Tom Watson will make the 2016 Masters his last
This week, Tom Watson will say goodbye to the British Open. Next year, he’ll say his final farewell to the Masters.
During a Wednesday news conference at St. Andrews, the five-time Open champion and two-time green jacket winner announced that the 2016 Masters will be his last.
The eight-time major champion will be ineligible to play in the game’s oldest major after this year. For years, past Claret Jug winners were exempt for life and could continue to play in the British Open long after they were competitive with the modern player. In an effort to jettison those players from the field, the R&A had changed the exemption criteria to put an age cap of 60 for past champions.
Then Watson nearly won the Open in 2009 at Turnberry at 59 years old, ultimately losing in an aggregate playoff to Stewart Cink. In response, the R&A created an exemption category specifically for Watson, allowing past Open champions that finished in the top 10 at least once in the last five years to continue playing. That exemption, by design, runs out in this year so Watson could say his Open farewell at the Home of Golf.
Watson made his final appearance at the U.S. Open in 2010 at Pebble Beach, where he won his only national championship in 1982 thanks, in part, to the indelible holed-out chip on the par-3 17th hole. That week, Watson finished T-29.
The PGA Championship is the only major Watson never won. However, he played in it the last two years while preparing to lead the U.S. into the 2014 Ryder Cup matches.
As Watson looks back on this week and the looming conclusion to his Masters career, he was asked if he viewed it all with a degree of melancholy.
He said, “The only regret I have is that it’s the end.”
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
