"PGA Champion" Tom Watson Hand Signed 3X5 Card Todd Mueller COA

Description

Up for auction
"PGA Champion" Tom Watson Hand Signed 3X5 Card.
This item is authenticated by Todd Mueller Autographs and comes with their certificate of authenticity.
ES-2098
Thomas Sturges Watson
(born September 4, 1949) is an American
professional golfer
on the
PGA Tour Champions
, formerly on the
PGA Tour
. In the 1970s and 1980s, Watson was one of the leading players in the world, winning eight
major championships
and heading the PGA Tour money list five times. He was the number one player in the world according to
McCormack's World Golf Rankings
from 1978 until 1982; in both 1983 and 1984, he was ranked second behind
Seve Ballesteros
. He also spent 32 weeks in the top 10 of the successor
Sony Rankings
in their debut in 1986.
Watson is also notable for his longevity: at nearly sixty years of age, and 26 years after his last major championship victory, he led after the second and third rounds of
The Open Championship
in
2009
, but lost in a four-hole playoff. With a chance to win the tournament with par on the 72nd hole, he missed an 8-foot (2.4 m) putt, then lost to
Stewart Cink
in the playoff. Several of Watson's major victories came at the expense of
Jack Nicklaus
, the man he replaced as number one, most notably the
1977 Masters
,
1977 Open Championship
, and the
1982 U.S. Open
. Though his rivalry with Nicklaus was intense, their friendly competitiveness served to increase golf's popularity during the time. In Watson's illustrious career, his eight
major championships
include five
Open Championships
,
[3]
two
Masters
titles, and one
U.S. Open
title. The only major that has eluded him is the
PGA Championship
; if he had won it would have put him in an elite group of golfing "career
grand slam
" winners that includes
Gene Sarazen
,
Ben Hogan
,
Gary Player
,
Jack Nicklaus
, and
Tiger Woods
. In all, Watson's eight majors ranks sixth on the
list of total major championship victories
, behind only Nicklaus, Woods,
Walter Hagen
, Hogan, and Player. Watson is also regarded as one of the greatest
links
players of all time, a claim backed up by his five
Open Championship
victories, his runner-up finishes at the
1984 Open Championship
and
2009 Open Championship
, and his three
Senior British Open Championship
titles in his mid-50s (
2003
, 2005, and 2007). Watson played on four
Ryder Cup
teams and captained the American side to victory in
1993
at
The Belfry
in England. More than twenty years later, Watson again captained the U.S. Team in
2014
in Scotland, this time in a loss.