My colleague and friend, Kevin Lynch, wrote a piece on his visceral reaction years after Tom Watson lost the British Open at age 59 to fate and Stewart Cink. I thought about that act of chance recently when I revisited the unlikely triumph of Darren Clarke at Royal St. George’s. Truth be told, RSG is the type of nutty course where such unexpected things happen. How else to explain Ben Curtis’ triumph the last time the Open was contested there?
The magical creatures of golf give and take, as with all things in life. Knowing that Tom Watson won five British Opens makes his loss to Cink a bit easier to swallow. Knowing that Darren Clarke had suffered through the treatment and loss of his wife to cancer made his victory this year that much finer. I can’t speak for KL, aka The Scrambler, but I know that each time the subject of Watson’s loss to Cink comes up, I’ll respond with one word: Clarke.
