Tom Watson brings humility, eye for detail to his Ryder Cup captain duties

To hear Tom Watson tell it, being captain of the U.S. Ryder Cup team is some humble duty.

Among its other trappings, he said last week, it resembles caddying.

By that, he didn’t just mean providing astute guidance, motivation and nuanced insights, the sorts of things that will ultimately be his imprint on the event that begins today in Gleneagles, Scotland.

He also meant tending to the grunt work and shepherding along the nitty-gritty details.

In the last weeks leading up to this biennial spectacle, one in which the U.S. team is seeking to shake the specter of seven losses in the last nine competitions, Watson was preoccupied with those glamour-free tasks.

First, there was making sure the team was properly tailored in its gear, which he said “may seem mundane” but was probably “the biggest problem we’ve got.”

Then there was true minutiae, like reminding spouses to bring stray items such as binoculars.

And sorting out ticket distribution, which so unhinged him that assistant Kelly Fray finally said, “I’ll handle it.”

“That was a load off,” he said.

At one point, Watson even offered himself up as a guinea pig.

He donned the team’s waterproof outerwear and stepped into a shower to test it, lest there be a wardrobe malfunction along the lines of what went awry for Team USA in Wales in 2010.

This time, he said, smiling, “They work really, really well.”

All of this, Watson acknowledged, left him “a little stressed out.”

“But,” he added, “I’ve been here before.”

Watson could have meant that any number of ways that apply here.

And this is why you shouldn’t be fooled by his under-selling of his place in this.

On multiple levels, his modest public approach shouldn’t be confused with what this means to him.

That’s partly because he won four of his five British Opens in Scotland and playfully considers himself part-Scottish.

And if Watson, 65, isn’t in the twilight of his glorious career, there’s a sunset beckoning on the near horizon.

It may or may not be imminent, but it’s sooner than later.

No one is trying to put him out to pasture. He’ll tell you that himself.

More than a year ago, he sat down with The Star at the U.S. Senior Open in Omaha and said, “I don’t know how long it’s going to take for me to get to the point where I say, ‘I can’t do this any more. I can’t compete any more.’ But this year may be the beginning of the end.”

So one way or another, this Ryder Cup figures to be one of Watson’s last high-profile hurrahs in a sport that he’s honored as much with his achievements as his grace.

Watson may or may not be conscious of that particular notion right now, though.

Because you can believe he’s fixated on an element of this that might be informed by his experiences but that he understands extend well beyond him.

Watson played on four Ryder Cup teams, the first in 1977.

That one left a permanent impression on him, something he still considers a career highlight.

“Watching that American flag go up in the opening ceremonies, I’d never played for my country before … ,” said Watson, who never was on a losing Ryder Cup team. “There is an overwhelming feeling of pride that you’re playing for your country.”

Pride, yes, and he quickly added, “And responsibility.”

Watson felt that same sense when he captained the 1993 team that won at The Belfry in Warwickshire, where he motivated his team in part by invoking some thoughts of then-Kansas basketball coach Roy Williams.

Asked how he prepares teams for away games, Williams told Watson he’d typically tell players before the game, “I want you to make the crowd go silent at the end of the game, and I want you to watch the crowd leave early.”

Of course, Williams also told Watson that for all the strategizing and study he does before any game, “Invariably, five minutes into the game, I throw that plan out and I coach by the seat of my pants.”

That’s because things always happen that aren’t anticipated, which was the case for Watson, too.

As in a fog delay in 1993 that complicated Watson’s pairing selection decisions.

But it all worked out.

As Watson was hurrying to celebrate after Davis Love III’s decisive putt, Payne Stewart thumped him on the back.

“‘What? What?’” Watson said.

Stewart pointed to the stands and said, “Captain, look up there. Look at the stands!’

“They were more than half empty. And we just chuckled as we walked up that last hole, knowing we’d won the Ryder Cup. And Roy Williams’ prophecy came true right there.”

Afterward, Watson recalled, the fulfillment of standing off to the side as “the stage manager and watching your actors perform and getting that standing (ovation) at the end of the performance.”

As for the present performance, Watson preferred to keep private how he intended to motivate the team he helped put together and for which he has pivotal say on assembling for the match-play competition.

But even if he says the job isn’t “rocket science,” Watson knows it’s not just checking boxes on a list either.

“Surrounding all that,” he said, “is the attitude that you bring as a captain.”

This story was originally published September 25, 2014 at 10:32 PM with the headline "Tom Watson brings humility, eye for detail to his Ryder Cup captain duties."