Tom Watson, a 14-year veteran of the professional golf tour, is regarded as the natural successor to Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. Perhaps the most consistently winning player in the game today, Watson is a six-time recipient of the annual Byron Nelson Award for the most victories on the P.G.A Tour. His career wins include such major tournaments as the U.S. Open and the British Open (five times) and the Masters (twice). He is currently the second-ranking money winner of all time; but then, he's only 35, and golf is the proverbial sport for life. Warren Kalbacker met with Watson at his home course, the Kansas City Country Club, before the start of the season. "It was a cold day and the links were deserted,' says Kalbacker. "But Watson displayed top form in that other major area of golf competition: clubhouse talk."

Q 1

PLAYBOY: Does professional golf offer the middle-class kid a chance to escape a life in the suburbs and the inevitable career in law, medicine or finance?

Tom Watson: The golfer's percentage of winning is not very good. In the modern era, you don't have the type of season where a Byron Nelson can win 18 tournaments out of 35. You have "in the money" and "top ten finishes, which are indicators of consistency or good play. On the other hand, you take a guy who finishes second all the time and say that he's just not a winner.

Golf is too expensive for the average person to play. I was very lucky. I grew up playing at a country club. It was my playground in the summer. Four or five times a week, I'd go out with my canvas sack of clubs. I started with just a five iron, a three wood and a putter. I'd take a baloney sandwich with me.

Q 2

PLAYBOY: Did you develop a hunger for competition at an early age?

Tom Watson: I was always trying to beat my older brother, and that's one reason I became very competitive at the game. I wasn't that good a player. But we had a junior golf program and I went around to area country clubs to compete. That's when I first learned about nerves. My father told me that anybody can be a good player on his own golf course, but a really good player can play other courses as well.

Q 3

PLAYBOY: Did your father encourage you to learn golf because a lot of business deals are made on the back nine?

Tom Watson: Golf lends itself to that. But I wanted to play golf because he did. My father was a very good player, and he made it fun. He taught me the right way: the grip, the way to hook the ball and slice it. He got a big kick out of watching me maneuver the ball. Golf should be started in the years when you're a very good mimic. I'm a good putter and a good chipper, and those are the things I learned first.

Q 4

PLAYBOY: Is straight shooting a highly over-rated concept?

Tom Watson: A straight shot is usually a missed hit. The essence of golf is the ability to curve the ball the way you want it to go. When you can work the ball one way or another, you can play in windy conditions. If you learn how to hook the ball first, that gives you an inside-out type of swing, and then you can work from there--work back to hitting the straighter shot. You have a left-to-right wind and you can work the ball from right to left--hook it--and the ball actually ends up going pretty straight. If you're a slicer and there's a left-to-right wind, that wind accentuates the slice and makes the ball go even farther to the right. The slicer usually has inherent problems with the timing of his swing.

Q 5

PLAYBOY: Did you want to be a professional golfer when you grew up?

Tom Watson: I was definitely hooked, but it wasn't an all-consuming type of thing. I grew up in Kansas City, where it's cold in the winter. I developed other athletic interests--football and basketball. And I was always an outdoors type of person.

My first three years at Stanford, I didn't think I would be a golf professional. I wasn't given a golf scholarship. But in my senior year, I asked myself what was my best talent, and my only real talent was golf.