A fairytale vanishes

Like most people in the game of golf, I'm still feeling a sense of deflation following the Open Championship. It would have been one hell of a story wouldn't it?

We were so close to witnessing a fairytale and it didn't happen. Tom Watson was inches from giving us the greatest performance in the history of sport but it just wasn't to be.

With all due respect to Stewart Cink, and he deserves plenty, Turnberry 2009 will always been known as the "Watson Open", even though the five-time champion couldn't quite claim his record-equalling sixth Claret Jug.

I still can't believe the misfortune that befell him on the 18th fairway because his second shot on the last hole was great. That swing was almost identical to 1977 when he stood in the same spot during the Duel in the Sun with Jack Nicklaus.

He played the shot to perfection and as it ran to the back of the green it seemed to stop. At that moment I thought he was the Open champion because he surely would have two putted from 20 feet.

But somehow it fell off the back fringe and immediately I knew the dream had ended. It was so hard for him to get it up and down from there and by the time he got to the play-off, he had nothing left to give. At 59 years of age, he was physically and mentally exhausted and he was always going to struggle up against a young, fit professional like Stewart Cink. Golf can be a cruel game and there can be no more perfect illustration of that fact than what we saw at Turnberry on that Sunday afternoon.

Yet when the dust has settled, it will still be looked upon as one of the greatest performances of all time. Over the past couple of weeks we have seen this great man return to action with players of his own generation at the Seniors Open Championship and the US Seniors. But Turnberry was special; it was an outstanding achievement for Tom Watson, it's just a shame he fell so agonizingly short.

Links golf and the great links courses seem to have a unique effect on the greatest of players. There is something magical about it, as if you are not just competing against yourself and the field, but Mother Nature herself and the course that she created. Greg Norman gave us a taster last year at Royal Birkdale; now this year Watson delivered us a feast!

Watson's performance will give all players of advancing years hope that there may yet be one last round. He will inspire other legends of the game, and hopefully the likes of Colin Montgomerie and Miguel Angel Jimenez (who led the field himself early in the tournament) that just because they have been around a long time, golfing life does not end at 40!

One man who seems to have been spurred on already, and I will not be alone in showing my delight at this, is Seve Ballesteros. During the coverage of the Open, the BBC showed the first interview with the him since his fight against a brain tumour began. It was fantastic to see him getting back towards his full health, as he described it, 'in this, the most difficult match of my life I feel like I am on the tenth hole'. During the same interview he stated his desire to play in the Open next year at St Andrews. I wouldn't put it past him either and what better, more fitting finale could there be for him; to say goodbye, complete his recovery and thank his fans than on the 18th green at the Home of Golf, the scene of his greatest golfing triumph in the biggest championship of them all.