Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Friday, January 21, 2000
HUALALAI, Hawaii -- Tom Watson withdrew from the MasterCard Championship yesterday after the death of his father.
Watson's withdrawal cast a somber mood over the Senior PGA Tour's season-opening event at the Hualalai Golf Club.
"It's terrible, a sad thing," said defending champion John Jacobs. "This is a wonderful tournament, but this is going to be on everyone's mind when they're playing."
Raymond Watson, 80, a retired insurance broker, was vacationing on Oahu with his wife, Sally, when he suffered a heart attack. He was rushed to Queen's Medical Center where he died at 2:19 p.m.
"I hadn't heard until Jack Nicklaus told me," said golfer Jim Colbert. "He lost his father at an early age and I lost mine recently. But there's never a good time to lose your father."
Watson was on the putting green when his wife, Hillary, told him of his father's death.
Watson's parents were planning to join their son for this 54-hole event as well as the Senior Skins Game at the Mauna Lani Bay Resort next Saturday. Watson was scheduled to play with Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player.
Raymond Watson, a former club champion at Kansas City Country Club, introduced his son to the game at age 8.
Watson's withdrawal reduces the MasterCard field to 37 players, which included Bruce Fleisher, the 1999 Senior Tour player of the year and leading money winner, Lee Trevino and Hale Irwin.
The three-day tournament that began today is limited to only the winners on the Senior Tour in 1998 and '98 and majors' champions for the last five years.
Watson has played in only two Senior Tour events since turning 50 Sept. 4. He qualified for this event by winning the Bank One Championship in Dallas.
