Drinks With Jack Newton

Newton and Seve Ballesteros went shot for shot in the dying stages of the 1980 Masters before ... Images: Getty Images

Where were you watching during the 1975 British Open at Carnoustie, when Tom Watson sank his famous 30-footer at the last to tie with you and force a play-off?

I was playing in the last group. He was two groups in front of me.

Well, that’s wrong information I’ve read there, isn’t it?

Yeah, I’ve seen that written wrong, too. I was two in front with four to play. Hit a pretty good shot on 15, and as traditionally happens in links play, you have to land a ball short of a green sometimes; it copped a bad kick and ran off the green, and I didn’t get it up and down. Then I walked over the hill to the 16^th, which is probably one of the most difficult par threes in the game – a long, narrow green. And there were three groups there backed up waiting to play and it was like the Who’s Who of golf at the time – there was Nicklaus and Johnny Miller and Ray Floyd, and they were all on the tee … I don’t think sitting around helped me too much, and watching all these other geezers stopped my momentum a little bit.

So that’s a good half-hour wait to play your next shot?

Yeah, and it’s a three-wood par-three with a green about four metres wide. I didn’t hit a bad shot, but made bogey, and then my caddie and I made a mental error off the tee on 17. There’s two burns (creeks across the fairway) and you have to lay up between them – it was a kinda two-iron and five-iron par-four. I hit a good shot, but we had misjudged a wind shift; I just got over the first burn, but it meant I had one foot almost in the burn and had to hook it back about 40 yards on the line I wanted. I just had to cop it sweet. So I really let everyone back into the event, and Watson, of course, playing up in front of me, holed a long putt and in the end I had to get a par at the last to tie him.Then in the play-off it was nip and tuck all the way. At eight he hooked it off the tee, it was going out of bounds, but it hit a strand of wire and dropped down and he made a miracle par. Then I was one in front at 14 and he holed a sand wedge. Then I bogeyed the last to get beat 71-72 in pouring rain and wind.

Would you have preferred a sudden-death finish?

No, I don’t think one hole’s fair after 72 holes. In a major there’s too much riding on it for sudden-death, but with all the commercialism these days and commitments, that’s where it’s headed.