When Bubba Watson won his first Masters in 2012, his victory was generally categorized in the golf media as a one-off triumph by a talented but unorthodox player whose future impact on the game was unlikely to be significant.
For most of the next two years, Watson’s record indicated that the assessment of him was accurate, but not entirely complete.
Watson was already an emerging star when he won the 2012 Masters, but the quirkiness of his swing, unorthodox approach to the game and unique personality overshadowed his record as a player. After some mostly indifferent results for the rest of the 2012 and the entire 2013 season, Watson was not considered among the primary favorites going into the 2014 Masters.
In hindsight, that was a major failure by golf’s alleged “experts,” who missed the fairly obvious signs that Watson was poised to take home a second green jacket.
Watson had not played up to his established standards in post-Masters 2012 and 2013, but that can be largely chalked up to the adjustments in his life after he and his wife adopted a child just prior to his first Augusta victory.
It wasn’t that Watson played particularly poorly following his introduction to fatherhood, he just didn’t play as well as had previously, or as well as someone who had just won the Masters was expected to perform.
When Watson finished near the bottom of the standings in defense of his Masters title last year, that added to the perception that Watson might turn out to be a one-hit wonder.
But once the calendar flipped to 2014, Watson again became a major player on the PGA Tour, even though his results were overlooked in the wake of the strong showings by a number of the game’s rising twenty-something stars.
Watson had a chance to win early in the year in Phoenix, but a so-so final round and a bogey on the 72nd hole kept him out of a playoff after three outstanding rounds to start the tournament.
In his next start two weeks later in Los Angeles, Watson closed with back-to-back 64s on the weekend at one of the PGA Tour’s most highly-regarded venues to erase a 4-stroke deficit after 54 holes and win by two.
A strong final round comeback several weeks later in the WGC event at Doral came up just short, but gave him a third finish of either first or second in three consecutive stroke play tournaments.
An opening round 83 at Bay Hill, after which he withdrew citing allergies, dropped Watson off the radar screen of most of the golf media, resulting in his low profile entering the most recent Masters.
Perhaps no player in golf is more suited to the demands of Augusta National than Watson, whose power game and lefty fade fit the layout to a tee. The main question for Watson at Augusta is how well he is able to handle the treacherous greens, with his putting touch not considered the strength of his game.
While ranking as the longest hitter on the PGA Tour, Watson also possesses a deft short game, a necessity to survival at Augusta National. His occasional off-target shots and missed putts from relatively close range are the main reason he doesn’t play better on a more consistent basis, but his overall track record belies the perception of him as an all-or-nothing style of player.
Watson can simply overpower Augusta National’s par 5s, as he displayed with his spectacular approach to the second hole on Saturday to set up an eagle, or his monstrous drive Sunday on the 13th that produced a clinching birdie. He had only a sand wedge for his second shot on the hole.
But Watson is not as wild off the tee as some of his fellow bombers, and ended the week in Augusta a very respectable T13 in fairways hit. Hitting fairways, however, is not necessarily an indication of how well he is going to play, as he missed only one fairway during the third round when he shot 74, Watson’s only round of the week outside the 60s.
Watson very nearly scored a rare wire-to-wire victory in Augusta. His opening round 69 was bettered only by a 68 from Bill Haas, with Haas plummeting out of the lead the next day and ending up tied for 20th.
On a day when only four players broke 70, Watson made it through his round without a bogey, and had only two bogeys after 36 holes. Watson followed his opening 69 with a 68 on Friday, matching the low score of the day.
A string of five straight birdies beginning at the 12th propelled Watson to a three-stroke lead after 36 holes, with his birdie run coming before ESPN was allowed to begin its live broadcast.
Watson gave up his lead Saturday with four bogeys on his first seven holes, and had more bogeys that day (five) than his other three rounds combined (four). He was tied with 20-year-old Masters rookie Jordan Spieth at 5-under 211 after a third round 74, and the final day was pretty much a head-to-head battle between the two after a brief early surge by Matt Kuchar ended with a four-putt double bogey at the fourth.
