tour card through a victory or two. They're very competitive events, but by their nature, they tend to be very minor ones in terms of attendances or prize money. Plus, while half-a-dozen or so players from each years' "graduates" may pop up on the main tour with a high finish or even a win over the next few years, the vast majority of them never really make it. Of last year's crop, pretty much only Jhonnatan Vegas has done anything on the main tour so far this year. Of the 2008 vintage, you can choose between Brendon de Jonge, Matt Bettencourt, Colt Knost and Bryce Molder, who've had varying degrees of success since.

The Senior Tour events by contrast are bigger-money events, because of bigger crowds and sponsor interest, and half the field (although not exclusively) tend to be former Major Champions or Tour winners still playing at a very high level. The Senior Tour at the moment includes Watson, Langer, Couples, Price and Strange, all of whom I'd fancy to still give any of the kids a good game, yeah, certanily over an 18-hole matchplay format maybe like the Ryder Cup between the two tours.

And while the senior Majors aren't really "added" to a player's career reckoning by most people (my opening post was really meant to just highlight how Watson's kept winning pretty consistently since he turned 50 so 2009 wasn't a complete flash in the pan) they are highly-fought, and prized in their own way, especially by the guys who never won a "proper" major. When Jiminez and Montgomerie turn 50, I expect the pair of them to return to a level they haven't played at for 4 or 5 years, because of that incentive.