Tom Watson Biography
Tom Watson(Full name: Thomas Sturges Watson)is an American professional golfer on the PGA Tour Champions, formerly on the PGA Tour.
In the 1970s and 1980s, he was one of the leading players in the world, winning eight major championships and heading the PGA Tour money list five times.
He was the number one player in the world according to McCormack’s World Golf Rankings from (1978 until 1982)in both (1983 and 1984)he was ranked second behind Seve Ballesteros.
He also spent 32 weeks in the top 10 of the successor Sony Rankings in their debut in 1986.
he is also notable for his longevity: at nearly sixty years of age, and 26 years after his last major championship victory, he led after the second and third rounds of The Open Championship in 2009 but lost in a four-hole playoff.
With a chance to win the tournament with a par on the 72nd hole, he missed an 8-foot (2.4 m) putt, then lost to Stewart Cink in the playoff.
Some of his’s major victories came at the expense of Jack Nicklaus, the man he replaced as number one, most notably the 1977 Masters, 1977 Open Championship, and the 1982 U.S. Open.
Though his rivalry with Nicklaus was intense, their friendly competitiveness served to increase golf’s popularity during the time.
In Tom’s illustrious career, his eight major championships include five Open Championships, two Masters titles, and one U.S. Open title.
The only major that has eluded him is the PGA Championship, which would put him in an elite group of golfing “career grand slam” winners that includes Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods.
In all, Watson’s eight majors rank sixth on the list of total major championship victories, behind only Nicklaus, Woods, Walter Hagen, Hogan, and Player.
Tom Watson Age | How Old Is Tom Watson
Thomas Sturges Watson is an American professional golfer on the PGA Tour Champions, formerly on the PGA Tour.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Watson was one of the leading players in the world, winning eight major championships and heading the PGA Tour money list five times. He was born on September 4. 1949 in Kansas City, MO. Tom Watson is 69 years old as of 2018.
Tom Watson Wife | Tom Watson Children |Tom Watson Daughter
He married his wife Hilary Watson in 1999 and previously to Linda Rubin in 1972and divorced in 1997. He has two children namely: Michael Watson and Meg Watson(daughter.)
Tom Watson Height | Tom Watson weight
He stands at a height of 5feet 9inches(1.75 m)tall. He has a weight of 79Kg(175 lb).
Tom Watson ImageTom Watson Net Worth
The American professional golfer has an estimated net worth of $25 million dollars as of 2019. He has earned his net worth as one of the leading players in the world who has played on the PGA Tour and as of 2019 on the Champion Tour.
Tom Watson Personal life
Born in Kansas City, Missouri, he was introduced to the game by his father Ray. His early coach was Stan Thirsk at the Kansas City Country Club.
Watson first gained local renown while on his high school team at The Pembroke-Country Day School in Kansas City.
He won four Missouri State Amateur championships, 1967, 1968, 1970, and 1971. He attended Stanford University, playing on the golf and table tennis teams, joining Alpha Sigma Phi, and graduating with a degree in psychology in 1971.
Today he has a home in Overland Park, Kansas, after fighting a prominent legal battle to prevent annexation by the city.
Tom Watson Labour
Watson contended in a major championship for the first time at the U.S. Open in 1974 at Winged Foot, but he faded badly in the final round after having the 54-hole lead.
Following this disappointment, he was approached in the locker room by legendary retired player Byron Nelson, a broadcaster at the event, who offered encouragement, insight, and assistance.
Only two weeks after the Winged Foot collapse in 1974, Watson won his first Tour title at the Western Open near Chicago, coming from six shots back in the final round at Butler National.
He won his second major championship and his first green jacket as Masters champion in 1977 after a duel with Jack Nicklaus.
During the final round, Watson stood on the 17th green tied with Nicklaus for the lead. Watson holed a 20-foot putt for a birdie to go one stroke ahead of Nicklaus.
his’s par on the 18th hole won him the Masters title by two strokes after Nicklaus had a bogey on the 18th. Watson’s 1977 Open Championship victory, at Turnberry in Scotland, was especially memorable and is considered by many to be the finest tournament played in the second half of the 20th century.
