Biggest fan of Watson's run? Indianapolis

While Julius Boros, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame and winner of 18 PGA Tour events, is seen as one of the great golfers of his era, a record he set in 1968 was in jeopardy by another standout in the golf community during the British Open.

After 59-year-old Tom Watson finished second at the 2009 Open Championship at Turnberry, Boros still stands as the oldest player in tour history to win a major. The Boros won at the age of 48.       

In just one week, the U.S. Senior Open comes to Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind. “The Stick” has been host to events like the 2005 Solheim Cup and the 1991 PGA Championship, the event in which John Daly won his first major after being the final player included in the field.

In these troubling economic times, major sporting events have been looked especially highly upon due to the sales and revenue brought in to not only the sport, but also to the city in which it’s played.

Indianapolis is no exception. This month’s Indianapolis Tennis Championships, formerly the RCA Championships, was anticipated to bring a nice profit into the city’s finances. Though the event will still be of extreme benefit to Indianapolis, the situation took a blow Friday when Andy Roddick withdrew from the competition due to injury.

Needless to say, this event isn’t the Super Bowl. It’s not the Final Four, the Masters or the Bowl Championship Series National Championship either. Not having a star of Roddick’s magnitude will hit the event hard and keep a number of people from making the trip downtown later this month.

However, a nice recovery should be seen due to Watson’s play this weekend in Scotland. Watson, who joins household golf names like Gary Player, Greg Norman, Fuzzy Zoeller and Fred Couples, will give golf fans around the state and region an extra incentive to head to Carmel. After all, he just finished second at one of the top three events of the season.

The “extra incentive” is like Michigan State making it to the Final Four this past year in its own backyard. With the economy struggling, cities will take it any way they can get it.

In a time in which many families are thinking “save” instead of “spend,” now they are also thinking how often they will get to see the runner-up at the British Open play next week. Not to mention, the guy is 59 years old.