Tom Watson fears fellow American golf great Tiger Woods may not be the same player ever again if his compatriot is forced into replacement knee surgery. Watson was speaking two days out from the start of the British Open — an event he was won five times — here at Royal St Georges’s, which will represent the second straight major championship that Woods has missed. Woods, 35, has not played competitively since limping out of the Players Championship in Florida on May 12 and there has been speculation the winner of 14 majors may not play again this year — or even retire completely.
Watson, now 61, stunned the sporting world two years ago when he was a putt away from winning a record-equalling sixth Claret Jug at Turnberry in Scotland, having had a hip replacement operation, only to lose that year’s British Open to fellow American Stuart Cink in a playoff.
