Bubba-ball is the next big thing on tour
If you stayed up late to watch David Toms blow out the field at the Sony Open two weeks ago, you were looking for something to keep you from going to sleep. Nothing against Toms, who won by five strokes; it just wasn't a very dramatic final round.
Thankfully, there was Bubba Watson.
The purists may think distance is ruining the game. In truth, distance drives the interest in the game. Watson is John Daly without the baggage, a home-run hitter who isn't going to be in the news for the wrong reasons. He's also got a lot of the Panhandle in him, and with his accent, he's an instant folk hero. Wait until he qualifies for his first Masters; Hootie Johnson can't make Augusta National long enough for him. Watson ripped drives on average of 336 yards at the Waialae Country Club in Hawaii. Adam Scott was second, just a mere 17 yards back. The drive that put him on the map came Saturday night on the 18th hole, when the left-hander shaped one around the corner of the dogleg that caught the trade winds and rolled out to 363 yards. "A big slice," Watson called it. He was playing with Fred Funk at the time, and Funk, one-hundred-and-something-yards back, needed the entire pink ensemble after that one, not just the skirt.
For those who follow the Nationwide Tour, this came as no surprise. Watson was the longest driver in that circuit's history. At the 2004 Gila River Golf Classic, he smashed one 422 yards -- and it didn't land on an airport runway or trampoline off a sprinkler head. He just "Bubba-ed it."
Jim McGovern played with him last year and remembers having to wait for greens to clear on the par 4s before Bubba could hit. "I don't think John Daly or Hank Kuehne or Scott Hend, I don't think they can hang with me when I'm hitting it, if I hit my best," Watson said. "There's not too many people that can get within shouting distance."
At the Sony, four of his drives in the final round traveled more than 360 yards. At the 12th, he was two yards shy of breaking the 400-yard barrier. The scary thing: He only missed three fairways in the final round, shot 65 and finished fourth.
Watson is more than a circus act experiencing his 15 minutes. He is the reason why Tiger Woods went to graphite and why Mickelson was experimenting with a 47-inch shaft this offseason. Watson is the future. He is 6-foot-3, 180 pounds of elasticity, and he didn't appear the least bit nervous on the weekend, finishing with an eagle on Sunday for a check of $244,800 that represented potential job security.
"That will be close to the number to keep my card," said Watson, who did not get to use the top-10 exemption this week because the Hope is an invitational. "A couple of more good weeks and we're there for next year. We'll be back here."
Some guys are just late bloomers, and if 27 is late, then that's OK. He's got the potential to be this year's Jason Gore, which is ironic considering that if Gore hadn't won three times and earned the automatic promotion, Watson would still be down on the Nationwide Tour. He finished 21st on the 2005 money list, with a second-place finish at the BMW Charity Classic and a third at the Northwest Pennsylvania Classic (where he averaged 367.3 off the tee) as his best showings.
The turning point in Watson's confidence level occurred late last season, when he lost a playoff to Robert Allenby at the Australian Masters. After going winless on the Nationwide Tour for three seasons, and after a fairly checkered amateur career that ended with bitter feelings about the University of Georgia, he was finally able to match talent with maturity and experience.
Mickelson knew of him from those practice rounds he used to play in Athens, Ga., with caddie Bones Mackay before the Tour Championship. It's not often that Lefty gets airmailed, but like Watson said, there aren't too many tour pros who can get it by him. "Yeah, but if you ask him, he outdrove me a lot," Watson said. "He's not going to say I outdrove him."
Boo Weekley, his high school teammate in Milton, Fla., predicted last year, "The tour is in for a rude awakening," once Bubba-ball was unleashed on the masses. He's never had a lesson, never touched a weight, and learned how to play hitting a Whiffle Ball.
Once he got into the flow at the Sony, Watson played like he'll be coming into your home again. "I felt good coming in, but I didn't get enough practice as I wanted to," he said. "After the first day, the adrenaline starts going back through you, and you're excited because I'm a rookie out here and all that stuff. It came to me real quick."
His next appearance will be at the Buick Invitational. By then you'll know the best thing that happened to him at Georgia was meeting his wife, Angie, who is 6-foot-4 and played on the Lady Bulldogs basketball team before a career in the WNBA. She's an agent now, and travels around with Bubba in their Hummer. In published articles, she has described most of her husband's actions as, "Bubba being Bubba."
Bubba also has a little Payne Stewart in him. He likes to wear pink, which you can get away with if you hit the ball longer than anybody. It's all good, just as long as Bubba keeps being Bubba. His real name is Gerry, and somehow Gerry Watson just isn't the same.
Tim Rosaforte is a senior writer for Golf World magazine.
