Bubba Watson is doing everything he can to keep his mind on the Tour Championship.
The former Georgia star isn’t thinking about how a win could make him a candidate for player of the year. He’s not thinking about the Rubik’s Cube of scenarios that would make him $11 million richer should he win the tournament and somehow win the FedEx Cup playoffs. And he’s trying very hard not think about the vacation to Bora Bora he plans to take in a few weeks with six friends and his wife.
Well, he has more to think about after shooting a 6-under 64 on Friday to move to 5 under for the tournament. He trails leader Adam Scott by three strokes. With a hot putter, Watson tallied his lowest round at East Lake by three strokes. He put himself in position to become the only player on the PGA Tour this year to win three tournaments. Not that he’s thinking about that.
“I think about how tough the next 36 holes are going to be for me, especially if y’all keep talking to me, reminding me how bad I play this golf course,” he said.
Watson didn’t need any reminding. He sent this tweet after posting a 1-over 71 in Thursday’s first round: “I think I tied my low round at east lake, never play good at this course. #mygameaintgoodatdiscourse.”
Though he grew up playing Bermuda grass courses in Florida, he said East Lake doesn’t fit his eye well because he has a hard time distinguishing rough from fairway. However, he started quickly Friday with irons and a putter, his weaknesses this season, that were on target.
After a horrible drive on the first hole that Watson joked landed near the No. 2 green, his approach stopped less than 4 feet from the pin, where he made birdie. He followed that by draining a 52-foot birdie putt from off the green on No. 3. With fans barking and screaming “Go Dawgs,” Watson only got hotter.
“I guess that’s good if they bark at me,” he said. “I’m not a football player. I’m not used to that. It was good.”
He added birdies on Nos. 8, 9, 15 and 17. He needed only 26 putts Friday, six less than Thursday.
“Today was just the ball-striking was there. The driver was back. Irons were good, irons were crisp and then made some key putts,” he said.
Putting has been his weakness this season. He ranks 131st in the category of strokes gained-putting (minus-.149), a stat the PGA uses to gauge the Tour’s best. He ranks even worst in the more-familiar category of putts per round, needing 29.87, good for 172nd on Tour.
But he has proved he can make them.
Watson won the Farmers Insurance Open in January by sinking a tricky birdie putt on the 72nd hole. After he earned his first victory on the PGA Tour last year at the Travelers Championship, he promised some friends that he would treat them to a vacation should he win again. When he won the Farmers, he immediately began receiving tweets with two words: “Bora Bora.”
He won again by sinking another birdie putt in a playoff at the Zurich Classic in New Orleans in May. That victory moved him to the top of the FedEx Cup points list.
However, his season started to dip from there. He started the playoffs in eighth place in the points list and dropped further after he missed the cut at The Barclays. He climbed to 12th after a 16th-place finish at the Deutsche Bank Championship, which he led after 54 holes. However, a tie for 53rd at the BMW Championship last week moved him to 18th in the playoffs, needing a miracle this week to win the playoffs.
“I’ve got to win. It’s simple,” he said. “If you’re No. 1 or you’re No. 30, if you don’t win, it doesn’t matter. If everybody else falls into place, you have to do your job.”
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