American captain Tom Watson delighted with emerging talent ahead of Gleneagles.
If he didn’t know it before Augusta, Tom Watson certainly does now. He’ll have a 21-year-old weapon in his armoury at Gleneagles in September.
Jordan Spieth come within a few decent shots of becoming the youngest-ever recipient of a Green Jacket.
He also partnered the United States Ryder Cup captain during the opening rounds of the subsequent RBC Heritage tournament in South Carolina.
It gave Watson a chance to get up close and personal with the American prodigy, and he wasn’t disappointed.
“I like the way he plays the game,” says Watson of the kid who’s 44 years his junior. “He’s got a passion and sometimes makes me laugh. He gets up there and he hits a bad shot, and says: ‘That’s real close,’ when it’s about 40 yards off line!
“That’s exactly what I would say!
“But I remember when I was a kid playing the game, and Jordan makes me relive some of those memories.
“He’s done very well. He’s very mature when he talks with you, and he has a good sense of who he is and I like that about him.”
Watson appears to have a ton of players who have that American belief to believe in the impossible.
Until The Masters, Jimmy Walker was leading the way, and Watson admits: “Man, can he play.”
Then there’s three-time winner on the PGA Tour this year, Patrick Reed, who quickly proclaimed he was in the top five in the world. The cynics may retain their doubts, but not Watson!
“He crushed the face of his driver a couple of weeks ago, and has been looking for a new one, trying different clubs.
“But it looks like he has found one that is working pretty well for him. He has a solid golf swing, a great grip and good fundamentals. So I like what I see.”
Then, of course, there’s The Man himself right now, Bubba Watson, who often defied convention and any coaching manual you care to mention to win at Augusta for a second time.
“I had the chance to sit down and talk with Bubba at The Masters,” says Watson.
“He’s fired up for Gleneagles. He wants to make it right, and I hope all the players want to make it right because of what happened in 2012.”
Watson also believes anyone who thinks his nomination as Ryder Cup captain is based on sentiment should think again!
He says: “At the beginning people questioned whether I was too old to be Ryder Cup captain.
“Let’s put it this way, these players know that I’ve been there before. They know I’ve played on the team, that I’ve been the captain of the team, and I know what they’re going through.
“Age doesn’t have any relevance at all. I can relate to the players through the game, how the game is played, and how they’re playing. That’s what we’re going to be talking about.
“I’ll be out at the Greenbrier, the Memorial, Open Championship and the US PGA, getting to know the players.
“The problem with the Ryder Cup is you have to wait two years to play it again, whereas normally after a bad week you can get right back in the saddle the next week.”
Watson didn’t have too many bad weeks in his prime, and won The Open five times, four of them in Scotland Carnoustie (1975), Turnberry (1977), Muirfield (1980) and Royal Troon (1982).
He admits: “I may give a little bit of a push to it because of my record over in Scotland.
“I don’t think the Gleneagles crowd are going to be less partisan, but maybe the cheers aren’t going to be quite as loud when we miss a putt as they used to be!
“We are all geared up for it, believe me.”
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