It’s not every day you get to play with true legends of this game. Then again, when you’re the PGA Professional at a legendary club like Prestwick, such outings can be par for the course. David Fleming talks about his casual knock about with the eight-time major champion Tom Watson
The opportunity to host the indefatigable Watson at Prestwick, who won four of his five Opens on Scottish soil, was a memorable, eye-opening experience for Fleming. It was one to savour for Watson too.
“Prestwick is a true links golf course, running just the way such a traditional and historic course should,” he said of the venerated birthplace of The Open Championship.
With that enduring, timeless swing, the wizard Watson still plays a mean golf ball.
“It’s fascinating to watch him up close and it was a privilege,” said Fleming, who has also enjoyed social rounds with Sandy Lyle and the former US President, Bill Clinton, down the years.
"The first tee shot, I hit a drive right down the middle of the fairway and lost the ball,” he once said as he highlighted the flummoxing, fickle fortunes of the links game.
Remarkably, Watson won The Open and added another Claret Jug to his collection after his epic Duel in the Sun with Jack Nicklaus at Turnberry two years later.
It wasn’t until 1981, though, that Watson had, in his own words, “an epiphany” and fully appreciated the true majesty of golf by the seaside.
“Tom talked a lot about his trip over here back in 1981,” added Fleming, of a voyage of discovery which included rounds at Prestwick, Troon and Dornoch as well as Ballybunnion in Ireland.
“He was over with his friend Sandy Tatum (the former USGA president). He had a proper Prestwick lunch and maybe a little bit too much to drink. And he played brilliantly. That was a special time for him.”
Watson’s recent return to Prestwick was another opportunity for him to breathe in the history that abounds in this treasured neck of the golfing woods.
“He remains very interested in those early Opens, the work of Old Tom Morris and the clubs that Young Tom hit during his Open wins here,” said Fleming.
“He is doing a bit more course design these days too and has that hat on. A lot of the designers have been here and walked it and are taking bits from it.
