Tom Watson has had an amazing 2009.  He nearly won the Open Championship at Turnberry.  He almost had the Senior Players Championship in hand.  Yet in spite of all of the attention, he hasn't won a tournament this season.  As he prepared for his final chance to win an event this weekend at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Sonoma, California, I got about ten minutes on the phone with Tom to talk about a wide range of subjects. 

I can safely say that this was the greatest interview that I've ever had the opportunity to do.  I hope you enjoy.

Ryan Ballengee:  You're in Sonoma this week for the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, how are you sizing up the field this week?

Tom Watson:  Well, the field about the best that you're going to have on the Champions Tour.  We got everybody here that's anybody, and it's probably going to be a pretty low-scoring shootout this weekend.  The weather today and yesterday, the wind was blowing real hard.  But the wind is supposed to die down, it's supposed to get warmer, the greens are perfect, so you're going to see some low scores out there.  But you had better stay out of the rough; the rough is gnarly.

RB: That's a perfect segway into my next question.  In 2010, the grooves change will come into effect for every professional, including the Champions Tour.  How much do you see the impact of this on the Champions Tour, and how do you see it impacting guys on the PGA Tour?

TW:  I think the guys on the Champions Tour played on the V-grooves, where the guys on the PGA Tour haven't.  Thing is, nobody knows what these new grooves are going to do.  The ball manufacturers are making balls that are softer, to spin a little more - who knows.  It's really up in the air.  We're just speculating right now.  But the USGA drew the line in the sand with the grooves and said, 'We want people who hit the ball in the fairway to be rewarded.  Simply because when you hit the ball in the rough and you can spin the ball just as easily with square grooves, we just don't think that's the way the game should be played.'  You should have to guess out of the rough with the v-grooves, rather than no guesswork at all - like it's been the last 20 years.

RB:  Like you said, a lot of you contemporaries played with v-grooves at some point.  Is there a sense of nostalgia about them?

TW:  ::Laughs:: I don't think the players have give it much thought except that nobody - a few of us - have the clubs that we're going to use with the new grooves and the new balls that the manufacturers are making.  We still haven't put the two together.  It's just now beginning.  So your question about what's it going to do and how's it going to effect could be answered a lot more honestly in a few months.

RB:  After your hip replacement in fall of last year, a lot of people were wondering if your playing days were numbered.  But now a year after the surgery and all the success you have had this year, how long do you project yourself playing competitively?

TW:  Well as long as my body holds up and I can still do it, Ryan.  Doin' it is subjective.  If I can still do it, I'll be out here.  The thing is about old golfers, they never retire or die, they just fade away.  They still think they can do it.  They go home, have a good round playin' with their buddies and say, 'I'm gonna go out and play on the Tour next week because I'm hitting the ball really well.'  ::Laughs::

RB:  Kenny Perry spoke at the Presidents Cup about his desire to scale back his schedule now that he's turning 50.  From your perspective or speaking to his, what are the things that go into making that decision?

TW:  Well, it's just how do you want to live your life basically.  Do you want to live out of a suitcase 30 weeks a year?  Or 20 weeks a year?  15 weeks a year?  That's the choices you have to make and what other priorities you have in your life.  Golf has always been my priority as far as my career is concerned, but there are other priorities that you have to spend time with.  Sometimes they take the front seat, and golf takes the back seat.  There's no set way of saying how many touranments anyone's going to play.  It's just how many you can play, or you want to play.

RB:  At the Open Championship, you said something very interesting to me.  You said that it was the one of the four majors that you could compete in because length wasn't a factor.  But now that the R&A has announced changes to the Road Hole - lengthening it by 35 yards and keeping it as a par 4 - do you still stand by that?  Or is that kind of indicative of a change in the R&A?

TW:  The R&A is doing the right thing by lengthening their golf courses.  The fact is that links golf is, when you play it, it takes another set of skills to play.  Those skills are ones of touch and feel that may not be used all the time when you play American-type golf courses.  The Road Hole isn't going to make much of a difference to me because I always make bogey on that son of a gun anyway.  ::Laughs::  I always make my five, get out of there, and go ahead.  A par there is a like a birdie.

RB:  Are players still going to perceive it as an unspoken par 5 on the card?

TW:  Five's not a bad score on the Road Hole any time.  The bottom line is that the holes play short that last couple of Open Championships at St. Andrew's.  Playing downwind - most of the players would not hit driver off of the tee.  So moving the tee back 35 yards - with the same wind conditions - is not a big deal on the Road Hole.

RB:  Obviously, you had that extremely close call at the Open Championship.  We're about three months removed from that now.  Do you think about that much?  Do you think about that Sunday much?  If you do, what do you recall about that experience at Turnberry?

TW:  I don't think about it very much, but when I do, I still think that I played the 72nd hole the way I should've played it.  I just didn't get the job done.  I hit two good shots into the green - off of the tee and into the green.  Then I didn't hit a particularly good putt from off of the green, then hit a lousy putt to try to save par.  But the first two shots were as good as I could hit it.

RB:  A lot of people said at the time, watching the replay, 'One yard less.  One yard less with that second shot and you would've had the Claret Jug in your hand.'  Is that a sentiment that you can endorse?

TW:  Well, I don't know.  Again, I've never seen the ball - where it landed on the green.  My friend Andy North, when I asked him, said it landed a foot on the green.  And that's about the hardest part of the green, the first foot, because there's a big incline that goes up and rolls over.  Apparently, it hit right on top of that roll, which is the driest part of the green.  It was a pretty good shot, I know that.  When the ball was in the air, it felt like Turnberry at '77.

RB:  It was a darn good shot.  I think that's the part that shocked people most - that it didn't stop close to the hole for you after you hit such a great one.

TW:  ::Soft laugh::  That's links golf.  When you play enough golf - especially enough links golf - you understand that the shot is never over until the ball stops rolling.  In American golf, when the ball is in the air, you know that you got.  In links golf, there's always a question.  There's always a question that you'll get a funny bounce, or you misjudged the hardness.  That's the beauty of the game to me.  That's the beauty of links golf to me: the uncertainty.

RB:  Have you talked with Stewart Cink much or at all since that Sunday?

TW:  No, I haven't.  No.

RB:  Do you ever envision a day where you'll sit down and talk about it a bit, or just kind of leave it as it is in history?

TW:  Well, I don't know.  I'm sure that when we're old and grey, maybe we'll have a sit - maybe next year, I don't know.  I don't run across Stewart too much.  He's playing with the kids.  ::Laughs::

RB:  Last question.  With everything that has happened in your professional life this year - as exciting as it is - how would you sum it up?

TW:  Honestly, I haven't won a tournament.  That's how I judge my year.  If I've won a tournament during the year, then I've beaten the field.  That's what I've always wanted to do is beat the field.  I've got one more shot at it this week in Sonoma.  So those are my intentions right now.