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He hooked his tee shot on the 17th into grass so deep it took him two hacks to get back to the fairway. He three-putted for a double bogey, while Cink played safe and smart for a two-putt birdie and a four-shot lead.
Jack Nicklaus, whom Watson beat at Turnberry in 1977 in that famous “Duel in the Sun,” shared Watson’s pain.
“I don’t think Tom was tired,” Nicklaus said. “But emotionally, he was spent. All his emotions were spent in those first 18 holes. When Stewart made birdie at 18, and then Tom made bogey, it just goes right through you.
“I feel terrible for him.”
Cink, born two years before Watson won his first claret jug at Carnoustie in 1975, moves to No. 9 in the world ranking.
“It’s been a surreal experience for me,” Cink said. “Not only playing one of my favorite courses and a wonderful tournament, but playing against Tom Watson. This stuff doesn’t happen. I grew up watching him on TV, hoping to follow in his footsteps, not playing against him.”
Some of these fans were at Turnberry in 1977 when Watson beat Nicklaus, the signature victory among Watson’s eight majors.
He just couldn’t beat Father Time.
“It was fun to be in the mix again, having kids who are my kids’ age saying, ’What are you doing out here?’ It was nice showing them you can still play,” Watson said. “I’m sure I’ll take some good things from it. But it’s still a disappointment.”
Watson wasn’t alone in that disappointment. Three other players had at least a share of the lead in a final round where fortunes shifted with the sea breeze off the Firth of Clyde.
Lee Westwood of England had a one-shot lead with four holes to play until making back-to-back bogeys. He battled to the end, however, and made a bold swing from a pot bunker in the 18th fairway. The ball cleared the sodden wall by an inch and somehow reached the front of the green. One shot behind, with Watson in the fairway behind him, he felt his only hope was to make the 70-foot putt.
He ran it about 8 feet by the hole, then missed the next one and took bogey. Westwood was saddened to see Watson miss the putt for other reasons — he shot 71 and finished one shot out of the playoff.
“Gone from frustration to sickness now,” he said.
Chris Wood, missing only an “s” in his name to give the weekend some normalcy after Tiger Woods missed the cut, shot 67 despite a bogey on the last hole. He tied for third with Westwood, finishing nearly two hours before Watson missed the decisive putt.
Mathew Goggin, who played in the final pairing with Watson, also was tied for the lead and had a chance to seize control until badly missing an 8-foot birdie putt on the 13th. He followed with three straight bogeys and shot 73, two shots behind.
Then there was Ross Fisher, not even sure he would play Sunday if his wife had gone into labor. He birdied the first two holes and was two shots ahead until he chopped away in high grass on both sides of the fifth fairway and took a quadruple-bogey 8. Fisher didn’t make another birdie the rest of the day and shot 75.
It was the highest winning score in the four Opens held at Turnberry.
The closest Cink had ever come to winning a major was the 2001 U.S. Open at Southern Hills, when he missed an 18-inch bogey putt on the last hole while trying to clear the stage for Retief Goosen, never suspecting Goosen would three-putt from 12 feet. Cink wound up missing the playoff by one shot.
Now, his name is on the oldest trophy in golf, joining the likes of Woods, Nicklaus and Watson, the man he beat.
“The same Tom Watson that won this tournament in ’77, the same guy showed up here this week,” Cink said. “And he just about did it. He beat everybody but one guy. And it was really special.”
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