ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, June 3, 1996 TAG: 9606030147
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DUBLIN, OHIO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
It had been nine years since Tom Watson last won a golf tournament. It seemed like a lifetime.
``It's like winning all over again for the first time,'' Watson said after he held off a wave of younger challengers and rolled in a clinching putt on the final green Sunday to win his second Memorial Tournament by two shots.
``God, it feels good. It feels so good to win again. Nine years. Half of that, I wasn't playing good and the last half I was. But it feels good to be the last person off the golf course, the guy who knocked the last putt in.''
Watson followed rounds of 70, 68 and 66 with a 70 to finish at 14-under 274 and collect $324,000. (Scores in Scoreboard. B4)
It was the 46-year-old's first victory in the United States since the 1987 Nabisco Championships. That was also the last time he led a tournament through three rounds. He hadn't won against a full field in nearly 12 years, since the 1984 Western Open.
``I was thinking back to '84 and how good it felt and how I won it,'' said Watson, who dedicated the victory to his ailing father. ``I won that with determination and good play on the last day. I did the same today. I just haven't been able to do that the last few years.''
He made a one-stroke lead at the start of the day stand up by playing steady golf while those around him found trouble, and David Duval's late charge fell short.
Watson came in ranked among the top-10 tour players in scoring in the first, second and third rounds, but was a dismal 52nd in the fourth round.
He had finished second five times since his last win. Two years ago, he was within striking distance going into the final round of the British Open, Masters and U.S. Open, but ballooned to a 74 each time.
``The most disappointed I was was at the Turnberry British Open,'' Watson said. ``I was playing pretty well and putting pretty well, but the last day the putter felt like an anvil in my hands.''
Unlike Saturday, when he holed a sand wedge from the bunker fronting the 17th hole to take a one-stroke lead, Watson never needed a miracle shot.
He bogeyed the first hole - missing a 2-footer for par. He missed a 4-footer for par at the 15th. But he made almost every other putt he needed.
Watson two-putted at the par-5 fifth hole, including a tricky 4-footer for birdie. He made difficult comeback putts for par on the next four holes, then holed a 12-foot birdie putt at the par-4 10th to get to 13-under for a three-stroke lead. He dispensed with the short-putt drama at 14, rolling in a long birdie to push his lead to four.
Duval, six strokes behind Watson as he stepped to the 14th tee, went birdie, eagle, birdie, par and birdie to the finish to make things interesting.
``It was not much of a duel out there,'' Duval conceded. ``It was more like him beating up on everybody like he always used to do.''
Watson parred three holes in a row, then rolled in a 15-foot downhill birdie putt on the final green to close it out.
``I said to leave it short,'' he said of the slippery putt, ``but I still couldn't leave it short.''
Duval's closing 67 left him at 12-under 276, and Mark O'Meara came off the pace to shoot a closing 68 that gave him his fourth straight top-three finish at 10-under 278.
David Frost birdied four of the last five holes to shoot 67 and also ended up at 10-under.
Other contenders wilted. John Huston shot a course-record 11-under 61 to take the lead after two rounds, and started the day two back of Watson. His threat got wet when he dunked his first shot at the par-3 12th on the way to a 73 that left him at 279.
Watson started the week eighth on the tour in scoring but 153rd in putting, yet his putter seldom failed him. He outdrove playing partner Ernie Els - a long hitter 20 years his junior - on every hole on the front side. And he ended a 141-tournament victory drought despite only distant memories of what it was like to play with a lead.
A winner of five British Opens, two Masters and a U.S. Open, Watson had just two bogeys over the last 40 holes.
The victory was the 41st of Watson's stellar career and provided another parallel with long-time nemesis and peer Jack Nicklaus. Nicklaus, the course designer of Muirfield Village Golf Club and the Memorial Tournament host, won the Masters - also at age 46 - a decade ago.
Watson, who also won in the rain in 1979, joined Nicklaus, Greg Norman and Hale Irwin as the only two-time Memorial winners.
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Tom Watson said ``It's like winning all over againby CNBfor the first time.'' color