Golf-Open-Echoes of Duel in the Sun with Turnberry return

By Mark Lamport-Stokes

TURNBERRY, Scotland, July 12 (Reuters) - Next week's British Open, the first to be held on the spectacular Ailsa Course at Turnberry since 1994, will evoke vivid memories of arguably the greatest finish to any major championship.

Thirty-two years ago Tom Watson prevailed over Jack Nicklaus by one stroke after 36 holes of magnificent shot-making and counter thrust in an epic head-to-head later dubbed the 'Duel in the Sun'.

It was a dream contest between 'Golden Bear' Nicklaus, then widely regarded as the greatest player of all time, and the tousle-haired Watson, one of the best practitioners of links-course golf to grace the game.

The script for the final round of the 1977 British Open was made even more perfect by the conditions: light rough and very little wind at the coastal venue on a glorious day of summer sunshine.

Britain's Peter Alliss, a winner of 21 tournaments who is perhaps best known as a television commentator, reviewed that year's championship in glowing terms in his book 'The Open'.

Alliss wrote: "Perhaps no championship before or since has equalled this one in the appeal of having the two great players in world golf, Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus, in a head-to-head duel that lasted through two whole days.

"Both played superbly, seeming to raise each other's games to fresh heights, with blow and counter blow all the way.

"In simple terms what made this Open spectacular was the long, old-fashioned duel between the greatest player of modern times and the man destined to succeed him."