As Tom Watson’s putt on the 72nd died a little to the right, every golf fan died a little inside, too.
The walk from the 18th green to the 5th hole for the playoff put back on all those years he’d shed throughout The Open. He looked tired, and the contrast with the seemingly seven foot tall Cink, who went about winning the playoff with the matter-of-fact efficiency of a Storm Trooper, was stark.
Tom conducted himself with down home dignity, of course, and while not many can match his record, I wanted the fairytale. Bugger that putt.
Those few words sum up the feelings of so many of us. Sad that it was an anti climax fpr Cink- he wonn it after all- but sadder still to see the fairy tale ending we all so wanted, disappear.