Bubba Watson is one of the PGA Tour’s most unique individuals. He’s not hard to find on the course, with his pink driver, unique swing, and (new to this year) pink golf ball. Watson is the owner of two green jackets for his 2012 and 2014 victories at the Masters, but has not managed a top 20 finish at a major tournament since that 2014 Masters win.
The 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills is Watson’s next chance to get back in major contention, but the lefty bomber has rarely found success on difficult U.S. Open tracks that often feature the most penalizing courses and course setups in golf. It’s been a decade since Watson’s career best T5 finish at the 20017 U.S. Open, but on the longest course in U.S. Open history, his length off the tee makes him an interesting candidate to contend should he keep the ball in the short grass regularly.
The good news for Watson is that he seems to be rounding into his best form of the year over the last month plus. He has three top 10 finishes in his last five starts, including a T6 finish at the Memorial in his last pre-U.S. Open start two weeks ago. Watson is feeling confident going into Erin Hills thanks to those recent showings, which he’s been trending towards thanks to improvements he’s made in practice.
Watson spoke with UPROXX Sports prior to the Memorial about the status of his game, difficulty of playing on U.S. Open courses (especially for him), how he climbed through golf’s ranks as a self-taught star, making golf fun, using Trackman data to test new drivers, and bringing his family into golf.
It’s been an up and down season to this point for you, where do you feel your game is at heading into the US Open?
I think we’re trending the right way, because of the fact that we’re working on little things here and there. We’re working on, you know my swing got a little different because I lost all the weight, so we’ve been trying to work on that. Also, putting, we’ve been working on the putter so much. Driver is right where we want it and now we just gotta tweak the irons a little bit to make sure everything looks good. The year is trending our direction. Golf is hard sometimes, and you’ve just got to figure it out and get better.
US Open courses are notorious for being as difficult and penalizing as any you see on the PGA Tour. As someone that thrives off of being creative on the course, how do you approach a U.S. Open, like Erin Hills, as someone that naturally brings risks into play by shaping the ball the way you do and taking on challenges when playing a course that penalizes misses more severely?
That’s why we pick and choose what golf courses we play, because what you like better, what fits your eye better and things like that. Obviously, a demanding golf course like at the U.S. Open, besides the golf, the mental grind of a U.S. Open is the hardest part of the week. So, staying focused for five hours to five and a half hours in a round is the toughest thing. But yeah, shaping the ball, if you don’t shape it just right you can get into some trouble real fast. So, in a normal golf tournament the rough’s not as high, the greens are a little bit softer and not as fast. So, yeah, a major, U.S. Open, something like that is going to make your mistakes stick out more than in other events.
As you mention in your “One Obsession #Can’tStop” campaign with Oakley, you’ve always been “different” in your swing, style, and approach to the game than the majority of golfers. What was it that, as a young player, gave you that urge or push to be creative on the course and think a bit differently about golf?
I think it was just my upbringing. My dad just told me to play golf. He said don’t worry about your swing, just have fun with it. He said that about every sport. Just enjoy the sport. If you don’t enjoy it, then you’re wasting your time. It’s like anything. So I was just playing [golf] and having fun with it and my dad saw that I was getting better and I just kept getting better and better and somehow it got me free education at college and then we started making some birdies and some money at the pro level. So, we just kept getting better without all the instruction and just having fun with it. Doing it the way I wanted to play and practice the way I wanted to practice, and somehow it turned out to be successful for me.
Obviously not everybody can do that and reach that level, but do you think that approach is something that could make golf more approachable to young players, if there wasn’t as much a focus on rigid practice and instruction, and if kids were more encouraged to go out and have more fun on the course to play to their ability and style?
Yes, I see what you’re asking, but I think we’re doing that. You look at the First Tee programs, now you see at Augusta National allowing the kids with the Drive, Chip, and Putt. They’re now doing that, trying to get people excited about different things and be a part of different things. So I think we’ve started that. And by we, I’m talking about all of golf. And I think we’re going in the right direction and trying not to focus on the grind, I guess, like you said. It’s more of the just have fun and enjoy the game and each day just accomplish something new. If your best score was 100, then try to shoot 99. So, set goals for yourself and not worry about what other people want you to do and how good you should be and all those things.