Nicklaus sank his birdie putt to finish with a 66, but Watson followed suit with his own birdie, finishing with a second straight 65 and his second Open, with a record score of 268.
1978, as defending Masters champion, he needed a par on the 18th hole of his final round to tie over 72 holes with Gary Player, who had shot a record-tying final round of 64.
Tom Watson playing style
He has been one of the most complete players ever to play golf, as evidenced by his competitiveness in the 2009 Open Championship at the age of 59.
during his PGA Tour years, he achieved abundant length with accuracy, played aggressively, developed a superlative short game, and in his prime was a very skilled and confident putter.
Watson is renowned as an exceptional bad-weather golfer, having displayed this gritty talent best in the difficult and varied conditions of The Open Championship.
At the height of his career, he was well known for his excellent recovery skills, especially around the greens. Years later, if a player escaped from trouble and somehow made par, tour players described the escape as a “Watson par”.
Also, he developed a reputation for scrupulous honesty, once even calling a penalty stroke on himself for slightly moving a ball that was in deep rough, although no one else had seen it.
In 1991, he was critical of the heckling of his playing partner Ian Woosnam during the final round of the Masters. Some of the Augusta crowd were vociferous in their support for Watson, in the hope of seeing him win a third Masters title.
Watson, however, calmed Woosnam after he was upset at being yelled at by a member of the crowd on the 14th tee. Watson later said: “There’s been a breakdown in decorum, and I don’t feel good when partisanship spills over.”
In 2010, he said that he agreed with Lee Westwood’s assertion that Tour players who used 20-year-old Ping-Eye 2 wedges to get around new rules prohibiting box grooves ( were going against “the spirit of the game.
” Watson also reprimanded Tiger Woods for his “language and club-throwing” and said that Woods needed to “show humility” to the public.
He has been outspoken about the effect that too much prize money can have on some golfers. In an interview in 2010, Watson said: “I do believe that, in certain instances, players can be corrupted by the amount of money they make.
I think too much money corrupts the desire and for some players, it’s about how much money they make rather than just trying to be the best player they can.”
Tom Watson IBM
IBM ‘Watson’ Meets Golf Legend Tom Watson In New TV Ads Around The Masters
The 80th Masters’ golf tournament is underway, and with it, IBM IBM +0% expands on its series of television ads for the company’s well-known cognitive computing platform, “Watson”.
Given that the artificial intelligence computing system is named after IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, it made sense to couple the ads with golf legend Tom Watson, who is a winner of the Masters in 1977 and 1981.
In the continuation of the “Watson & Me” ad series, Watson, the computer, analyzes Watson, the golfer’s play in the Masters. In the “Weather” ad, with the computer and golfer sitting in a torrential downpour, Watson says to Tom that he has statistically played better than others in wet conditions.
But it is the “Future” ad that is the most poignant as the computer notes that this is the golfing legend’s last Masters. IBM Watson notes that his 1977 Masters win is significant, to which Tom Watson reflects on his performance in that win.
IBM is doing more than parlaying the common name aspect to simply extend the “Watson & Me” ad series which as seen the likes of Stephen King, Bob Dylan, Ridley Scott and other luminaries “talk” to the IBM computer, this year marks 20 years of partnering with the Masters on digital technologies designed to enrich golf fans’ enjoyment of the tournament.
Each year IBM has worked with applications and other aspects around the overall digital experience.
This year, IBM expands into wearables for Apple iWatch and Android Wear app that allows tournament leader board, player details, and other real-time tournament data to be displayed.
Fans can also use a new “universal favoriting” feature available on wearable, mobile and desktop platforms that enables fans to personalize their digital Masters’ experience. That includes being able to spotlight players tagged as the favorites that they may wish to follow during the Masters.
Leave a Comment