Bubba Watson goes from novelty to elite
AUGUSTA – Two years ago, Bubba Watson was a novelty. Masters week wasn't about his place in golf history, it was about things seldom if ever witnessed at Augusta National. A guy named Bubba putting on a green jacket. A kid who never took a lesson and was never quite good enough to crack Georgia's lineup suddenly sitting atop golf's universe. Sounds of barking echoing down Washington Road. Tears on the 18th green.
This Masters week was different. We knew the back story. What we couldn’t know was the career evolution we were about to witness.
Rebounding from a step-back season, during which celebrity life drained him and his game eroded, Watson looked remarkably at ease on a Masters Sunday. He entered the day with a share of the lead. His knees never shook. Players around him all seemed to melt down or fizzle. But Watson, not far removed from being an afterthought on the PGA Tour, looked like he had been there before, probably because he had.
"I don't even remember the last three holes," he told caddy Ted Scott as they stood on the 18th green.
That happens when the great ones get into a zone. His tournament. His time.
Bubba Watson isn’t a novelty anymore. He’s on the other side of the red velvet rope with the sport’s all-time greats.
“No — I’m just happy to have two green jackets. I’m just trying to keep my Tour card every year,” Watson said when asked if he achieved elite status Sunday. “If people say I’m a good player, great. But I’m not trying to play golf for a living. I’m not trying to play golf so people say how great I am or that I’m one of the greats of the game. I play golf because I love it.”
Maybe. But when somebody accomplishes something previously achieved by only the sport’s icons, consider him a club member.
Watson won his second Masters in three years. He birdied four holes on the front nine, then cruised on the often nightmarish back nine. In 2012, it was frantic. In 2014, there was calm.
When it was over, Watson hugged his wife, Angie, and held their adopted two-year-old son, Caleb, neither of whom were there to share the moment two years ago because Caleb had just been born. So much has happened so fast.
“Small town guy named Bubba has two green jackets,” he said. “It’s pretty wild. It’s pretty cool.”
It’s more than that.
When the name of Arnold Palmer is invoked in an accomplishment, you’re in rare company. Watson is the first player since Palmer (1958, 1960) to win two Masters in his first six attempts.
Bubba has achieved one-name icon status in golf. Welcome to the Masters VIP lounge. Only 16 other golfers have won multiple green jackets in the 80-year history of the tournament. Watson’s in the room with other single-name stars: Arnie, Jack, Tiger, Jimmy, Byron, Ben, Seve, Phil.
The second one was much different than the first. Two years ago, Watson introduced himself with the screaming hook shot out of the woods in a second overtime hole. This time, as he walked to the 18th green, he held a three-shot lead over two rookies, Jonas Blixt and Jordan Spieth, a 20-year-old who may very well be the future of golf but showed Sunday he wasn't quite ready for this moment.
“I love this a lot more,” Watson said. “The shot out of the woods made me famous, but this one was a lot better for my nerves.”
Spieth birdied four of the first seven holes Sunday. He led Watson by two strokes. But Watson birdied the par-5 eighth hole and Spieth missed a five-footer and bogeyed. On the par-4 ninth, Watson reached the green in two and birdied and Spieth bogeyed again.
It was a four-shot turnaround in about 15 minutes.
“Eight and nine were really the turning point where momentum kind of went my way,” Watson said. “Then the group in front of us and the other groups, you could just tell that nobody was really catching fire. There weren’t too many birdies after that.”
Some may remember this Masters for the absentees. Tiger Woods never made it. Rory McIlroy never made it to the leaderboard. Adam Scott, the defending champion, started well, then disappeared after a grease fire of a front nine on Saturday. Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and so many others didn’t even make the cut.
But this Masters should be remembered for the Watson reaffirming his place in the golf pecking order. He slipped in 2013. He admitted that he spent too much of the golf season still celebrating his first Masters win.
“Obviously, I was going to have a hangover … a hangover from the green jacket,” he said.
This one may be different. He seems to have matured, on and off the course. While Spieth, remarkably poised most of this week, had one of his approach shots fly wild Sunday and slammed his club into the turf, Watson kept his cool.
This isn’t the same Watson who left Georgia after the 2001 season, bitter about how he had been handled. He played only one tournament that year because, coach Chris Haack will tell you, the team was stocked. Five team members — Erik Compton, Nick Cassini, Bryant Odom, David Miller and Ryan Hybl – all were third-team All-Americans. Watson was good. He just wasn’t as good. Yet.
But in the years that would follow, Watson made amends with Haack. He stayed with his former coach when he returned to Athens to complete his economics degree. It’s fair to reason that his exit at Georgia fueled his desire to improve and make it on the Tour.
Watson began his post-round press conference with a “Go Dogs” and thanks Georgia for “preparing myself for professional golf. I always have the University of Georgia on my bag and on my mind. But the green jacket will always be part theirs too.”
He didn’t project as a two-time Masters champion when he left Athens. He wasn’t expected to become one of the sport’s elite. But he’s there now, and nobody should be surprised from this point forward.
