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Watson On Track To Compete In Record Nine PGA Tour / Champions Tour Majors Contact Jeff Adams (August 8, 2003) - Tom Watson is having a pretty incredible spring and summer competing in the major championships on the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour. His major championships record for 2003 is rivaled only by Jack Nicklaus' 1990 and 1991 seasons, Ray Floyd in 1993 and Watson's own first year on the Champions Tour, 2000. Since missing the cut at the Masters by three strokes, Watson's worst finish in the seven majors he's played to date was a T28 in the U.S. Open, which he co-led after the first round. In his last three Champions Tour majors, he's finished second twice and won the Senior British Open. With the Senior British now the Champions Tour's fifth major effective this year, Watson is on track to become the first golfer to compete in nine major championships in one year. Recently he was extended an invitation to play in the PGA Championship. The final major of the year, the JELD-WEN Tradition, will be played August 28-31 at The Reserve Vineyards and Golf Club outside Portland, OR. The "Golden Bear" had two particularly great years among the seven in which he played in what was then all eight PGA TOUR and Champions Tour majors. In 1991, he didn't miss a cut in any of the eight, winning three of the Champions Tour majors. The previous year (1990) he missed one cut, the PGA Championship, but finished sixth in the Masters and earned victories in the Tradition and Ford Senior Players, while finishing T3 and second in the other two Champions Tour majors. He went on to compete in all eight majors five more times -- 1993 through 1997. Floyd entered all eight majors one year, 1993, missing the cut in the PGA, but finished T7, T11 and T34 in the other three PGA TOUR majors, and finished between second and T13 in the four Champions Tour majors. The three World Golf Hall of Fame members, Watson (twice), Nicklaus (seven times) and Floyd (once), are the only players to have accomplished the feat of playing in all of both Tours' majors in a single season. Complete records of Watson's, Nicklaus' and Floyd's best major championship campaigns appear below. Their finishes in PGA TOUR and Champions Tour majors are listed below in the order they are currently played: Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship; Senior PGA Championship, U.S. Senior Open, Ford Senior Players Championship, Senior British Open (2003 only) and JELD-WEN Tradition. |