30 June 2009
Johannesburg — WHAT a sporting year it has been so far. From the cricket tours to and from Australia, the blitzkrieg of the IPL, the World Twenty20, the British and Irish Lions tour and the Confederations Cup, life is good for the South African sports fanatic.
It seems odd that we'd get to Wimbledon and feel it's a bit anticlimatic but certainly its intensity doesn't seem to match what we've just had. That's all bound to change this week though as the big guns start falling away and the king and queen of grass, Roger Federer and Venus Williams, attempt to entrench themselves further into the history of this magnificent tournament.
For those who enjoy watching drug-infested men on bicycles pedalling - and pedalling, again and again, day after day, on the same bike - there is the Tour de France starting on Saturday. Apparently some find the viewing compelling.
Golf has certainly been on the backburner, particularly as South Africans haven't exactly been covering themselves in glory. But that is set to change next week as the top players head to Turnberry in Ayrshire, Scotland, for the Open Championship.
And South Africans will have good memories of the Ailsa course. The last time the Major was held at that venue, in 1994, their favourite son from Zimbabwe, Nick Price, memorably sank a 50-footer for eagle on the 17th to snatch victory from a bewildered Jasper Parnevik, who bogeyed the 18th.
But the course is known for a more famous battle in 1977. It was Jack Nicklaus versus Tom Watson, dubbed The Duel in the Sun. Paired together for the final two days, the two had been matching birdie for birdie to run away from the field.
Legend has it that on the 16th tee in the final round when both were tied at 11-under with three holes to play, the rising superstar said to the established legend: "This is what it's all about, isn't it?"
Nicklaus smiled at Watson and replied: "You bet it is."
Up until then there had been numerous magical shots from both players which had been working the crowd into a frenzy. Yes, the nice, polite, hand-clapping British public, not the raucous "get in the hole" American spectators, finally lost it. Sports Illustrated's John Garrity described it thus: "The back-and-forth took them out to the Turnberry lighthouse and the picturesque ocean holes -- at which point the following gallery, thousands strong, succumbed to the excitement. Fans broke through the ropes on the ninth fairway and sprinted past the players; humanity spilled from the choke point like water from a hose.
"It took 15 minutes for stewards to clear the fairway, during which time Nicklaus sat on his golf bag and Watson stood nearby."
After that exchange on the 16th, Watson birdied the 17th and after missing his four-footer for birdie, Nicklaus drove into the rough on the 18th, his ball finishing in a seemingly unplayable lie. He found the green but had a putt of about 35 feet while Watson had a two- footer for birdie. No problem for Nicklaus -- he rammed his putt home and all the pressure was on Watson, who studied the putt extremely carefully before holing it to win by a stroke.
The setting is an appropriate one for such contests.
According to the Turnberry website, the Ailsa golf course gets its name from the ominous Ailsa Craig, a volcanic rock set a mile or so out in the nearby sea. A local saying goes: "If you can see the Ailsa rock, it's about to rain. If you can't it's raining."
The ninth hole is something special, described as a "remote tee set on a rocky promontory on the edge of the sea, with a drive across the corner of the bay and a glimpse of the site of Bruce's Castle (Robert the Bruce, Scottish King, 1306- 1329). The narrow path to the tee and the tee shot itself are not recommended to those of a nervous disposition."
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