Just 496 years after Juan Ponce de Leon searched for the Fountain of Youth but stumbled upon Florida instead, Tom Watson seemed to have found that elusive cauldron.

But whatever it is that Watson was eating, drinking or inhaling, I want a couple of gallons of the stuff. Just think of what it could do for an octogenarian like me---and many of my neighbors. This might be the way to drastically cut medical costs and spend less time in doctors' waiting rooms.

Watson nearly won the British Open and actually came in with the lowest 72-hole score in that tournament just 47 days short of his 60th birthday. The trouble is, one other person, Stewart Cink, also came in with that lowest score, a 2-under-par 278. Then Cink took the title in the truncated four-hole playoff.

There was nothing senior-like in the snappy way Watson stepped up to his ball and whacked it down the Turnberry fairways last week in the British Open. He had all of Scotland, every member of AARP and almost everyone who loves golf, except Stewart Cink and his immediate family, rooting for him.

The conclusion was a great letdown for Tom and those of us who wanted so much to see him win. It showed on his weathered face that suddenly betrayed him for the 59 years plus that he has spent on this planet.

Gone was that old and familiar smile that sparkled for four rounds of super links artistry. It disappeared as his poorly executed 8-foot putt for par 4 on the 72nd hole broke slowly and disastrously to the right of the hole. We all knew that ended the Kansan's chances at a sixth British Open championship.

We all knew Watson, who will turn 60 on September 4, would not beat the charging Cink in the short playoff. It showed as Watson's shoulders slumped and the smile vanished.

But prior to that, Watson took millions of sports fans on a joy ride they won't soon forget as they witnessed an "old man" outplay and, most of all, outthink all but one of the world's finest golfers. They saw a sprightly Tom Watson who underwent an artificial hip replacement last November. They saw a Tom Watson that I well remember from years gone by when I walked hundreds of holes with him in tournaments during his heyday in the 1970s and 1980s.

My friend, John Derr, who will be 92 in October, said, "People should remember that not a single one of the world's very best golfers of this generation beat Tom over the regulation 72 holes of the British Open. That is the important thing he did. No one shot a lower score for the four rounds that are the real test of this major tournament."

I agree that we should think of Tom for what he did and not for what he failed to do in a few extra holes.

As I was watching Watson walk the course, Thursday through Sunday, I could not help but go back in my memory bank to many days spent watching this man who came out of the very center of the United States where he was over a thousand miles from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Yet he became the world's greatest exponent of links golf, the original form of the game and the golf that is true to the windswept shores of the British Isles where he had his greatest achievements---those five British Open championships.

Everyone has heard or read about Watson's "Duel in the Sun" with Jack Nicklaus on the final day of the 1977 British Open at Turnberry when Watson won by a stroke. Granted that was Watson's grandest moment in golf. But there were other spectacular achievements for this young man from farm country.

Although I have walked many a links course with Watson in England and Scotland, there is one round, far from any ocean, that I remember well for the discomfort factor and for Watson's total concentration in the face of horrible playing conditions.

This was the second round of Jack Nicklaus' 1979 Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio.

It may not have been one of the stormy days of a British Open. But that May 19, 1979, in Ohio, was as miserable a day for golf as I have endured in more than half a century covering the sport.

The temperature never went above 35 degrees and the wind never went below 20 mph. The rain came in horizontally all day long. I felt that if there was a one-degree drop in the temperature, we would be subject to a blizzard. As it was, the rain pelted our faces and felt like needles picking at cheeks and eyes.

Through this golfing horror Watson somehow managed to shoot 3 under par 69 on a course that was still not well received by the majority of PGA Tour players. They had griped about Nicklaus' pride and joy Muirfield Village course when it first opened for the initial Memorial Tournament in 1976. Many were still complaining at the fourth Memorial Tournament in 1979 although Nicklaus continued to revise the course year after year.

But the course held up in that atrocious weather and Watson amazingly shot one of only two sub-par rounds turned in that day in May that felt like a bad day in January.

Also, true to his love of the game, Watson was never one to complain about the Muirfield Village course.

I walked 15 of the 18 holes with Watson that day, only leaving the course after the ninth hole to thaw out a bit in the press room and get a couple of cups of hot coffee before returning to see this amazing round by the 29-year-old Watson.

I wore long johns, heavy woolen pants, a woolen turtle-neck shirt, two sweaters over that and a suit of rain gear that in those days was actually a rubber suit similar to what yacht racing sailors would wear. I had a woolen cap on as did Watson and, of course, heavy gloves. It is not easy writing notes on a wet pad while wearing gloves as big as shovels.

Watson may not have had as many layers of weather protection as I had. But he and all the golfers were heavily insulated.

Watson is about as fast a player as there has ever been on tour, including Julius Boros, who was famous for simply slowing down his walk as he went by his golf ball to hit it. But the field of golfers on a course set the pace for a Watson or a Boros in the long run. And it was a very slow and cold day at Muirfield Village that Friday in 1979.

Tom Watson got the lead with his remarkable 69 as Lanny Wadkins, who had the first round lead, shot 79 on that miserable Friday in Ohio. Watson then went on to win the fourth Memorial.

I have many other fond memories of Watson golf, including one day at La Costa Country Club in Carlsbad, Calif., when he was in the first twosome off during a round of the Tournament of Champions. Playing with Craig Stadler (The Walrus), Watson played 18 holes under par in one hour and 57 minutes.

That was the brisk and youthful step Watson showed once again last week at Turnberry while he was leading the field and making a very thrilling attempt at becoming the oldest man to win a major golf championship. Ironically, had Watson won he would have broken the record for oldest person to win one of the four majors that was set by Julius Boros when he won the 1968 PGA Championship at age 48. There must be something about fast pace of play and "old men" playing superb golf.

Years ago, Watson never hesitated when he arrived at his ball. He would quickly decide upon the shot to make, pull the club from his bag and step up and hit the ball with a beautiful and very smooth and powerful swing---the swing everyone saw last week. His hands are quite big and strong, providing much of that power at impact. And, of course, his legs are the real strength.

But most of all, it is that space between the ears where Watson retains all the little tricks about links golf. He knows how to bounce the ball around those magnificent, windy Oceanside courses. For 71 holes last week, he did it better than anyone else in the world. It was the approach at the 72nd hole that led to his downfall when the ball bounded over the green.

Tom said, "A lot of hurt went along with the 8 iron at 18."

But I still want a touch of what bubbles up from the Fountain of Youth that allowed Watson to play like a kid again.

That elixir obviously beats the hell out of the stuff that leaves you lying in a Victorian bathtub on some deserted beach.

Gordon White served 43 years as a sports reporter for The New York Times. His email is sports@thepilot.com.