Watson puts Masters field on notice he’s ready to roll

JUST FOUr golfers had won multiple major championships and more than one WGC event since the latter quartet of elite tournaments were added to the roster in 1999. They just happened to be the four best golfers of the last 20 years. On a memorable day in the career of the extraordinary Bubba Watson, the man with a unique style of playing won the WGC-Dell Match Play Championship yesterday to add his name to that select list comprising Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and rory McIlroy. The 39-year-old Floridian beat Justin Thomas in the semi-finals and then destroyed fellow American Kevin Kisner in a final so one-sided it verged on the embarrassing. Watson won the first five holes on his way to an overwhelming 7&6 success. Watson has already won two green jackets, in 2012 and 2014, and will now head to the Masters next week in the form of his life. ‘You need creativity and imagination to win there and he has both qualities in abundance,’ said legendary Ben Crenshaw, a member at Austin Country Club and another two-time winner at Augusta. ‘I’ve never seen anyone conjure shots with their hands and footwork like he does.’ Watson (below) was controversially left out of the last American ryder Cup team but will surely be in Paris this year. A return trip, therefore, to the city where he left quite an impression in 2011. Asked what tourist spots he’d been to, he replied: ‘I’ve seen the big tower, the road where you go around and around, and that museum that begins with an L.’ Just as well, then, that on the course he’s a poet, and the most creative player the game has seen since Seve Ballesteros. Watson was certainly helped by facing two opponents who were thoroughly out of sorts. It’s amazing what can happen to a golfer when his lifelong dream becomes so tantalisingly close it is but one good round away. Knowing he would become world no 1 for the first time if he defeated Watson, Thomas didn’t sleep well. ‘I couldn’t stop thinking about it, to be honest, and what it would mean,’ said the candid American, 24. You can guess what happened next. The man who had breezed through five matches playing peerless golf, was a pale shadow against the revitalised left-hander. The result was a 3&2 defeat that means Dustin Johnson will head to the Masters next week with his 14-month reign at the summit intact. Perhaps it’s for the best for the feisty Thomas, who has won seven titles during an impressive 18-month run, including the last major to be played, the US PGA Championship. Winning the Masters would certainly be a better way to reach the peak, wouldn’t it? ‘There was a lot of attention on becoming world no 1 and I allowed myself to get distracted,’ he admitted. ‘I need to be mentally stronger than that.’ As for Watson, he was supposed to start a family vacation yesterday. ‘We’d booked to fly on Sunday because it was cheaper,’ said the man who’s made just short of $40million on the PGA Tour, likely at least as much in endorsements, and added another $1.8m yesterday. In the other semi-final, Kisner beat Swede Alex noren in a classic encounter that went to the 19th hole.