Now let me see if I”ve got this right. The guy”s name is Gerry Lester Watson Jr., but he goes by Bubba, his Green Beret father”s tip of the cap to football great Bubba Smith. He grew up just outside Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle town of Bagdad. Yes, I too have been to Bagdad although I have limited golfing memories. Instead, I”ll always recall my run-in with the rodeo clowns at the Piggly Wiggly as I was trying to out-drive the thunderstorms between Dothan and Mobile. By the way, the locals call that part of Florida the “Redneck Riviera.”
Nonetheless, there must have been some pretty outstanding golf in the Bagdad area back then. After all, Bubba Watson isn”t the only tour professional to tee it up for local powerhouse Melton High School. Other alums include guys with names such as Boo and Heathcliff, Weekley and Slocum to be exact. Both have won on the PGA Tour and Boo Weekley is a former Ryder Cupper.
Bubba Watson was born in Bagdad in November of 1978. He was an active kid who began tagging along with his father at the local municipal golf course as a 6-year-old. During those formative years he played a lot of whiffle ball golf around his large back yard. Bubba contends that it was during his whiffle ball golf stage that he developed a penchant for moving the ball as well as for playing trick shots.
Watson wasn”t a well-known junior golfer and so he attended nearby Faulkner Community College in Alabama. During his second year at Faulkner, Bubba had a breakout year and was named junior college All-American. He built upon that experience and received a golf scholarship to play at the University of Georgia. After two years he left college to turn professional although he did continue to take college classes and received his degree in economics from Georgia in 2008.
Watson turned professional in 2003 and spent his next three seasons honing his game on the minor league Nationwide Tour. He qualified for the 2004 U.S. Open and missed the cut. He had a respectable year on the Nationwide Tour in 2005 and qualified for a PGA Tour card on the button, finishing at 20th on the developmental tour”s money list.
Bubba became a full-time PGA Tour member in 2006. At the Hawaiian Open, his first tourney, he finished fourth. A couple of weeks later he came in third at Tucson. He had his ups and downs, making 15 out of 27 cuts, but he had enough high finishes to come in 90th on the money list with just more than $1 million in earnings. From that point onward, Bubba”s game improved each and every year and his experiences showed that he could handle the pressure of the game.
In 2007 Watson won $1.6 million, finished second at Houston, and came in fifth at the U.S. Open. He made just as much cash in 2008 and recorded a second at the Buick Open. In 2009 Bubba made 13 of 24 cuts and finished second at Quail Hollow. In 2010 he made 16 of 22 cuts, won at Hartford, lost the PGA at Whispering Straits to Martin Kaymer in a playoff, pocketed $3.2 million, and played in the Ryder Cup Matches in Wales.
The 2011 season was the next logical step in Bubba”s progression as a professional. He made 19 of 22 cuts, won at San Diego and New Orleans, made $3.4 million in earnings, and played on the victorious Presidents Cup team. He was ranked within the world”s top 20. He led the PGA Tour in driving distance. He was regarded as a left-handed version of John Daly with a grip-it-and-rip-it mentality.
The first third of the 2012 season has been more of the same. Up until last weekend, Watson had made his first seven cuts and had three top-five finishes at Phoenix, Doral and the Arnold Palmer. Although he was playing as well as anyone on tour going into the Masters, Bubba was flying under the radar. The focus was on Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald and Lee Westwood.
After three rounds at the Masters, Mickelson was one shot off the pace and Westwood was nearby. Woods, Donald and McIlroy were far removed from the top of the leaderboard. Bubba was three shots back as the final round began. Paired with 2010 British Open champ Louis Oosthuizen, Watson watched the South African double-eagle the second hole and jump into the lead. Watson hung in there and while Oosthuizen would play par golf over the final 16 holes and finish at 10-under for 72 holes, Bubba threw up a 68 with four consecutive birdies on the back nine to also finish at 10-under. It was playoff time for the green jacket.
The playoff will forever be etched in golfing history. After tying at the 18th hole with pars, Bubba hit his tee shot on the 10th hole some 50 yards off line. He then snap-hooked a gap wedge some 150 yards uphill and another 40 yards left to right to set up a winning two-par putt. With a leaderboard that featured Mickelson, Westwood, Matt Kuchar and Oosthuizen, Bubba Watson was atop it as the 2012 Masters champion.
So, the world of golf has a guy named Bubba who wears a Masters green jacket and just so happens to drive the General Lee Dodge Charger of Dukes of Hazzard fame. He learned the game by playing whiffle ball golf. He doesn”t have a s swing coach, doesn”t use a sports psychologist, and has never had a formal lesson. He hits a PING pink driver and wears white-on-white attire. His 6-foot-4 wife Angie is a former Georgia basketball star who played in the WNBA. He owns only two suits, the ones he received for playing on the 2010 Ryder Cup and 2011 President Cup teams. He is the guy in coveralls in the Golf Boys video. I guess all of this means that he doesn”t exactly fit the profile of a major champion. But he does have a major to his name.
In the staid world of professional golf, Bubba Watson is the second coming of Lee Trevino and Orville Moody, all rolled into one. He is John Daly without the addictions and the alimonies. He plays golf the way Arnold Palmer played. He is Phil Mickelson with a touch of insanity when it comes to course management. And because of his win last Sunday, the world of professional golf is in a much more interesting and entertaining place.