When you were on the junior circuit did you find that there were people that, obviously not your family, but people from the outside that tried to push you to change your style?
[Laughs] No, everybody was scared of my dad. My dad was always around. When I say he was always around, we would either be playing golf together or he’d just take me to the course and he’d go to all the golf tournaments. So they knew. There was no — in junior golf it’s not like instructors are just out on the golf course. So, no, there was never anybody messing with me or talking with my parents or anything.
When you got onto the Nationwide Tour or early in your PGA Tour career, did you ever have any doubts that you could do it your way and reach the level you wanted to get to?
There was never a doubt that I needed help. There was doubt about I need to get better, but not with help. Just better practicing, like, if you were for the last six months and you’re looking at your stats and you were terrible inside five feet. Well, that means you don’t need help, you need to practice your five footers. There was no doubt — I knew I was on the right path without help. So there was never doubt like, “I need somebody,” it was only doubt like, can I get better.
You talk about being able to look at numbers and stats. Are you a fan of Trackman and those tools that allow you to do some of that self-realization by seeing those numbers, and do you like that stuff and use it regularly to get dialed in?
Yeah, those numbers are really helpful when you’re trying to do certain things. When there’s a new product out — a new driver out, we’ll go with that to make it easy — you gotta see the numbers. Because you need to know, even if those numbers aren’t helping you in the tournament, they’re helping you see what the driver can do and compare it to the driver you like and have been playing with. If I’m going to switch, it has to be an improvement. I’m not going to switch just to switch. So, with the numbers you can see the improvement. You can see if the ball speed sped up or if it went down. You can tell if there’s an improvement just on the numbers.
I let the scientists figure that out for me and the engineers, but once they tell me this is close to what you have, is what you have, or is better than what you have. Then I take it to the course when I’m out with my buddies and then I can see if I can shape it the way I want to or if it’s going the distance I need it to go. So then I take it outside the numbers. They’re very helpful in telling you if the clubs are right for you and fit, but then you still have to be performing with them so you have to take them to the course and test them there.
There are some athletes that like to keep work and personal life separate, but you seem to bridge that gap. How important is it to you to not just have a life/work balance but to have your family and golf work together?
Oh, I love it. The beauty is, my wife was a professional basketball player, so she was training three times a day, practicing, all that while she was single and playing basketball. So, having that aspect and knowing what it takes for me to be the best I can be. She knows what kind of drive and dedication and energy level and how many hours I need to put in to become great. The beauty of our family having that dynamic already, it’s not like I have to say, “Hey, I’m going to go to the golf course to go practice,” she understands it and gets it. Now with our kids, it’s easy for her to be like, “Yeah, daddy’s got to go practice or play in a tournament.” So, it’s easy not having to ask for permission to do things.
Now with my son, I get to teach him creative things. When we go to the golf course and, he’s only five, but seeing him go to the golf course and his child demeanor and his imagination running wild gets me back to my old days. They see the game that it truly is. The fun game that it is. Every day it’s different and every day it’s fun if you make it. So, yeah, the whole dynamic of all of us being together, learning the game together, and traveling together, it makes the game of golf more enjoyable for me and brings me back to my roots and the imagination of the game.
We’ve seen your son out at the Masters Par 3, what’s it like for you getting to bring him — you mentioned earlier how your dad introduced you to the game and was the biggest influence on you — what’s it like for you to now get to do the same with your son and bring him into the game of golf considering everything it’s done for you?
Yeah, it’s a blast. I’ve been lucky enough, I have an indoor putting green at my house and I have a hitting bay at my house with virtual golf. And, with him hitting balls and us putting together and then us going to the course together, he’s now getting to the age where he wants to know what dad’s doing and do what dad’s doing. With me, I don’t want to push him. My dad didn’t push me. But if he asks me to go to the golf course then I take him, because it wasn’t like me being like “Hey, let’s go to the course.” I love it. I’ve told anybody and everybody, I’d rather him win the Masters than me. I’d rather him be President of the United States. I’d give up my job in a heartbeat to help him be successful in whatever he wants to do. And the same with my daughter. I want her to be the best she can be at anything, and I’d support them in whatever it is. But it’d mean more to me for them to be successful at their things because that would mean I did somewhat of a decent job as a dad. That would mean the world to me.
