Bubba Watson joked that when Jason Kokrak’s wife, Stephanie, sat across from Watson at breakfast in the Riviera clubhouse on Sunday, he told her: “You know, people don’t like me. You might not want to be seen near me.”
We hope he was kidding. Watson is good company and better copy. Anyone inclined to give him a wide berth must have a pretty narrow view of what makes for interesting conversation.
Unfailingly honest and unshakably human, Watson, 37, held a news conference after his victory at the Northern Trust Open that unfurled like an Erhard Seminars Training session.
It was more than 30 minutes of public therapy, during which Watson talked about how he dreads the day when he’ll tell his two small children they’re adopted, the tightrope he walks being a performer with social anxiety — and, oh, yeah, how the long par putt he drained on 10 at Riviera Country Club on Sunday was the key to his ninth PGA Tour victory since 2010.
After watching Kokrak miss a birdie attempt on 18 for a share of the lead, Watson two-putted for par and a one-stroke victory. It was his second title at Riviera in the past three years.
“I love the history, and I love the challenge of the golf course,” Watson said, “and a couple times in the last few years, my head’s in the right spot, and it’s worked out.”
That is Bubba in a sound bite. Conversations with Watson are rarely boring, usually entertaining and always revealing. He is proof that golf, with its 40-second bursts of activity in a four- to five-hour nature walk brimming with distractions — Hovering hummingbirds! Towering trees! Clamorous crowds! Kaleidoscopic clouds! — is a godsend for someone with a wandering mind or short attention span.
It is probably not a coincidence that Watson has secured two of his nine career victories in a city whose beaches, weather and wealth of entertainment options make it a haven for distracted minds. During the tournament week, Watson watched Justin Bieber rehearse for an upcoming concert tour, after which Bieber gave Watson’s 3-year-old son, Caleb, a quick lesson on how to play the drums.
Watson taped a cameo for one of his favorite television shows, “Girl Meets World,” and attended the Los Angeles Clippers’ game against the Golden State Warriors as a guest of Steve Ballmer, the Clippers’ owner. Three days before the opening round, Watson said, he also painlessly passed a kidney stone, but that is another story.
At the NBA game, Watson was in his comfort zone, his light dimmed by other luminaries, including the power couple Jay Z and Beyoncé and the boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. Watson was able to blend into the background as his wife, Angie, a former pro basketball player, caught up with the former Clippers star Baron Davis, whom she got to know when both played in Charlotte.
“That could have been what helped me,” Watson said of his off-course activities, explaining that he was “so focused on encouraging other people, telling people how much I appreciate them.”
He added, “Maybe it just calmed me down.”
If you have watched Watson on the course, perhaps you have noticed that he is subject to moments of volatility. Whether he is mad, sad or glad, Watson’s emotions are the worst-kept secret in golf.
His golf swing is fine, Watson said. What he spends the most time working on are his mood swings.
“Me changing as a person has helped my golf, not my swing,” he said. “I have all the shots.”
Watson added: “So what I’ve worked on since I’ve been on tour is my attitude, my mindset. I have a lot of fears in my life, which, as I’m reading the Bible, I’m not supposed to have — but I do. I’m human. And a lot of those fears come out on the golf course: Big crowds, just people, people touching me, people yelling at me. Just, I want to go and hide. So I’m getting better at that. I’m trying to.”
He experienced a setback at this month’s Phoenix Open when he expressed that he did not like changes to the course. “I’m not going to PC it,” he said. “I don’t like it at all.” He added that he was playing in the tournament because he had “three beautiful sponsors that love it here.”
Watson’s comments were fed through a social media shredder. What came out was that he did not like the tournament, which has a well-earned reputation for being a weeklong party interrupted by golf shots. Watson said he was heckled and booed mercilessly by record crowds on his way to a tie for 14th.
Two weeks and one victory later, the mean-spiritedness of strangers was still a sensitive spot for Watson, who said: “I’m not over it. It’s heartbreaking that a city or community or local press would put a headline to spur on a bad image.”
Yes, Watson is sensitive. For those who don’t like their sports heroes to show vulnerability, he is probably not your shot of Red Bull. The rest of us felt a spark of recognition when Watson said: “I see a shot and try to hit it. I’m scared to death on most of them, but I try to hit it anyway.”
Watson took a question about his daughter toddling onto the 18th green and shaped it into an answer nobody could have imagined. “It’s going to be a tough day,” he said. “Again, another fear is, how do you explain to kids that they are adopted? How am I going to do that?”
Alluding to the Phoenix Open brouhaha, Watson added, “And again, because I’m not very good with words — a couple weeks ago, as we know — so how am I going to do that?”
The answer, fashioned like one of Watson’s shots out of the smallest of openings, was another example of the allure of his distracted mind.
About the Author
