ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – Tom Watson doesn’t really do melancholy much. It’s too pensive an emotion. He prefers things on the surface, plain, where everyone understands each other. Ask him why he lost the 1984 Open at St. Andrews after hitting it on to the road at the 17th hole, he will say “I just hit a terrible shot.” Ask him why next year’s Masters will be his last, he will say, “The golf course is too big for me.”
Ask him about Phil Mickelson’s harsh words about him after last year’s Ryder Cup, he will say: “Disappointing.