The old timers do it again

If you had been told before the Open started this year that that an American 50 year old former Open winner would be in the final group on the Saturday following a similar good performance in 2009 you could well be mistaken for thinking that Tom Watson was up to his old tricks again.

But you'd be wrong, firstly Watson is ten years older and secondly the man in question is the 1989 Open winner when it was played at Troon, Mark Calcavecchi. He was in the penultimate group last year at Turnberry, and has gone one better this time round following a 70 and 67 to leave him at seven under and in the final group to tee off with Louis Oosthuizen at 16:40 BST.

Calcavecchia is not the only former Open winner in his fifties to be in the top ten. Tom Lehman who won at Lytham in 1996 has had rounds of 71 and 68 to be tied 7th. He will be off at 16:10 BST with Ricky Barnes and is only three groups back from the leader. Leham has also had excellent performances at St Andrews with a tied 4th place finish in 2000 and tied 23rd in 2005.

So will we have another old timer in with a chance of winning the Open... I think not, Calcavecchia had a 77 in the 3rd round at Turnberry last year and I expect there to be a similar score this time round to fall out of contention.

But who thought Watson would last the distance in 2009... you just never know