Tom Watson

Hometown

Kansas City

Missouri

Year Inducted

1988

Inducted Category

Competitor

Birthdate

Sep 04,1949

Major Championships: 8

Masters Tournament: 1977, 1981
U.S. Open: 1982
Open Championship: 1975, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1983

Senior Majors: 5

Senior PGA Championship: 2001, 2011
JELD-WEN Tradition: 2003
Senior British Open: 2003, 2005

Additional PGA TOUR Wins: 31

1974: Western Open
1975: Byron Nelson Classic
1977: Bing Crosby Pro-Am, San Diego Open, Western Open
1978: Tucson Open, Bing Crosby National Pro-Am, Byron Nelson Classic, Hall of Fame Classic, Anheuser-Busch Classic
1979: Sea Pines Heritage Classic, Tournament of Champions, Byron Nelson Classic, Memorial Tournament, Hall of Fame Classic
1980: San Diego Open, Los Angeles Open, Tournament of Champions, New Orleans Open, Byron Nelson Classic, World Series of Golf
1981: USF
1982: Los Angeles Open, Sea Pine Heritage Classic
1984: Seiko-Tucson Match Play Championship, Tournament of Champions, Western Open
1987: Nabisco Championship
1996: Memorial Tournament
1998: MasterCard Colonial

PGA TOUR Champions Wins: 9

1999: Bank One Championship
2000: IR Senior Tour Championship
2002: Senior Tour Championship At Gaillardia
2005: Charles Schwab Cup Championship
2007: Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am, Senior Open Championship
2008: Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am, Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf
2010: Mistubishi Electric Championship

Additional Wins: 12

1980: Dunlop Phoenix
1984: Australian Open
1992: Hong Kong Open
1994: Skins Game
1997: Dunlop Phoenix
1999: Wendy’s Three-Tour Challenge, Diner’s Club Matches
2000: Hyundai Team Matches
2004: Wendy’s Champions Skins Game
2007: Wendy’s Champions Skins Game
2010: Wendy’s Champions Skins Game
2011: Ka’anapali Champions Skins Game

Ryder Cup Appearances: 6

Wins in bold

Player: 1977, 1981, 1983, 1989
Captain: 1993, 2014

Honors & Awards:

Player of the Year: 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1984
Vardon Trophy: 1977, 1978, 1979
PGA TOUR leading money winner: 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1984
Missouri Sports Hall of Fame: 1984
Bob Jones Award: 1987
Old Tom Morris Award, GCSAA: 1992
Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame: 2001
Charles Schwab Cup: 2003, 2005
Payne Stewart Award: 2003
Card Walker Award: 2003
Charlie Bartlett Award: 2004
The Memorial Tournament Honoree: 2012
Northern California Golf Association Hall of Fame: 2016
Kansas Sports Hall of Fame
Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame

Of all the players who challenged Jack Nicklaus’ supremacy, Tom Watson carved out the greatest legacy.

Watson has won 39 events on the PGA TOUR, including two Masters and a U.S. Open and a remarkable five Open Championships.

Beginning in 1977, Watson won six PGA TOUR Player of the Year awards, and he led the money list five times. Yet it was his head-to-head victories against Nicklaus, 10 years his senior, that cemented him as a player for the ages.

The first came at the 1977 Masters where Watson countered Nicklaus’ fourth-round charge with four birdies on the closing six holes to win by two. Four months later in the Open Championship at Turnberry, the two engaged in the most intense and highest caliber sustained battle in the history of Major Championship golf. Tied after 36 holes, they were paired together in the final two rounds. Nicklaus shot 65-66, only to be beaten by Watson’s 65-65.

“No other game combines the wonder of nature with the discipline of sport in such carefully planned ways. A great golf course both frees and challenges a golfer’s mind.”

Then in 1982, Nicklaus, gunning for a record fifth U.S. Open, held the lead down the stretch at Pebble Beach. Again Watson counterattacked, finally pitching in for a birdie from deep rough off the 17th hole to produce one of the most dramatic shots ever seen. When he also birdied the 72nd hole, he had won by two strokes and earned his only U.S. Open title.

Watson was born September 4, 1949, in Kansas City, Missouri. An all-around athlete growing up, the fresh-faced but fiercely competitive Watson was nicknamed “Huckleberry Dillinger.” After a good but not spectacular junior career, Watson attended Stanford, where he graduated with a degree in psychology and showed occasional but not sustained brilliance as a golfer.

But once Watson joined the PGA TOUR, he showed a determination to excel that soon set him apart. “Tom would never tolerate a weakness,” said Lanny Wadkins. “He’d go to the practice tee and beat at it until the darn thing went away.”

Fact

Tom Watson became the first golfer to earn $500,000 in a single season (1980).

Still, Watson had trouble winning early in his career. At the 1974 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, he took a one-stroke lead into the final round, only to shoot a 79 that dropped him to fifth. He also led after 36 holes the next year at Medinah but again finished weakly. Watson once said, “I learned how to win by losing and not liking it.” And he also learned from Byron Nelson, who later became his teacher and mentor.

In the Open Championship at Carnoustie, Watson holed a 20-footer for birdie on the 72nd hole to get into a playoff with Jack Newton and prevailed by one stroke in the 18-hole playoff. It would start a pattern of success in the oldest Major that best reflected Watson’s indefatigable character as a player. Watson won the Claret Jug four more times, in 1977, 1980, 1982 and 1983. “Tom takes a deep-rooted pleasure at the prospect of the challenge,” said his friend and former USGA president Frank “Sandy” Tatum. “What evolves is the focusing of an unusual intelligence on what he is setting out to do.”

Although Watson was a long hitter who had frequent streaks of superb ball striking and birdie runs, he was even better as a scrambler who could manufacture good scores with what became known as “Watson pars.” During his reign as the best player in the game, Watson was a fearless putter who frequently ran birdie chances well by the hole, but seemingly never missed the comebacker.

After his glory years ended with his last money title in 1984, Watson’s putting began to decline and he won only three more times on the PGA TOUR, with his final victory coming in 1998 at the MasterCard Colonial.

Tom Watson was originally inducted in Pinehurst.