Making a mark with his remarkable actions as well as his carefully chosen words, Tom Watson will cross paths with Tiger Woods next week at St Andrews ahead of his first British Open as a 60-year-old.
They will take part in Wednesday's Open Champions Challenge, a curtain-raiser to the 150th anniversary tournament on the Old Course. But organisers will avoid what might have been an awkward reunion by selecting Watson and Woods in different teams for the competition that features 28 former winners.
With so many of Woods' peers choosing to stay silent, Watson has been critical of the troubled world No 1 following his return to the PGA Tour after a self-imposed break because of personal issues, but only on golfing grounds. He implored him to 'show some humility' to the game and to 'clean up his act'.
'I feel that he has not carried the same stature as other great players like Jack [Nicklaus], Arnold [Palmer], Byron Nelson, the Hogans, in the sense that there was language and club throwing on the golf course,' he said earlier this year.
He may hail from a different generation to Woods, but the five-time Open champion is anything but an out-of-touch old 'fogey'. Twelve months after going so close to becoming golf's oldest major winner as he ran a close second to Stewart Cink following a play-off at Turnberry, Watson remains one of the sport's hottest properties.
After shooting an opening-round 67 to lie a shot off the lead at the Masters in April, Watson finished in a tie for 18th place to earn a place in history as only the second player after Sam Snead to register top-20 major finishes in five different decades. And last month at the scene of his memorable 1982 triumph, Watson made the cut at the US Open on the brutal Pebble Beach layout before finishing in a creditable joint 29th spot.