Danny Willett will be picking the menu for the champions dinner at Augusta next year but among the small talk with the other Masters champions it is unlikely he will spend too much time reminiscing with Bubba Watson about the time they played 18 holes on a Saturday morning in the third round of the Open.
The US, which loves a blue-collar winner and has not seen too many since the emergence of John Daly, cannot get enough of Willett and the Sheffield man won them over with his down‑to‑earth manner and matter-of-factness as well as his brother’s in-play tweeting from back in the UK as Danny was closing on the Green Jacket and which went viral.
Willett and Watson had made the cut on the plus-four mark after Friday afternoon’s hoolie blew the second half of the field apart and they played through it, but it took an up-and-down from 160 yards at the 18th to get the par. That meant he avoided missing a fourth cut in seven outings since Augusta. Watson, the 2012 and 2014 Masters champion, made birdie at the last to stay around for the weekend.
On the plus side the rain had stopped on Saturday morning, some of the tees had been moved forward and the greens neither cut nor rolled, a safeguard to keep them playable. The wind was an ever-present 15 to 25mph with stronger gusts coming in off the Firth of Clyde, however, and while that was clearly a source of delight to the colourful kitesurfers out on the water, it presented the usual set of problems for the players. Watson, wearing a big black pair of mitts between shots, started with a bogey at the 1st before rolling in three birdies in five holes from the 3rd and then handing one back at the 9th to turn at one under.
Willett, who played a lot of unsolid golf throughout, was out in three over with just the one birdie at the 4th and even produced his putter for a 54-yard effort from the fairway in front of the 7th green. He hit it close enough too and it helped towards a one-putt par. Both made bogey at the 10th and though Willett managed a rare birdie at the treacherous 11th, Watson hit a high second shot and put it on the tracks of the Ayr-Glasgow railway line.
“I missed that putt for a six, tapped it in for seven,” he said later. “Every day I’ve had a bad hole. I made triple-bogey on the first day [at the Postage Stamp], a double-bogey yesterday [at the 11th] and a triple-bogey today. I was expecting the shot to do something, the wind decided it was going to do something else. I hit the next shot the same way and it almost went over into the railway again. They’ve moved the tee up there but it doesn’t feel like they have because of the wind.”
Watson immediately made birdie at the 13th, Willett missed a shortish putt at the 15th after his caddie had to ask a TV technician to be quiet after his squeaking ladder interrupted him at set-up. Both men picked up shots at the par-five 16th, another hole with the tee-box advanced, although Willett was grumbling about the new one to his caddie before and after his drive, which found the middle of the fairway.
The Masters champion spent last Sunday at Silverstone having had three days’ illness the week before, and was still croaky at Troon earlier in the week. He cut short Wednesday afternoon’s practice round at the 12th and asked for a buggy to transport his party back to base. The request was initially refused although half an hour later they were picked up by a four-seater and taken back.
Willett was honest enough after his three-over 74 left him at seven over to say he has not been enjoying his week on the Ayrshire coast and is struggling with his swing. “There’s a lot of range work and it’s different taking it to the golf course with the conditions being as extreme as they are. It’s just picking the right shot that’s going to get it in play. The only problem is you can’t really do much on the range. It’s straight downwind so you can’t actually see if it’s good or bad.”
That is not the problem for Watson, who despite being at five over par is pretty sanguine about his travails and looking forward to the Olympics in Rio next month. “I’ve got tickets for every single night I’m there, sitting with the public and not the athletes as I’ve got my friends with me. I’ve got tickets for fencing, swimming, handball, USA basketball, gymnastics and judo, and the golf.
“I will see what the course is like when I get there but I’m hitting the ball pretty good, I’ve had three bad holes here. If those were all pars, I would be out there setting up for the third round right now [and not finished for the day]. I’m in a good frame of mind and I’m just going to keep practising and get better at it.”
