The Open / Bill Elliott / 06 July 2009 / Leave a Comment

As the build-up to next week's championship gathers momentum, Bill Elliott reflects on the greatest Open of all and concludes that, in the end, links golf - with its random, semi-controlled chaos - is a bit like life itself...

Keys that jingle in your pocket, words that jangle in your head, why did summer go so quickly, was it something that I said?

Well, whatever, but there is no doubting the hard fact that time really does fly. When The Open clatters in for business at Turnberry next week the thoughts of many of us will turn back 32 short years to what was probably the greatest Championship ever played.

Irretrievably now known as 'The Duel In The Sun', that '77 Open offered a remarkable stage for the two pre-eminent golfers of the day to strut their stuff. Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson did not let anyone down that week.

After two rounds the pair were tied for the lead, a stroke ahead of the field. By the end of the third round they were three shots clear, each having shot 65. By mid-afternoon on the fourth day Nicklaus and Watson were so far ahead of everyone else they were competing in a different Open.

Tom returned another 65 to Jack's 66, each birdied the final hole but crucially Watson had birdied the 17th. Nicklaus's final flourish came after a drive into deep clag, a bludgeoning recovery and an improbable birdie putt from about a mile. Watson breathed deeply and holed his own four footer for victory.

"I knew I'd have to hole that last putt to win because I just knew Jack would can that long putt of his. No-one has had more last green birdies in majors than him so I was prepared - sort of, " he says now.

"It won't surprise anyone to know that Turnberry is one of my favourite courses in the UK and, naturally, the Open I won there all those years ago is one of the Championships I most cherish. To beat Jack Nicklaus that year and for us to play as well as we did was special. So, yes, it will be good to be back there.

"I was there a few years ago for a Senior British Open when Loren Roberts won and I was close up behind and I won a Senior Open there in 2003. You can see why I really like Turnberry. Number one reason is that I still feel I can be competitive there. It's not a long golf course relatively and it requires very good shot management, especially the ability to play in cross winds. Do that, keep your ball out of the bunkers and you can compete."

Watson, whose five Open titles places him in an elite band of brothers - James Braid, JH Taylor and Peter Thomson each won five while Harry Vardon won six - uniquely took to the demands of links play. Born, raised and still living in Kansas his natural intelligence on top of a psychology degree from Stanford meant he immediately rose to the physical and intellectual challenges of bouncy golf. It was not, however, exactly love at first sight.

"When I turned up early for my first Open at Carnoustie in '75 the R&A secretary Keith Mackenzie told me the course wasn't available for practice at that time. Instead I went down the road to Monifieth for my first taste of a links. I can see my first drive now. It was perfect, right down the middle.

"But I couldn't find my ball when I got down there. Eventually I discovered it in a 5ft deep, wee pot bunker. It had bounced sideways some 50 yards. I thought 'what the heck is this about?'."

Then he figured it out, realised that the links game is as much about self-control as ball control, that it relies as much on imagination as it does on technique and that little slices of decent fortune can mean almost everything. In other words a bit like life itself - random, semi-controlled chaos. He knows also that the better golfer usually wins these things. Fate might be unpredictable but it is more often than not quite fair. That psychology degree probably helped quite a bit in his thought process.

He says now that he still plays because the game "is part of my soul". He loves the look of the younger players coming up and looks for what he has always looked for above else when he analyses them...passion and desire.

He was one of the first to spot these qualities in a young Tiger Woods and warned us that when this kid turned pro he would impact on the game more than anyone for at least 50 years. I wasn't alone in thinking he had been at the laughing water again. I was spectacularly wrong. And, of course, he is still in awe of Woods.

"I was watching him not long ago in the company of Jack (Nicklaus) and I said 'Jack, he is the best ever, don't you think?'. Jack said 'yes'. Then I felt a bit embarrassed because I'd just said this to Jack Nicklaus and so I added 'Mind you, you were quite good yourself' and Jack smiled that way he does and replied 'Yeah, I suppose I was quite good looking back'."

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