The old saying that the Masters doesn’t start until the back nine on Sunday is usually accurate, but did not apply at all this year. All the action, including Kuchar’s chip-in birdie at the third that briefly tied him for the lead, came on the opening nine.
Both Watson and Spieth carded four birdies apiece on the outgoing nine along with four bogeys, three by Spieth, who twice led by two before Watson regained the lead at the ninth.
Watson’s lone bogey on the day came at the third after his attempt to drive the green on the par-4 left him with a short but brutally difficult short pitch for his second shot. Watson twice answered Spieth birdies on the two par 3s, responding to Spieth’s hole-out from a bunker on the fourth and a kick-in birdie by his young opponent on the sixth.
Spieth again led by two with a birdie at the seventh, but three-putted the eighth for bogey after coming up short with his pitch shot on the par 5. Watson got up-and-down from over the green for a birdie and a tie for first.
Another Spieth bogey at the ninth following an approach that did not clear the green’s false front and a Watson birdie resulting from a short but delicate putt completed the four-stroke swing over two holes, and sent Watson to the back nine ahead by two.
Watson have one back when he missed the green at the 10th and made bogey, but Spieth could not convert on a birdie putt at 11 to tie the lead, and had to scramble for bogey at the 12th after his tee shot came up short and wound up in Rae’s Creek.
The lead reached three when Watson birdied 13 after an enormous tee shot, and the round concluded on a drama-free note when Watson, Spieth and Jonas Blixt, who shared second with Spieth, all parred their last five holes.
Watson finished at 8-under 280, three ahead of Spieth and Blixt, like Spieth a Masters rookie. Miguel Angel Jimenez, who recently celebrated his 50th birthday, was 4th at 284, including a tournament best 66 on Saturday. Watson closed with a 69, the only score below 71 among the players teeing off in the final 11 groups Sunday.
Kuchar wound up tied for 5th with Rickie Fowler at 286, missing a short birdie putt at 16 with a chance to tie for second before bogeying the final two holes. It was the third straight finish of eighth or better in the Masters for the former Georgia Tech All-American and St. Simons Island resident.
Watson’s win was the seventh in the PGA Tour’s 2013-14 season by a former University of Georgia golfer, and like fellow two-time winner Patrick Reed, Watson’s time in Athens was relatively short and not particularly pleasant, apart from meeting his wife Angie, a member of Georgia’s women’s basketball team at the time.
After transferring from an Alabama junior college to Georgia following the Bulldogs’ national championship in 1999, Watson enjoyed an excellent junior season, winning the annual Chris Schenkel tournament hosted by Georgia Southern and earning second team All-SEC and honorable mention All-America honors.
But Watson never played a tournament round as a team member his senior season, playing the entire year behind five players who were first, second or third team All-Americans. Of that group, only current PGA Tour player Erik Compton enjoyed much success as a professional, but Watson was relegated to the sidelines behind them, preparing himself for a future career as a tour player.
Watson made it to the finals of PGA Tour qualifying on his second attempt, and spent three season on the Nationwide (now Web.com) Tour from 2003-05, improving from 63 to 37 to 21 in the money list, earning a spot on the PGA Tour in 2006.
After a respectable rookie season that enabled him to retain his PGA Tour card, Watson placed 55th, 58th and 60th on the money list the next three years before his breakthrough season in 2010.
Watson scored his first win that year in Hartford in a three-way playoff, and almost collected his first major championship, losing in a playoff to Martin Kaymer in the PGA at Whistling Straits. He won in San Diego and New Orleans in 2011, reached the Match Play semifinals, and was a runner-up at Doral the next year shortly before scoring his first Masters title.
After missing the Tour Championship last year, Watson is almost certain to be back at East Lake, where he finished 5th in 2012. He is also virtually guaranteed of a third straight Ryder Cup selection, and currently leads the U.S. standings. Watson jumped from 12th to 4th in the World Golf Rankings, and has made up considerable ground this year on the three players ranked above him.