The 60 year old won the first of his five Open Championships at Carnoustie in 1975 and returns to the Championship course renowned as one of the all time greats of links golf, despite admitting he did not immediately take to the form of the game.
“My first shot in my first Open Championship at the first time I’d played Carnoustie made me think I’d never take to this type of golf,” says Watson. “I hit what I, and everyone else around me, thought was the ideal tee shot off the first tee. But when we walked up to the spot where we expected it to be, it was nowhere in sight.
“I thought, ‘this links golf is not for me,’ but I went on to tie the Championship with Jack Newton on 279 and then beat him by a shot in the 18-hole play-off on the Monday.
“I believe Carnoustie is the toughest course of all the links courses I’ve played. It’s got water, it’s got difficult burns and it’s got that wind. But, strangely, back in 1975 it was unusually placid.”
Watson is chasing a record fourth Senior Open Championship victory and the American will be attempting to win a third title on a course he has previously won the Claret Jug – having already achieved the ‘double’ at Turnberry (2003) and Muirfield (2007).
“I love playing links golf and I love Scotland and the golf fans here,” he said. “The Senior Open Championship is a truly great event. It attracts the best players in the world and the atmosphere is so friendly it makes you want to play here.
“The venues are a key element of the Championship’s success. To play on Open Championships links of the stature of Turnberry, Muirfield, Royal Troon and Carnoustie is an honour.
“This year I’m warming up for The Senior Open by playing two outstanding links courses at Kingsbarns and Elie and then a little old tournament called The Open Championship on the Old Course at St Andrews!
“It would be good to then win a fourth Senior Open at Carnoustie at the course where I won my first Open Championship and you can be sure I’ll be giving it all I’ve got.”
Watson finished tied eighth at last year’s Senior Open Championship at Sunningdale – an admirable performance given the whirlwind of attention around him a week after he came so close to winning The Open Championship at the age of 59.
“When I think of last year’s Open at Turnberry it leaves a certain glow about the whole situation, even though I finished second,” he said. “The glow comes from the people who watched it and who have come up to me since then and said, ‘having seen what you did, I know I'm not too old now - you've just proven that to me.
“I really felt like I could win the tournament again. The Ailsa Course fit me, and I knew how to play that golf course. I’d won the Open there and I almost had a sort of home-course advantage. It almost worked out.
“Over the years, I've had lots of disappointments and that was another. But I've had lots of victories to counterbalance the hurt. Losing that opportunity tore my guts out for a short period of time - and then I got on with life.”
Watson is one of eight Ryder Cup Captains playing at Carnoustie, with Europeans Sir Nick Faldo, Mark James, Bernhard Langer, Sam Torrance and Ian Woosnam, and Americans Tom Lehman and presiding Captain Corey Pavin joining him in the field.
