By the time he wins his fifth or sixth Masters green jacket, maybe Bubba Watson will be able to finish out the final round without leaking. By then, maybe he’ll just throw the coat over his shoulder and swagger out of the joint like Sinatra leaving Caesars Palace, lord of his domain. We’ll see.
That certainly wasn’t the case Sunday, after he took possession of his second Masters victory in three years. Didn’t matter that this one was a barefoot walk in the grass by comparison to how these melodramas usually go. Didn’t matter that he’s been through all this before. Blubber Watson was at it again.
Three shots clear of the field as he stood over his tap-in for par on the 72nd hole, not a worry in the world, Watson completed his mission and promptly let loose the tears. His trip from victory lap with his two-year-old son Caleb to Butler Cabin for the jacket ceremony to the practice green for his public coronation was a red-eye all the way.
For now, the guy just can’t help himself, not taking moments like this for granted.
“It’s a dream to win and winning any tournament is a big deal,” Watson said afterward. “Winning the green jacket is a little bit bigger deal. So, yeah, I’m going to cry, because why me? Why Bubba Watson from Bagdad, Florida? Why is he winning? I just always ask the question: ‘Why, why me?’
“That’s why I’m always going to cry, you know. I’ll probably cry again tonight sometime, just thinking about it.”
Why Bubba?
Well, mostly Sunday because no one else was able. His Sunday 69 was the only sub-70 round of anyone in the top seven. His drives were longer and his putts truer than anyone in his rearview mirror.
He won in 2012 in a taut playoff, needed to pull off an almost geometrically impossible shot from the trees in a playoff to prevail. This time, he could have played 18 using any one club in the bag, partner’s choice.
“The shot out of the woods made me famous, but this one was a lot better for me and my nerves, my family, probably Teddy (caddie Ted Scott),” Watson said.
Welcome to the first Masters Match Play Championship. It featured Watson and 20-year-old Jordan Spieth, head-to-head. Past champion vs. the future of golf. If there was anyone else on the course Sunday, they went little noticed.
Rumor has it Matt Kuchar was a contender, having begun the day one shot back of Watson and Spieth. But he four-putted on No. 4 and was relegated to another in a series of Sundays in the shadows.
Defending champion Adam Scott was said to be on the property, but really the only time he became necessary was when he was draping the jacket on Watson in the Butler Cabin.
There were some old guys rumbling around, 50-somethings Miguel Angel Jimenez (4 under for the tournament) and Fred Couples (over par on the weekend but still popular). They were kinda cute.
But where in other Masters the big stories may be scattered all over the lot on Sunday, there was only the pair of Watson and Spieth to focus on now.
“The group in front of us and the other groups, you could just tell nobody really caught fire,” Watson said.
Spieth came out throwing heavy leather, holing out a bunker shot on the par-3 fourth, trading tight tee shots with Watson on the par-3 sixth and by the time he picked up another birdie on No. 7, the kid had a two-stroke lead. You could almost hear the Tiger Woods comparisons being cobbled together in the Masters media room.
Then in two holes, in less than 30 minutes, the tournament turned on its head. Spieth shorted his third shot to the par-5 8th hole and took a calamitous three-putt bogey. He then did the unforgivable on his approach to the sloping ninth green, failing to get the ball over the first tier and watching the ball tumble off the green back toward him. Another bogey.
All Watson did in response was to birdie both those holes. It was his take-a-kid-to-school moment. Those two holes represented a four-shot swing and the practical end of Spieth’s quest to become the youngest ever Masters champion.
When Spieth paid his Masters dues by finding Rae’s Creek for the first time on the par-3 12th, his fate was all but official. Watson nursed par on the back nine — he had just one Bubba Golf moment when he shot for the green on the par-5 15th out of the trees rather than laying up — and won it like he owned it.
If he keeps winning one of these every other year, they are going to have to start thinking about building him a monument like they have the other signature champions. The Bubba water slide at the No. 16 pond, perhaps, or the Bubba tire swing on Magnolia Lane.
Watson joins a select club those who have won Masters in multiples: Horton Smith; Byron Nelson; Jimmy Demaret; Ben Hogan; Sam Snead; Arnold Palmer; Gary Player; Jack Nicklaus; Tom Watson; Seve Ballesteros; Bernhard Langer; Nick Faldo; Jose Maria Olazabal; Ben Crenshaw; Tiger Woods; Phil Mickelson.
Yet he continued to play it simple and humble Sunday, wearing all the emotions of someone who is still surprised to be even talked about as an elite player.
“I just got lucky enough to have two green jackets. I’m just trying to keep my Tour card every year and if people say that I’m a good player, that’s great,” he said. That’s the emotional core of Bubba Golf.
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