Bubba Watson has had an unbelievable 12 months.
First, he became a father when he and wife Angie, both former standout athletes at Georgia, adopted a baby boy, Caleb, last March.
A few weeks later he won the Masters, securing the playoff victory with a shot that will go down in Augusta National lore: a low hooking iron out of the trees that rolled to within several feet of the pin on the No. 10 green.
Few will forget Watson openly sobbing on the green after he sank the putt to secure the win, his first Major.
Watson shared on Wednesday what his life has been like since putting on the winner’s green jacket, something he said he seldom looks at, much less wears (this is a portion of the questions and answers, which have been edited):
Q: Have you watched the broadcast of the final round and a chance to reflect on it?
A: Yes, I watched it as soon as I got home. I've probably watched it like three times. I reflected on it and just watched it and tried to remember the emotions and explained stuff to my wife, what I was thinking and everything like that, and my friends.
Q: Did anything in particular stand out when you watched it?
A: Yeah, that I won. I actually won it.
Q: The green jacket, in past year have you worn it much? Has it been in the closet?
A: You know, out of respect for the Masters and Augusta National and all their members, I haven't done anything with the jacket. I wore it for media day up in New York. They've asked me to do a photo shoot, so I wore it one time for a photo shoot for Augusta. And then it's been in my closet hidden away. None of my friends have seen it. None of my friends have taken photos of it.
Q: Have you set yourself some new goals having won your first major?
A: As soon as I won, I sought out some players that have won recently. I sought out guys like Graeme McDowell, Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods … and asked, how do you deal with it, because the first three months to the first six months, your sponsors, media, you get more attention. You've got more fans, and so you get away from the game of golf. Golf is the last thing on anybody's mind. But you still have to keep executing.
Q: What was the best bit of advice that people like McDowell or McIlroy or Woods gave you? What did they tell you?
A: You figure it out on your own, but you just try to get hints into other situations. My manager, Jens Beck … he gave me the best advice. His advice was golf first. So we've canceled a lot of media requests, we've canceled a lot of things to make golf first. I was Bubba Watson the golfer first before I won, so we have to keep it simple and remember that golf first.
So we told our sponsors, look, I know you want to do things and do this, but you don't like Bubba if Bubba isn't playing good, so golf is first, and that's the one thing we always told ourselves.
Q. What was the most overwhelming part of this past year as the reigning Masters champion?
A: It's to make golf first. You get to a level I love to have fun, I love to goof around, but then you want to spend more time with your fans, you want to show them love and sign autographs. The charity work that I do that people don't know about off the course is the most important thing where I have more influence with charity dollars and charity work if I play good golf. So I need to keep competing at a high level and remember that golf is first and then the other stuff is after that.
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