Bubba’s back
Birdie binge has 2012 Masters champ Watson atop the leaderboard heading into the weekend.
LAUGUSTA, Ga. istening to Bubba Watson tell it, 2013 was spent in the recovery ward. Winning the 2012 Masters — perhaps especially the way he did it, in a playoff, with one of the most eye- popping shots ever — opened the floodgates, and the whole world loved Bubba. Couldn’t get enough of him. Told him how great he was ( nothing he didn’t already know), flew him everywhere for personal appearances, wore out his autograph hand, and left this supposedly poor yokel with the self- made swing overwhelmed and thinking about all the wrong things.
And that’s how he tied for 50th the year after donning the green jacket.
Friday, though, that other Bubba, the one with the prodigious length — “I’ve never had a swing coach, never had a lesson,” he said, “so it’s all slap- cuts, I guess you could say, with my driver. They get out there pretty far, though” — and the mind that sees shots that mere mortals wouldn’t even think of, the Bubba with the deft touch around the greens and on them, was reborn at Augusta National. The hangover is ... well, over. “I was still celebrating my green jacket,” he said of his mediocre 2013 season. “How many green jackets you got? If you had one, you would celebrate it for a year or two.
“You’ve got to think about where I’ve come from, my mom having two jobs to pay for my golf, my dad working in construction. And when you think about that and where I am in my career and where I am with my young family, it’s an accomplishment for a guy named Bubba, with my upbringing. My year, my career was complete after that win.
“So yeah, I was going to ( have a) hangover. Never been drunk before, but a hangover from the green jacket. You know, I do everything my way. I learned the game my way. I figured it out my way. So it just takes me a little bit longer with the mental focus and drive to get back to where I am today.”
Finding his stride in the middle of the back nine Friday, all Watson did was make five consecutive birdies from the 12th through the 16th holes — two par- threes, two par- fives and a four — and leave the field breathing his exhaust.
With a second- round 68, he leaped to the top of the board, three shots clear of Aussie John Senden, four ahead of Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn ( each of them also shot 68), Sweden’s Jonas Blixt, defending champ Adam Scott ( 72) and 20- yearold prodigy Jordan Spieth.
And right behind them, at two- under- par: 54- year- old Masters savant Fred Couples, Jim Furyk, and this season’s only three- time PGA Tour winner, Jimmy Walker.
“Well, the four straight birdies I had a couple years ago felt a lot better,” said Watson, who also birdied 13 through 16 in that final round to catch Phil Mickelson, “but yeah, it’s the same stretch I had before. The two par 5s are reachable for me. At 16, I hit a great 9- iron downwind, it almost went in the hole. And I hit a 9- iron into No. 12.
“So the ( par) three holes are a lot tougher to birdie for me, but I’ve done it before. It’s one of those things, every guy in the field has had that stretch before, playing with their buddies or playing in a tournament. But at the Masters, it makes it a big deal.” Kind of big, yes. While first- round leader Bill Haas was playing himself onto the third page with a 78, 10 shots worse than his opening round, and Scott blew a tire before recovering on the back nine, just about everybody took a turn flirting with the top of the board; even the greatly struggling Mike Weir, who after four birdies and a front- nine 32 was tied for third before falling back on a warm but blustery, swirling, gusty afternoon.
He did, however, make the cut and he’s tied for 21st, which is a triumph of its own.
The victims of that wind, and hard, fast Augusta greens, included a raft of former major champions and pre- tournament favourites, from Mickelson — who made a triple- bogey each day and missed the cut by a stroke — to Angel Cabrera to Graeme McDowell, Dustin Johnson, Zach Johnson, Harris English, Patrick Reed, Webb Simpson, Sergio Garcia, Luke Donald ...
Rory McIlroy needed to hole a six- footer at 18 to make the cut on the number.
“I didn’t play great. I didn’t play bad. I just had one bad hole there at 12,” said Mickelson, who stickhandled it into and out of three bunkers on the par- three before finally getting it on the green. “I keep making these triples, they’re tough to overcome.”
All the same, with the array of big- time players lining up behind Watson, it figures to be another vintage Masters weekend.
Mickelson didn’t know, as he spoke to the media, whether he’d be part of it. But if he wasn’t, would he watch?
“Probably, yeah,” he said. “It’d kind of be my punishment.”
It is.