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With Turnberry’s usual swirling winds turned even stiffer and the threat of bogeys at every turn, each shot was crucial in a battle for the lead among Watson, Cink, Lee Westwood and Matthew Goggin.

But it was Watson was who was riding the energy of an electrified gallery, trying to withstand a challenge from three players who had never won a single major. Westwood, a 36-year-old from England, had the sentiment of his fellow Brits and the title of perhaps the best player without a major victory. Goggin, a 35-year-old from Australia, is a relative unknown. Cink, 36, had finished as high as third in a United States Open, the Masters and a P.G.A. Championship.

Watson’s hopes of keeping the magic of his first three rounds wobbled at times, but after 17 holes, he held a one-shot lead and marched to 18 looking as calm as could be. He bogeyed, however, after his approach shot was too strong and rolled to the edge of the rough at the back of the green.

That put him in the playoff with Cink, who had birdied 18 to give himself a chance. Westwood had fallen away by bogeying 18 and he ended up tied with Chris Wood, a 21-year-old relative unknown from England, who was in the clubhouse at one under after shooting a surprising 67. Goggin, who was tied for the lead late in the round, had fallen back with four bogeys in his last five holes to finish one over.

Watson had already withstood an adventurous swing in his round. When he bogeyed two of his first three holes in the final round, it seemed the dream of winning again was slipping away, especially when the 28-year-old Ross Fisher of England snared two early birdies to grab the lead by two strokes.

But just as quickly, Turnberry’s snarling winds and ball-grabbing rough changed everything. Fisher’s lead evaporated on the fifth hole, when he drove into such a bad lie in the right rough he hit his next shot barely two feet. He sailed his next attempt into another patch of rough, took an unplayable lie and ended up with a mind-boggling quadruple bogey.

So Watson hung in there. Westwood sank an eagle putt at No. 7 to grab the lead for a bit and Goggin snared a birdie at No. 10 to join him there. They came down the home stretch tied at three under, but all stumbled at just about the same time, to find themselves together at two under.

The day had dawned bright Sunday but with the kind of wind kicking up that can turn what seems like a lovely day at Turnberry into a maddening adventure, but Watson wore a serene smile as he predicted it would work to his advantage. The more difficult the wind, the more difficult the course, Watson said, “That’s good for old folks.”

He did not fare well early, sending his approach shot on No. 1 into a greenside bunker and bogeying the hole. He flew his approach shot on No. 3 over the green and bogeyed again to fall back to two under, which did not seem so calamitous when Fisher almost immediately backed up. Not only was Watson trying to make history by becoming the oldest winner of a major championship, he was trying to do it by 11 years. Julius Boros holds the record for oldest major champion, having won the 1968 P.G.A. Championship at 48. Watson has made people laugh by referring to himself as the “old geezer” and made people scratch their heads with the realization that he got his hip replaced last October.

Such were the thoughts that go with having Watson go into the final round of the British Open with a one-shot lead, with time-defying rounds of 65, 70 and 71 putting him at minus-4 after three rounds, where he hovered above a field of younger and far less decorated golfers. Watson is here with his name on the famed Claret Jug five times, including a victory at Turnberry in 1977 over Jack Nicklaus that became known as the “Duel in the Sun.”

He started the day one shot ahead of Goggin and Fisher, who was living his own personal drama. His wife, Jo, was back in Surrey, England, where she was overdue with the couple’s first child. A private jet waited at a nearby airstrip in the event that Jo went goes into labor, with Fisher vowing to leave as soon as that happened, no matter the situation in the tournament.

“Winning a major would be fantastic, but we’re talking about the birth of our first child,” Fisher said before the final round. “I haven’t experienced it yet. Everybody around me who has experienced that says it’s something you don’t want to miss.

“I’m no different. It just so happens I’m here playing golf.”

The weather was relatively placid early in the day, but the wind kicked up near 25 miles per hour, raising whitecaps on the Irish Sea and turning many of Turnberry’s holes into unpredictable mysteries.

Of the golfers who went off early, the successful was the 16-year-old amateur Matteo Manassero of Italy, who was two under for his round to reach one over for the tournament. Manassero, the youngest golfer in the field, played the first two rounds in the threesome with Watson and Sergio García.

But the most notable shot of the morning was struck by Scotland’s own Paul Lawrie, the 1999 British Open champion, who had a two on the par-five No. 7. He hit a four iron 213 yards to the green and it bounced up on to the green and rolled in the hole. It is a rare “albatross,” a score only recorded five times in British Open history, the last by Britain’s Gary Evans in 2004.

“It was lovely, my first one,” Lawrie said. “It was just the perfect distance really and felt good.”

Lawrie would shoot at 68 to finish the tournament at 8-over.

The two-time defending champion Padraig Harrington came nowhere close to extending his streak to three, shooting a 73 on Sunday to finish at 12 over for the tournament.

“It’s come to an end,” Harrington said of his British Open streak. “Inevitably it always would. It’s been a good two years. I’ve another 28 of these to come back to, so I look forward to that and with Tom Watson showing that’s it’s possible to be competitive for another 28 years.”