Prelude to a duel: A
few months before
Turnberry, Watson, 27,
beat Nicklaus, 37, in
the 1977 Masters after
the young challenger’s
birdie at 17 prompted
an uncharacteristic
error by Jack at 18 (left).
augusta national/getty images ( 2); golf digest resource center
closer in age. The kid with the
redheaded mop from the Midwest
had been on tour five years in 1977
and was a notorious punisher of
range balls, while the kid with the
dark-haired mop from Northern
Ireland is in his fifth year as a
professional and showed up for the
new season with a new body. They
each sought the wisdom of elders, Watson at the foot of
Byron Nelson, McIlroy from Nicklaus. They each had a
résumé that included major collapse and, in the case of
both, a major success—Watson’s playoff victory in the
1975 British Open and McIlroy’s walk-off win at Congres-
sional CC last June.
And they share at least one other thing. Though the rea-
sons may not be entirely the same, neither is, nor was, the
least bit afraid of the man they would pursue. “I had a cer-
tain stretch in there where I would look at the leader board,
and there wasn’t anybody that would bother me very much,
and I’d just go play my game and let them self-destruct,”
says Nicklaus, taking a break from his hosting duties at the
Honda Classic just days before Woods threw a roundhouse
62 on Sunday only to watch as McIlroy held on to win with,
as Tiger used to put it, his B game. “Well, Tiger had a little
run away. All of a sudden, these kids have learned how to
win. And the Watsons and the Trevinos, they didn’t get
scared of me. He [Woods] may win, as I won, but he has a
different situation. Before, he had guys that fell on their face.
Now, they’re not scared of him. Big difference.”
In 1977 you didn’t need a ranking system to know who
the best player was. There was no confusion in Watson’s
mind about the nature of the challenge presented by the
golfer playing the hole ahead of him that
Sunday in April. “I can only tell Rory
what I tried to do,” says Watson. “I tried
to beat the best. I compared my game
to the best. He was the best there was.
