Words of wisdom from Tom Watson
The eight-time major winner Tom Watson put up a decent show during the first round of the Open Championship. With the American, were the young guns, Martin Kaymer and Ryo Ishikawa.
Martin Kaymer had the worst round among the three. The 2010 US PGA Champion shot 77 with no birdies, which is a poor result by any standard. The Japanese shot 4-over 74 in mild conditions, there was a little breeze going on but that is not an excuse at this
level.
Tom Watson showed both of them that even at such an elderly age, he was still the boss. Watson shot 1-over 71 to finish the round at T53.
Watson, a veteran plus a five-time Open champion, knows what it takes to be successful at the links course. There are not many links courses around the world now. So young players, who have not played at any links course, find it tough going at the Open
Championships.
After the round, Watson said that he could understand what Ryo and Kaymer will be going through at the moment because every player has such moments in his career. However, he had a few words of advice for them.
"I have been there before. I know what they are feeling," the five-time British Open champion told reporters.
"Go to the practice range, work it out, try to figure out what happened on your bad swings and do not let it happen again tomorrow," was his advice for the world number 15 Kaymer and 62nd-ranked Ishikawa.
Kaymer, who was world number one sometime in 2011, has not hit his stride since then. He won only one tournament after that. Watson said that young players need to work on the practise range in order to make things better for them.
He also feels that young golfers make things too complicated for themselves, whereas, they just need to relax and get the basics right.
"I think a lot of times the young players make it a little bit too complicated when you really cannot make it that complicated. It will bite you when you make it too complicated. So the simpler you can make it, the better."
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