Golf and parenthood define Watson
LAKE GENEVA – Bubba Watson won’t soon forget his U.S. Open debut. It came at Shinnecock Hills in 2004, the year the U.S. Golf Association allowed the greens to bake dry and hard and nearly killed them. It was Watson’s first major and he had played in just one other PGA Tour event, two years earlier.
He was a young, slightly insecure professional who’d grown up on soft courses in Florida. This was something altogether different, a monster of a U.S. Open layout, with rock-hard greens and tall fescue rough blowing in the breeze. It did not go well.
“I was a deer in headlights,” said Watson, who shot 73-74 and missed the cut. “I didn’t know what to expect. Everybody tells you, but then when you see it … I mean, I was scared to death.
“Think about it: You’re watching the greats of the game walk around and then somehow Bubba Watson is there with them. You’re like, ‘Wait, I’m not supposed to be here.’ I was really out of sorts. I was like, ‘Whoa, how do you do this?’”
The return trip to Shinnecock, June
14-17, should go a little better.
Watson, 39, rose from that inauspicious start to become one of the best players in the world. He’s an 11-time winner and a two-time Masters champion with more than $40 million in career earnings. He won’t be just trying to stay out of everyone’s way this time around.
Watson and his wife, Angie, were at the Grand Geneva Resort on Sunday to support Jockey Being Family, a foundation that supports post-adoptive services. The Watsons have adopted two children, 6-year-old Caleb and 3-yearold Dakota.
Angie met Bubba at the University of Georgia, where he was a member of the golf team and she played basketball. She told him on one of their early dates that she couldn’t have children and his endearing answer was: There’s lots of ways to have a baby.
“I think we felt safe with each other,” she said. “We were sitting in my car sharing and we talked about family and talked about the future and it was one of the things that came up.”
The Watsons adopted Caleb on March 26, 2012. Two weeks later, Daddy won the Masters and broke down in tears as he talked about the joy of being a father.
But it hasn’t been one big happy fairy tale for the Watsons. They were rejected by three biological mothers for geographical reasons before adopting Caleb and they have gone through the frustrations and joys experienced by all adoptive parents.
“We’re new to this, right?” Bubba said. “Our kids are only 3 and 6. It’s coming to that point where we have to talk to our son about adoption and what it means. So this is a bigger deal than just me being a part of this event, coming to speak. It’s me learning, as well.
“For us, it’s just mingling with people that have the same – I wouldn’t say issues – but the same thought processes we have, the same sad moments, the same happy moments.”
Watson, a self-taught left-hander known for his shot-making skill, has bounced back from a poor 2017 season during which his strength and confidence were sapped by an undisclosed illness that caused him to lose nearly 25 pounds. Already thin, his weight plummeted to 160 and shirts hung like tents
on his 6-foot-3 frame.
“I was in a bad place last year,” he said.
He still won’t identify the illness, saying only “it wasn’t life-threatening, so it wasn’t that big a deal.”
One of the biggest hitters on tour – he’s back to averaging 313.7 yards off the tee this year – Watson lost muscle mass, which caused his swing speed to decline and his confidence to tank. He missed the cut in three of the four major championships and in his lowest moments considered retiring.
Angie, who played professional basketball in Italy and for one season with the WNBA’s Charlotte Sting, wouldn't let him give up.
“Coming from a professional sports background I know that there’s going to be bumps and bruises along the way," she said. "So we had plenty of talks throughout the year. There were lots of little elbow jabs and smacks in the face along the way to get back out there and suck it up a little bit.”
Watson has bounced back in a big way. He’s already won twice this year (Genesis Open and WGC Match Play), tied for fifth at the Masters and is ranked sixth in the FedEx Cup standings and 18th in the Official World Golf Ranking. He’ll be among the favorites at Shinnecock.
“Hopefully, this year (the course) is not brown,” he said, “and, hopefully, I’m not as scared.”