Watson tapped for Masters honor

Kansas City's Tom Watson was chosen to join fellow golfing luminaries Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus to tee off at Augusta National Thursday, the ceremonial start to the Masters. Watson replaced Lee Elder, who died last fall.

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April 7, 2022 - 12:53 PM

Tom Watson

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Tom Watson didn’t think eight major championships, including two green jackets, would be enough to join the company of Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus on the first tee at Augusta National.

Even at 72, more than a half-century after he made his way down Magnolia Lane for the first time as an amateur, Watson remains somewhat in awe of the legends he spent decades chasing.

“I look at these old goats right here, I can’t carry their shoes,” Watson said Thursday morning, shortly after joining Player and Nicklaus as an honorary starter at the Masters for the first time. “I don’t kind of belong in the same realm as these two players here.”

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