GLASGOW — I found the Open disappointing this year. We didn’t get to cheer a sentimental favourite. We didn’t get a tight play-off race. And to add to that there was the whinging in broadcast and print media about the location, the coverage, the players, etc. (Hitting it’s peak when the R&A chairman went on BBC Scotland and essentially said “okay, this year’s not very good, but next year will be great.”)

I followed a lot of the players around, including Watson. It’s a pain to be pawed by passers-by and have cameras in your face. And then there are the Mensa members who bellows “in the hole!” in your backswing. But professional golfer is not the least desirable job in the world, and it’s nice to see people like Watson and Cink enjoy it.

Tom Watson played with an Aussie called Matt Goggin on Sunday. And he talked to him all up and down the fairways, joked with him on the teas, and probably made it an invaluable learning experience for that golfer.

It’s not going to be what younger golfers learn on the course that will make them happy and or successful in life. And I loved watching Watson take it easy and enjoy himself. Golfers are not warring knights – as the rest of us wage slaves are not – and there’s no real reason to act as if they’re in violent struggle.

I call it integrity. And as I write that I am aware that I might not have the definition of that word right. For me it means moral and social durability. Integrity means being able to sleep at night… forever. Being at peace with yourself, and your place in the world.

I think Watson has that in spades. And more of us could do with heavy doses of it. They don’t teach it in school, do they?

Maybe they should.

/df