Nicklaus, Watson: A Perfect Match

It’s an attitude, Jack Nicklaus said.

It’s a feeling you give the opponents, Tom Watson said.

It is the ability to make crucial putts in match play, an affinity that defined the play of Nicklaus and Watson in a 4-and-2 victory over Bruce Fleisher and David Graham on Sunday in the Senior PGA final of the Hyundai Team Matches at Pelican Hill in Newport Coast.

And because of that ability, two of the most decorated individuals in golf history have evolved into one of the most proficient tandems in team match play.

The victory Sunday, their second consecutive in the Team Matches, extended the pair’s undefeated streak to eight in match play.

They were 4-0 in the 1977 and 1981 Ryder Cups and are 4-0 in the Team Matches.

Dottie Pepper and Juli Inkster went overtime to win their fourth consecutive title. Pepper sank a three-foot birdie putt to defeat Annika Sorenstam and Lorie Kane on the 21st hole.

Tom Lehman and Duffy Waldorf upended defending champions Fred Couples and Mark Calcavecchia in the PGA Tour final on the 20th hole. Lehman and Waldorf made four consecutive birdies to end the match and punctuated the final one, a five-footer by Waldorf on the 20th hole, with a leaping chest bump.

Each member of the winning teams receives $100,000 and a car.

Nicklaus made five-foot birdie putts on Nos. 2 and 5, an 18-foot birdie putt on No. 8 and a 16-footer for birdie on 11 that gave his team a 3-up lead with seven to play.

But perhaps more important were par-saving putts of eight feet on the 10th hole by Nicklaus and a scramble par by Watson at No. 13.

“In match play . . . there’s a definitive outcome on putts,� Nicklaus said. “For some reason I have an attitude over the ball that ‘I need to make this, I’m going to make this.’ If you stuff it down their throat, then it demoralizes the other guys. Sometimes you miss that putt and they make it and it turns around your mental attitude. That’s the fun of match play.�

In a match where Nicklaus and Watson seemed unable to miss a crucial putt, Fleisher and Graham couldn’t make one. Nicklaus punctuated the match when he hit a six iron to within four feet on the par-three 16th. It officially ended when Graham barely missed a 15-foot a birdie putt on the same hole.

“It turns it around so quickly,� Watson said of making the crucial putts. “It gives you something in [your gut] and it changes the direction of where we’re going.�

Sorenstam and Kane were 2-up with five to play in the LPGA final, but Pepper made consecutive birdies at the 14th and 15th to even the match before sinking the winner.

Each team had 2-up leads disappear during a tightly contested match that featured three holes halved with birdies.

“This might be the most satisfying victory because we had to work the hardest,� Pepper said. “I don’t think there are any two people that hate to lose more than us.�

It is the third title for Lehman and Waldorf, who won in 1995 and ’96. Their seesaw battle included a combined 21 birdies and neither team went more than 1-up. Waldorf sank a 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th to send the match to extra holes.