📍Kansas City, MO, USA
1949 – 1967“Tom Watson was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in September 1949, the son of Ray Watson, an insurance broker and fine amateur golfer who had been club champion at the Kansas City Country Club, and his wife, Sarah. He grew up in a comfortable home in Kansas City with his brothers, Ridge and John, and the family lived for sport. At six, his father put a cut-down, hickory-shafted five-iron in his hands and taught him the correct grip and stance from the very first day. When he was cut from his Little League baseball team at nine, golf became his passion. He spent his boyhood at the Kansas City Country Club, playing small-stakes matches with his father, his father's friends and the club professional, Stan Thirsk, who became his lifelong mentor and teacher. He learned to compete, and to love the game's traditions, in those matches. At fourteen he won the Kansas City Match Play championship, and he once played an exhibition with Jack Nicklaus and tied him. At Pembroke-Country Day School he won the state high school title twice. He won the Missouri Amateur four times and studied psychology at Stanford, turning professional in 1971. He went on to win eight major championships, including five Open Championships, and became a beloved figure in Scotland. He has stayed rooted in the Kansas City area all his life, and he has always credited his father and Stan Thirsk for teaching him the game.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today