The final round of the Masters featured a who’s who of golf on the first page of the leaderboard, led by Patrick Reed and Rory McIlroy in the final pairing at 14-under and 11-under respectively. Behind them were the likes of Rickie Fowler, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose, and two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson.
All of those players occupy top-20 spots in the world rankings and Watson in particular was a hot commodity on the betting markets coming in with a pair of wins this season and such a great track record at Augusta National. So, when Watson found the green on the par-5 second hole in two and had a lengthy eagle putt, most were expecting him to leave with a birdie at worst.
Instead, Watson did something you’d expect from a 15-handicap as he putt the ball into the bunker short of the green after catching the wrong side of the slope.
This has to be the first time I've ever seen someone putt the ball into a bunker. #TheMasters #BubbaWatson pic.twitter.com/Auxv1Gannb
— Eric Fawcett (@EricFawcett_) April 8, 2018
While this looks extremely bad and was certainly embarrassing, the only way Watson was going to have a chance at making an eagle and an aggressive move up the leaderboard (and down eight strokes he needed that) he had to flirt with disaster by riding the putt through the fringe and then down the slope to the hole.
In any case, Watson did a great job to get up and down from there for his par and avoid real disaster, but we’ll always have the moment Bubba putt the ball into the sand to go along with some of his more impressive Masters highlights for his career.
