The British Open

One putt for history. A simple 10 inches of movement of the putter and the record would be his. As he stepped up to swing his putter for a shot that would forever immortalize him, Tom Watson was surrounded by fans, well-wishers and people cheering him on, yet he probably never felt so alone.
When I think of sports, I tend to think of a team, and often times forget an individual. Maybe it's because I have played more teams sports than individual sports. I don't know what the reason, buy sports is cinanomous with team to me.
But when I saw Watson come to the tee box on the 18th green on Sunday afternoon, I can only imagine what was going through his mind. This wasn't a team game. He didn't have anybody to rely on or to blame but himself.
And with his putt for par and a place in the record books, Tom Watson stroked the ball like he was terrified of the moment. Tom Watson, with his magnitude of experience, his tens of victories, his eight majors, and his five British Open titles, fell the pressure and hit a week putt.
Maybe he was thinking too much about his previous put that he sailed well past the whole. Maybe he was thinking about the history. I don't know. But I do know if you look at Stuart Cink's birdie putt on 18 and Tom Watson's par putt on 18, you can see a stark contrast in confidence.
This got me thinking a little bit. If a guy like Tom Watson can be unnerved, that has to be just about the most difficult thing an individual can do in sports - make a clutch put.
Often times in sports, when the game is on the line, there is more than one individual who affects the outcome. It's either a teammate, a defender, maybe a referee, somebody. But not in this case. It was only Tom Watson. Nobody else.
And unlike other sports, this didn't happen in the flow of the game. There was no lead up to it where you are just playing and letting your instincts take over. He sat there for minutes with nothing else to do but think about his putt. This is the ultimate icing of the kicker.
I can't think of another situation like this. In football, a game winning field goal takes more than just the kicker. In baseball, even in the ninth inning, there is a pitcher and batter.
The closest thing I can think of is in basketball, if time is expired, a tie game, and you have one free throw to win. But that isn't exactly the same, because a free throw is the same distance no matter what court your on. It is something you've done hundreds of thousands of times before. A golfer never sees the exact same put twice.
Maybe in a field event at the Olympics. You have one throw left of the discus to win gold medal. I don't know, it still seems different to me.
So yes, Tom Watson should have one the British Open. He was 187 yards from the pin in the middle of the fairway and needed a par to win. He choked. But can you really blame him?