St Andrews revisited: Seve Ballesteros
This week's Open marks the 150th year since the tournament began, as play returns to St Andrews, where some of the most unforgettable competitions in the history of the major have taken place. Over the next few days we revisit some of the greatest moments at the Old Course.
Seve Ballesteros
There have been many outstanding skirmishes at St Andrews over the years, but the duel between Seve Ballesteros and Tom Watson in 1984 was one of the closest ever fought. Watson was chasing his sixth win at the Open (though none of the previous five had come at St Andrews), while Ballesteros was hoping to take his second. The pair had matched each other shot for shot for much of the day, pushing ahead of Australia's Ian Baker-Finch, who had started the day in the lead but gradually fell away, eventually finishing ninth.
With an 18-hole play-off looking increasingly likely, perhaps the famous "road hole" of the 17th could separate the pair. Ballesteros had bogeyed the hole in each of his previous three rounds, while Watson had made par, bogeyed, and double-bogeyed the 461 yard hole. Could either man exert his superiority over the other now?
Ballesteros managed to par the hole, making an excellent recovery after blundering into the rough with his drive. But after finding the fairway with a decent tee shot, Watson struck a haywire two iron that hit the road, before ending up a couple of feet away from a rock wall, heavily restricting the American's swing on his next shot.
Ballesteros was already being applauded on the 18th as if victory was in the bag. But the Spaniard resisted complacency, sending a peach of a second shot to within just 15 feet of the pin and then putting for birdie, the ball curving unhurriedly towards the cup before hanging on the lip for a brief moment that must have felt like a hundred years to the watching millions.
Ballesteros won, with a St Andrews record score of 276, 12-under-par, his pumped-fist celebration an eloquent expression of his huge delight; the Spanish master would go on to win the tournament again four years later, this time at St Anne's, where he had won his first Open in 1979.
Watson never won another major, though he came heart-breakingly close to capturing the Open again last year at Turnberry. Perhaps the 60-year-old may just be capable of knocking Tom Morris Snr off his perch by becoming the oldest-ever winner at this week's tournament.
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