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DEL.ICIO.USWatson learns from Tiger, can’t beat him
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Oakmont, Pa. — Don’t think for a minute that I expected Bubba Watson to win the U.S. Open. Not at Oakmont, of all courses. But he’s making headway. Three years ago he missed the cut and finished 87th. This time he made the final pairing Saturday afternoon, and that’s pretty hot stuff for a guy from Bagdad, Fla. Yokel country to these Western Pennsylvanians.
Better watch your tongue there. That panhandle part of Florida is pretty rich golf country, and taking a few bows. Bubba and his pal Boo Weekley sound like a production out of Hanna-Barbera, the cartoon filmmakers. But Bubba is our main man today. He may sound like something out of Li’l Abner, but Bubba has been to college. He was All-American at Faulkner State Community College in Alabama, then not only made the team, but was a second-team All-SEC golfer at Georgia before he decided it was time to get on with his challenge to Tiger Woods.
As a matter of fact, he didn’t shuffle around and “aw shucks” his way to Tiger; he went straight to the mountain himself. He just walked up to Tiger and asked how about playing a practice round with him. Tiger goes out early to beat the gonkers, so Bubba started showing up early. “I bug him enough, he just lets me play with him,” Bubba said. “I just ask him a bunch of questions, like a little dog nipping at his heels, and see how he ticks, and he lets me do that.”
Tiger hits the ball a long way, but Bubba hits it farther. He hits it farther than anybody else on the PGA Tour. “I blast it by him all the time,” Watson said. “He always talks about his majors and I always talk about how far I hit it.”
Bubba is anything but a yokel. Dresses well, always neat and tidy, firm jaw and neatly barbered. And he’s left-handed, in case I forgot to tell you. Bagdad is not some kind of society center. Doesn’t have a stoplight, just a few stores and a post office downtown, and when Bubba was growing up, he walked to school every morning. His father was a Green Beret, just like Tiger’s, and if you’re into names, his real one is Gerry Lester Watson. He hates it.
Bubba is getting a double dose of language education this week. He and his pal, Boo, were paired with Japan’s Nobuhiro Masuda the first two days, then his partner Saturday was Angel Cabrera of Argentina. All was going well early on. In fact, he held the lead at one time, then came the ninth hole. This is the most unusual hole you’ll find on any U.S. Open course. Part of it is the practice green and the lower part is in play. Here is where Bubba blew a fuse and let the game get away from him. A triple bogey took him right out of it.
He’ll be kicking himself, and should, for he blew his cool, and whatever chance he had to move up. He doesn’t have a swing coach. Fitness is a foreign word to him. He hates running and he hates lifting weights. “I don’t want to change anything. I don’t want to change my body shape. I like things the way they are.”
He might take a closer look at Tiger’s contours. Ever notice those biceps and shoulders on a trim, lithe body?
Well, to get down to it, after a full afternoon of Tiger gushing and a thousand of idiots bellowing, “In the hole,” let’s just get it on and get it over. All those challengers expected to be barking at his heels are out of town or out of it. For Bubba Watson, there’ll be another year.
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By George Hale
June 16, 2007 11:42 PM | Link to this
Right place, wrong story Furman. As usual.
Forget the good old boy come back on Tiger. You already know it’s drive for show and putt for dough. so, don’t know who your trying to BS. Therefore, you can take your Bubba and stick him where the sun don’t shine.
This week its about who’s Bad enough. Do you get it?