Tom Watson’s slacks were covered by dark rain pants on a wet Friday morning at Valhalla Golf Club, but his shirt and golf glove were yellow. That look would have been at home during the 1970s, when Watson was forging his reputation as one of the best golfers born after World War II.
He played in his first P.G.A. Championship in 1973, tying for 12th place and earning $3,975 at Canterbury Golf Club in Ohio. His appearance here in this year’s P.G.A. — because he is captain of the United States Ryder Cup team that will square off against Europe in late September — was his 33rd and probably final berth in the only major championship he never won. It is the same hole in his record that another golf luminary, Arnold Palmer, has in his.
The closest Watson, who won five British Opens, two Masters and one United States Open, came to possessing the P.G.A.’s Wanamaker Trophy was in 1978 at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania. He led after each of the first three rounds and was still in control in the final round.
“I have to play a different golf course than a lot of these kids,” said Tom Watson, referring to his longer approach shots during the 96th P.G.A. Championship, at the Valhalla Gold Club.CreditMike Ehrmann/Getty Images
“I had a good lead going to the last nine there and kind of frittered it away,” Watson said. “It would have been nice to have all four of them, without question.”
As he has often done in his senior years — most spectacularly in the 2009 British Open, when at 59 he led going to the 72nd hole before losing a playoff to Stewart Cink — Watson played capably at Valhalla less than a month before he will turn 65.
Despite giving up a lot of distance off the tee to younger and stronger competitors, he shot 72-73 to miss the cut by two strokes on a soggy course playing longer than its second-round setup of 7,328 yards.
“Nice tee placement,” Watson said Friday to Ted Bishop, the president of the P.G.A. of America, after his drive on the 450-yard 17th hole failed to reach the fairway cut 250 yards away. In typical Watson fashion, he still made a par.
“I have to play a different golf course than a lot of these kids,” said Watson, referring to his longer approach shots. “I felt like I played it pretty well. When I was 35 years old, I said I was going to retire when I was 45, and here I am playing at 64. I’m grateful.”
Most aging athletes — unlike artists, actors, writers or musicians — cannot approximate their prime selves regardless of pedigree. Yet a cadre of special players, including Watson, Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Hale Irwin (who shot better than his age, 69, three consecutive times in a Champions Tour event this month), have been able to slow the clock.
“Tom is one of the most competitive individuals I’ve ever seen,” said Andy North, a two-time United States Open champion and longtime friend of Watson’s. “Like Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, he is definitely in the echelon of people who gives it his max every single time.”
Watson’s tenacity will be used another way at the Ryder Cup, where he will captain the team two decades after his previous turn at the helm.
“I’m excited for the guys who get to play for him,” said the Americans’ 2012 captain, Davis Love III, who was on Watson’s team in 1993, the last time the United States won a Ryder Cup in Europe. “Guys have a lot of respect for what he’s done in the game and his passion for it. He’s always been strong-willed and serious. Guys are going to have to play hard for him.”
The roster of the United States team was in flux at the P.G.A., the last opportunity to qualify on points, because of injuries to Woods, Matt Kuchar and Jason Dufner. Another top golfer, Dustin Johnson, has taken a leave of absence from the tour and will not participate.
“Yes, it is a concern,” Watson said. “We’re falling like flies right now, some of the players that are either on the borderline or on the team.”
Regardless of which dozen golfers end up on his squad at Gleneagles in Scotland — the top nine players in the points standings and three captain’s picks he will select on Sept. 2 — Watson has been steadfast about what they will need to do to alter the team’s mojo in the biennial competition. The Europeans have won seven of the last nine Ryder Cups, most recently thanks to a huge final-day comeback at Medinah Country Club outside Chicago in 2012.
“The main thing is right here,” Watson said Friday at Valhalla, tapping his chest a couple of times. “Who’s got the heart? Who’s got the guts to make the five-footer when the chips are down, to be able to grind it out and make that one point. That’s what I’m looking for. The most important attribute for the player is how much heart can they have.”
In observing and competing occasionally the last two years with players young enough to be his children or even grandchildren, Watson has been pleased.
“There have been some heartwarming surprises,” he said. “I like the attitudes of the players. It’s kind of a lot of me that I see in the players, a lot of me. The main thing is you do anything possible to win. If you are not hitting it well, you find a way. My caddie Bruce Edwards always said to me when I was playing lousy: ‘All right, come on, find a way. Find a way.’ ”
If the United States is to succeed on European soil next month, the golfers who will be making the swings will need the flinty mind-set that has served their captain so well for so long. But a leader’s lifetime example can go only so far.
“In the last bunch of years,” said North, one of Watson’s vice captains, “the Europeans have made more putts and hit more quality shots when they’ve needed to. The key is to have 12 guys playing well.”
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