'I Let My Chance to Win It Slip Away'

If the name of Tiger Woods is the most glaring omission from the entry list for this week's Open championship at Birkdale, then the sentimentalists will note that Brian Watts is another who has not made the trip to this corner of west Lancashire for the 2008 edition of the game's greatest tournament.

Ten years ago, when the Open was last staged here, the American journeyman lost in a play-off to Mark O'Meara. This week he will be at his home in Dallas watching the tournament on television, dreaming of the day he will again compete in major championships after a long, despairing battle against injury. "It is nice that people still remember me," he says.

How could anyone forget? Watts, now 42, led the 1998 Open after the second and third rounds and held a two-shot lead with nine holes remaining. O'Meara, playing in the group ahead, moved in front but a birdie on the 17th hole for Watts left him needing just one more on the last to win the Claret Jug. He almost pulled it off, too, producing one of the most memorable efforts in Open history - hitting his brutally difficult greenside bunker shot for birdie to within six inches. "You are always trying to play as good a bunker shot as possible but on that occasion I made a conscious effort to play the ultimate bunker shot - to hole it," he recalls.

It nearly secured him the tournament. Par was enough to get him into the play-off but a missed five-footer on the first of four extra holes set the tone. O'Meara eventually won, his second major championship of that season. For Watts the disappointment was sharp and it has endured, even intensified, in the years since.

"Some people have all the talent in the world and others don't. I was someone who didn't, which means you really want to make the most of your opportunities when they come along," he says. "It wasn't about the money for me. I had played well on the Japanese tour for a few years and it was satisfying to discover I could play just as well under the intense scrutiny of Birkdale. And even though I'm an American, my father is English - I grew up loving the British Open and believing it was the greatest championship in golf, and to have the chance to win it only to let it slip away was incredibly disappointing."

Second place came with some consolation, not least because it meant he was able to play on the PGA tour in 1999. He made the cut in all four majors that year and kept his card. But that was to be the high-water mark of his career. The following season he injured his hip and back. He briefly returned to the PGA tour in 2001 but spent the next five years struggling to play. "I could barely bend down to stick my tee in the ground," he says.

Watts' pursuit of a cure for his injury problems finally met with some success last year and he was well enough to play competitive golf this season. Indeed, this summer he made the trip to Japan hoping to secure one of three spots in this week's Open awarded to the best finishers in the Mizuno Open. Alas, he missed the cut. "Sure, I would have liked to have been in Birkdale this week," he says. "But to be honest with you, I am just happy I am able to play golf again. And there will be another British Open next year. Hopefully, I will be back for that."