The 138th Open

This feature was written to coincide with the release of 'Underdogs', a gripping new 48-minute documentary on The 138th Open from R&A Films. You can watch exclusively on R&A TV from Monday.

The 138th Open served up a Championship so absorbing and so dramatic that its legacy as one of the most memorable in the long history of golf's original major endures 16 years later.

It was a tale of the unexpected, though entirely in keeping with events in the world of golf in 2009.

It delivered one of three first-time winners from the four majors in 2009, though for so long it looked as if the bewitching story that played out at Turnberry would end with an all-time great belatedly claiming a remarkable piece of history.

The previous year had seen history made as Padraig Harrington successfully defended his title at Royal Birkdale, becoming the first European since 1906 to win the Claret Jug two years in succession.

He arrived at The 138th Open seeking to become the first man since Peter Thomson in 1956 to win The Open in three successive years. However, Harrington went into the Championship struggling significantly for form. Going into the week, the Irishman conceded he would have liked The Open to be “pushed back” amid his slump, and it quickly became clear he would not be the story on the Ayrshire coast.

After day one, it was the charismatic Miguel Angel Jimenez who held the lead. The Spaniard, who had only twice previously finished inside the top 25 at The Open in 2001 and 2007, held a one-stroke advantage following a six-under-par 64.

But behind Jimenez lurked a surprising chasing pack.

Tom Watson headlined a triumvirate of players on five-under, the five-time Open champion whose ‘Duel in the Sun’ with Jack Nicklaus at the same venue served as one of the defining moments of an incredible career, tied with 2003 champion Ben Curtis and the largely unknown quantity of Kenichi Kuboya, who carded an eagle and three birdies on his final four holes.

A quintet of players ended the first 18 holes a shot further back, with the in-form Steve Stricker joined by Australian duo John Senden and Matthew Goggin, Colombia’s Camilo Villegas and fellow American Stewart Cink, with Mark Calcavecchia and Mark O’Meara, winners in 1989 and 1998 respectively, on three-under.

While the likes of Watson, Calcavecchia and O’Meara had rolled back the years in making hay while the sun shined, some of the more fancied names had failed to do so. Harrington carded a quiet one-under 69, while world number one Tiger Woods went round in 71.

The latter would pay the price as the weather changed dramatically on day two.

Indeed, the serene sunny conditions were replaced by high winds and scattered showers, leading to just seven players posting under-par second rounds. Woods, understandably heavily fancied to win his fourth Claret Jug prior to the tournament, was not one of them.

Double-bogey sixes on the 10th and the 13th condemned Woods to a second round of 74 that saw him drop to five-over and miss the weekend by a stroke. That fate also befell Curtis as a second-round 80 put paid to his hopes of regaining the Jug, with the same score seeing Senden’s Championship curtailed after 36 holes despite his strong start.

For Woods, it marked only the third time in his career he had failed to make the weekend at a major, and just the second time with him playing as a professional.

"I made mistakes," Woods said. "You can't make mistakes and expect not only to win the cup but to try and win a championship. You have to play clean rounds of golf and I didn't.

"It is disappointing, there is no doubt. I was playing well coming in and unfortunately today I didn't play certain holes well. I was one-under after seven holes and right there in the championship. Then came a few tough holes right in a row and I couldn't get it back."

With Woods exiting the stage and Harrington, who scraped into the weekend despite a second-round 74, well off the pace, there was an opportunity for a surprise name to capture the imagination and become the story of the Championship. Given the setting, it was fitting that for much of the weekend, it was Watson who grasped that chance, as his bid to tie Harry Vardon for the all-time record of six Open victories and become the oldest major champion at the age of 59 gathered momentum.

It did so thanks to his links golf nous, developed over decades of developing appreciation for a challenge he once hated. Watson recovered from an early run of bogeys to post level-par for his second round, a superb long putt from the edge of the 18th green securing a 70, as he and eventual Silver Medallist Matteo Manassero seemingly fed off each other’s energy in producing magic down the back nine.

Watson would share the 36-hole lead with Steve Marino, whose 68 vaulted him into contention, with England’s Ross Fisher posting the same score to join a group of four others – including Jimenez and Kuboya – on three-under, a shot behind Calcavecchia, who looked in excellent shape to threaten to reclaim the prize he won 20 years prior.

Cink, meanwhile, kept himself in contention as he limited the damage from a day on which he carded four bogeys and a double. Birdies at the 16th and 17th secured a 72 to keep him within three of the lead, gains that would increase in their importance as the weekend played out.

Conditions would improve for moving day, but most players were content simply with staying put as the golf course showed its teeth once more, with just five players signing for an under-par third round.

Cink was not among them, yet a one-over 71 was good enough to maintain a three-shot deficit, birdies at the par-three 11th and the 17th proving crucial, though given who was ahead of him by Saturday’s end, few would have been focused on his exploits.

Watson had kept his nose in front, focusing on minimising the mistakes while once again producing a sprinkling of stardust on the greens, holing a monster putt on 16 for the second straight day as he emulated Cink’s score, his relationship with a delighted crowd making it clear what the favoured outcome was for Sunday.

For Watson’s Saturday playing partner Marino, hopes of victory went with a six after a wayward tee shot at the par-three 15th, which he followed with a double at 16. Still, with England’s Ross Fisher (three-under) and Lee Westwood (two-under) posting level par, Watson had competition who could perhaps rival him for support. Goggin was also just a shot behind Watson after a 69, with Westwood joined by Retief Goosen in trailing Watson by two.

“The gameplan is, I can afford to make a certain number of bogeys, and I have to make up with a certain number of birdies. I’m pretty close to it right now,” Watson said after the third round.

However, Watson could not quite get the bogey-birdie ratio right on the final day, as Cink displayed resilience no player left in the field could match when it mattered most.

