Last Sunday in Turnberry, Scotland, Tom Watson had one seven-foot putt left to sink: slightly uphill, with a moderate right-to-left break, complicated by a stiff wind in his face.

Standing on the 18th green, he held a one-stroke lead over his closest competitor—36-year-old American Stewart Cink. Drain that putt and the 59-year-old from Kansas City would win the British Open Championship. But there was more on the line than that. He was poised to triumph over the greatest golfers in the world—a world that had changed a great deal in the 26 years since he won his last major title. Where his game was refined in an era of wooden drivers and endless repetition, his rivals were reared in a sport redefined by graphite shafts, titanium club heads, nutritional supplements, psychologists and swing doctors. Continue…