Bubba’s big day in Austin
Watson defeats Kisner for WGC-Match Play title
AUSTIN – Bubba Watson was forced to delay the start of a family vacation because he had to keep working.
Now he’ll travel to the Masters in April as one of the top favorites to win the green jacket.
With a pink glove and a pink driver, Watson blew out Kevin Kisner in Sunday’s all-Georgia Bulldogs final in the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. The big-hitting lefty won the first five holes at Austin Country Club en route to a 7 and 6 victory, earning his second WGC title and becoming the first left-hander to win the event.
“When I sit back and think about it and look at it, look at it real fast, my putting was good,” said Watson, who made just three birdies in the final, including on the 12th hole where the match ended, and stayed away from mistakes as Kisner kept making errors.
“Being healthy and strong, my confidence is coming back. I saw that this week,” Watson added. “My focus is where I needed it to be. There were about four or five shots where I came off my hinges a little bit and didn’t give 100% to it, my focus was somewhere else. That’s not bad for me. ... This is great for me, my family. Put another trophy on the mantel. As a golfer, it’s a dream come true to win a tournament.”
The victory came as a surprise to Watson, who now has 11 career PGA Tour titles. Because he didn’t think he’d play his way to the last day of the event — he hadn’t in the past — he scheduled a family vacation that was set to begin Sunday. And the flights were cheaper when flying on Sunday too, he said.
It was a nice problem to have, so Watson called his wife and rescheduled the vacation for this week. Then the twotime Masters champion, who also won last month in the Genesis Open, will head down Magnolia Lane and try to replicate this weekend’s performance at Augusta National.
He has put a two-year slump behind him and he’s back to being Bubba Watson. He has regained the 30 pounds he lost last year because of an undisclosed illness, a time in which he contemplated retiring from the game. He regained his passion for golf, he’s physically and mentally strong again and he’s shaping shots all over the course.
“I’m confident, obviously, having two wins,” Watson said. “I just want to focus on what I can do. I’m going to try to keep my head down. Look like a zombie or whatever you want to call it, try to focus on me, try to focus on my shots, and be committed to every shot, like I was this week.”
Despite the final match, Kisner had a solid week. Among his five match victories were triumphs against world No. 1 Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar.
In his semifinal win Sunday morning against Alex Noren, Kisner kept hanging around as Noren, who has nine wins on the European Tour but is in search of his first PGA Tour title, had numerous chances to gain a distinct advantage in the match but his putter would not cooperate. Kisner pulled even with an eagle on the 12th from 51 feet and won on the 12th, where the playoff started, with a birdie from 5 feet.
“I don’t know what was going on. It was just pitiful,” Kisner said of his loss in the final. “I couldn’t hit anywhere close to where I was trying. Long week. A little tired, probably. And finally made a few good swings coming in, but those were too little, too late.
“But it was a good week and my confidence is back heading to the Masters.”
In the other semifinal, Watson birdied the first hole, added another birdie on the fifth and an eagle on the sixth to build an insurmountable lead and finally closed out Justin Thomas 3 and 2 with a birdie on the 16th.
Watson denied Thomas’ ascension to the top of the official world golf rankings. Thomas would have supplanted Johnson if he had beaten Watson.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about it, to be perfectly honest,” Thomas said. “And you’re constantly getting questions about it with the media. But I need to be mentally stronger than that and understand that it’s just a match.”