Raymond Watson, father of
five-time British Open champion Tom Watson, died today of a heart attack while
in Hawaii to watch his son compete in the MasterCard
Championship, the Senior PGA Tour said.
Watson, 80, was in Honolulu
with his wife, Sally, when he suffered the heart attack. He died at 7:19 p.m.
EST in the emergency room at Queen's Medical Center.
According to golf.com,
Tom Watson was on the putting green at Hualalai Golf Club when his wife, Hillary,
told him of his father's death. Watson immediately withdrew from the tournament
and left for Honolulu.
"He was a wonderful man,"
Bruce Edwards, Watson's caddie for 24 years, told the Web site. "He was a good
amateur golfer who introduced his son to the game. He had a wonderful swing.
He was really a good guy."
Raymond Watson was a retired
insurance salesman and former club champion at Kansas City (Mo.) Country Club,
where his son caddied for him.
He had planned to fly over
to the Big Island on Friday for the first round of the MasterCard Championship.
His son had qualified by winning the Bank One Championship in Dallas in September,
only his second Senior PGA Tour start after turning 50 on Sept. 4.
