Father's Day and golf are inexorably linked

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. - Tom Watson still is a force in golf at 60, playing in the U.S. Open and getting cheers at every hole, all because of what he learned when he was six.

"I was lucky. I had a dad who could really play and knew how to swing the golf club and make the ball curve," Watson said. "When I was six, he taught me how to swing the golf club and then he said, 'All right, here's how you hook it, and here's how you slice it.' Right from the beginning. And that was a great benefit to me. That made me the player I am today."

That the U.S. Open and Father's Day coincide every June is a symbolic happenstance. Golf and fathers go together like fairways and greens, what with dads often passing the game along to their children, and then being able to share it for the rest of their lives.

Even a 14-time major champion feels like a kid when he talks about the man who got him started. Tiger Woods hasn't had much about which to smile lately, but the thought of the late Earl Woods does it. "For me to go out in the evenings and practice and replicate what my dad and I used to do, that's how the game is meant to be played," Woods said earlier this week.

"How much fun I used to have, with my dad out there, playing little games against each other late in the evenings," he said.

A golfer doesn't out grow that, not even when he plays in his 31st Open and gets to relive the thrill of winning the 1982 championship on this very course, one that his father used to play as a Stanford student. "He had a tremendous impact on me, I talk about him all the time," Watson said. "He was a great player in his own stead. He played in the national amateur a couple of times. He loved the game with a passion, an absolute passion. I grew to love the game because my dad loved the game."

Watson's chip-in on No. 17 at Pebble Beach 28 years ago is one of the greatest shots in golf history. But it's not the only highlight that has been playing in the 60-year-old's head this week. He recalls coming out as a teenager with his dad. They booked a tee time at Pebble Beach and were paired with actress Imogene Coca and her husband King Donovan. "King Donovan had probably played golf about once in his life. Imogene was not a bad player, she could get it around," Watson said. "And it was a delightful round, playing with my dad."

Shaun Micheel, the first-round co-leader this week, is concerned about his mom, who is seriously ill with cancer. "She was not only a pilot's widow, she was a golfer's widow," he said.

"Actually, my first opportunity to play golf was because he won a membership in a raffle at a member-guest tournament. They drew his name out of a hat for a free membership. So that's how I started," he said, recalling his using his first set of Chi Chi Rodriguez clubs at Stonebridge Country Club in Memphis.

"Not a lot of kids were playing, so I played with my dad's group. My dad would take me out and I would just practice. He let me drive the cart. Really, driving the cart was my introduction to golf, until where I could hit the ball every time," he said.

Few golfers ever have hit a clutch shot as well as Micheel did on the 72nd hole of the 2003 PGA Championship. His won earned him an invitation to the Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland. "I told people, 'I'll come if can bring my dad, to play.' My dad and I spent seven or eight days, playing in Scotland." It was great, right through the ride back to the U.S. on Ernie Els' private jet.

"It was a memorable trip. I'd like to take him on another one, but he has got kind of a full plate right now."

Tom Lehman said he got started as a second grader, chipping and putting with his dad, then graduated to shagging practice balls. Golf has helped Lehman and his wife raise four children - the two boys play golf, the girls don't. "The kids have to sacrifice a lot. They have to understand it and enjoy it," he said. "Fortunately, my kids do."

Scott Langley, the 2010 NCAA individual champion from Illinois, said his dad and mom gave him a set of clubs when he was five and told him, play if you want. It turned out, he loved it. His dad often comes to watch his matches. "One of my fondest memories is playing Whistling Straits with him when I was like 12. It was just a great day. It was before the PGA there so we wanted to play it before it got really famous," Langley said. "It was a pretty cool deal."

This week, Langley's father got to see his son shoot 69 in the second round of the U.S. Open and make the cut.

Erik Compton's father Peter said early this week that he is inspired by his son, who needed the first of his two heart transplants at 12. "I'm always very impressed with the no-quit he has," the elder Compton said. The golfer, though, insisted that he wouldn't be still playing if not for a certain person.

"A lot of my success off the course has come from my dad," the golfer said. "Even when I was sick in the hospital, he was reading Golfweek to me and had a vision of me playing golf again."

This week, it wasn't a vision, it was reality. Peter watched Erik play in his first U.S. Open-an event that has its final round on Father's Day, an event that reminds people that, in golf, every day is Father's Day.

Watson second-guessed himself on a club selection Friday and later said, "I should have listened to my son." Yes, Watson's son Michael has spent the week leading up to Father's Day, caddying for his dad at Pebble Beach.