After dropping a shot at the first, Watson was usurped at the top of the leaderboard by Fisher, who started with successive birdies, including a glorious chip at the second. However, a bogey at the fourth and a nightmare quadruple-bogey at the eighth ensured he would not lift the Jug.

Still, it looked as if Watson would cede the title to an Englishman when Westwood took a two-shot lead as he found form with the putter, following a birdie two at the sixth with an eagle three at the seventh. His compatriot Chris Wood also put himself in the mix with an eagle at the seventh and a birdie on eight.

But, after dropping a shot at the 10th, Westwood was joined atop the leaderboard by Goggin and a resurgent Watson, and he would soon have Cink breathing down his neck.

Cink’s previous best at The Open was a T6 at Carnoustie two years prior, but his lack of experience contending to win the Championship was not apparent in his final round as, after responding to bogeys at five and 10 with birdies, he drained a challenging putt at 13 to move within one of the lead.

An unfortunate bounce on the 18th landed Wood in thick rough to take the previous year’s leading amateur out of contention, while a string of bogeys from 14 to 16 did for Goggin.

With Westwood seeing what looked to be a perfect approach shot at the 15th bounce into a bunker and lead to a bogey as Watson dropped a shot at the 14th, the leaders were falling back towards Cink.

He had followed his gain at the 13th with a dropped shot at the 14th, and went birdie-bogey again before heading to the final hole still just a shot behind.

His approach shot at the 18th would dramatically change Open history.

“The shot into 18 was something that I really drew on from the previous round,” Cink said. “It was just a shot that landed short of the green, a true links-type shot, and I trusted the ball would gather on up towards the hole and it did.”

That display of links knowledge left Cink with a putt to get to two-under, and he made no mistake.

“I don’t remember knowing exactly what I needed to do, but I just knew I wanted to try to make that putt,” Cink added. “I never felt like I was out of it. At that point I knew that I had maybe done something.”

What he had done was to pile pressure on Watson and Westwood and leave them no room for error.

Westwood, despite successive bogeys at 15 and 16, moved back into a share of the lead on 17, though he could not hide the agony on his face after his eagle putt drifted millimetres wide of the hole.

And, as Watson was tidying up for birdie after finding the first cut on 17, Westwood fell victim to a cruel twist of fate, with what had at first seemed to be an ideal tee shot on 18 rolling into a fairway bunker.

He improbably managed to get the ball onto the putting surface from that position, but Westwood subsequently ran his lengthy putt for the clubhouse lead too far past the hole, with his return putt an errant one as his chances evaporated.

The golfing gods had refused to smile on Westwood and, unbelievably, they turned on Watson, who hit his approach to a markedly similar position to his key shot in his duel with Nicklaus 32 years prior. However, instead of settling on the green, this time the ball rolled off the putting surface.

In his Chronicles of a Champion Golfer film, Watson said: “We chose an 8-iron from 187 yards and, as people told me, they said when that ball landed on the green, there was a gust of wind that went with it.

"Maybe my ball caught that gust of wind and rode that wind and took the spin off the ball. Maybe. But it landed right where I wanted it to. It just didn’t have enough spin on it to stop the ball, but it was coming down right on the flag. It was coming down right on the flag just like it was in ’77.”

Watson still had two putts to win the Championship, but both fell well below his standards and left him facing the prospect of a four-hole play-off with Cink.

Cink had the advantage of a short amount of extra rest before the play-off and the differing outcomes after both players found greenside bunkers at the fifth – the first extra hole – illustrated his status as the fresher player.

He recovered to save par as Watson bogeyed and, as the latter’s accuracy off the tee deserted him at the third extra hole where he signed for a double-bogey seven, Cink kept his composure to strike the telling blow with a birdie, which he followed with an approach at the 18th akin to the one Watson had hit back in 1977.

A simple putt for a closing birdie represented a fitting finale for a man who was rewarded for maintaining his composure and consistency as others either crumbled or dealt with cruel luck, and Cink’s magnanimity in victory and Watson’s grace in defeat made for heartwarming images as the two embraced at the end.

“It would have been a hell of a story, wouldn’t it?” Watson said. “It wasn’t to be. The dream almost came true.”

For Cink, there was no guilt in denying Watson a record-tying win and, looking back on his victory 10 years later, he divulged that Watson’s prominence as the man dominating everyone’s thoughts allowed him to stay calm in the biggest moments.

“How often do you get to live out that kind of dream? You are on the practice green, countless times, telling yourself: 'This is to beat Tom Watson in The Open' and then it happens in real life,” Cink said.

“Looking back on it, I’ve had so many people say to me: 'You stole The Open from Tom Watson'. It’s said mostly in jest but sometimes serious too.

“But the way I see it is a lot of people tuned into watch golf that day, people who wouldn’t otherwise have watched.

“They already knew about Tom Watson. He didn’t win but they learned a bit about Stewart Cink and that was the way it was supposed to be.

“But I fully understood what Tom was doing there, writing that story.

“So it never was lost on me and I think that was a big part of being able to stay about my wits in that play-off.”

Cink’s sentiments haven’t changed from his thoughts in the immediate aftermath of his win, when he said: “I think it will be the one that Tom Watson didn’t win. But that’s OK with me, Tom has already got his name on this thing five times.

“It’s OK what they say, the Tom Watson Turnberry Open. In my heart I know I played well enough to win it and I did win it.

“I finished it off in great style and had a great time doing it.

“I have reached the very top of the game, at the oldest championship. It is something that I will always be proud of.”

Cink's triumph could be considered a rare exception to the axiom that history is written by the winners. For the most part, Watson was the author, but, thanks to his success in keeping a cool head, it was Cink who had the final word.