If I have learned anything from Tom Watson’s improbable run up the leader board of the 2009 British Open it is that the world, the golf world that is, is a cruel place to reside.

In the “real world” Watson makes 4 on 18 and rides off into the sunset the champion…..

In the “real world”

The golf world is a different place though. While I feel like we were robbed of a defining moment in the history of the sport, I lost sight of what actually happened. We were not robbed of a moment. We were not cheated a date with infamy. We were treated to just what golf gives us.

Golf gives you NOTHING. It owes you NOTHING and it rewards you for NOTHING. Golf is a finite game that is infinitely confounding. It is a game that magnifies inconsistency or mistake and RARELY rewards perfection.

What happened on the 72nd hole to Tom Watson will be debated for years. Did he choke? Was putter the right play from the fringe? Should he have played the 9 iron instead of the 8 from the fairway?

These questions, and others will swirl around a bar and around clubhouses for years to come.

What will be lost in these meaningless discussions will be the facts of the case. Golf handed Tom Watson just what it hands all of us. NOTHING.

Watson hit a PERFECT drive into the 18th fairway. PERFECT. Not good, not pushed a bit, not a bad angle, PERFECT. He then hit a PERFECT #8 iron from the fairway toward the green. The ball landed about 1 foot too far and as it trundled past the flag, it gained speed and ran just through the green.

Now, the last round you played, think back, how many PERFECT shots did you hit? I am going to guess somewhere between 0 and 1. You know how I arrive at that number? Because I played 3 rounds last week and hit 0 PERFECT shots.

I hit 1 or 2 or maybe even 5 good shots, bordering on real good, but not a single one was PERFECT, and I got a couple of the worst breaks you could think of. I had a ball rest in a divot in the middle of the fairway twice and a couple plug in bunkers which resulted in chip outs and added strokes.

I hit the ball good and was handed NOTHING. Watson hit it PERFECT and was handed NOTHING. This game is like that. It rewards nothing at all consistently. You can hit the worst shot of your life and hole out from forever away and hit the best PW you have ever hit and careen off the flag into the water.

This is not a game that rewards anything at all……..except tenacity.

And if we learned anything else, it is that tenacity was rewarded in the form of a championship. The most tenacious player was the victor. He had a golf hand him the same breaks and overcame all of them to hoist the Jug.

Watson got handed the worst that golf had to offer. Perfection was not only not rewarded, but was punished.

Why should I expect any different when I hit it poorly?

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