Yesterday Bubba Watson took home his long awaited first victory on the PGA Tour. He’s been close many times, but was yet to seal the deal. Watson took a lot of slack from the media and bloggers earlier in the year when he all but had the Bob Hope in his back pocked but made a questionable layup call coming down the stretch. Many have said that he’s too interested in messing with shaping shots than playing the right shot at the right time. Well that should all be put to rest now after coming from six shots back to fire a Sunday 66 and work his way in to a 3-way playoff with Scott Verplank and 50 year-old Ryder Cup Captain Corey Pavin.
On the first playoff hole Bubba came within an inch of winning it from the fairway when his sand wedge approach shot narrowly missed by an inch, leaving him with a tap in birdie. It took another playoff hole, but Bubba delivered with a testy three and a half foot par putt to lock up his first professional victory. We can now remove his name from that “best player to have not won on Tour” list.
Anyone who is a golf fan and uses Twitter knows of Bubba Watson and his Twitter activity. Months ago I gave him an “A+” on my PGA Tour player Twitter gradings as he’s the most active and most responsive to fans. Do a search for Bubba Watson on YouTube and you’ll find his YouTube channel filled with home movie trickshots, and his many videos attempting to get on the Ellen Degeneres show. In a time when a lot of Tour players seem like robots, Bubba shows some flair and personality and gives fans an inner look to who he really is. If you’ve ever sent Bubba a message on Twitter and didn’t receive a response, you’re probably the only one. He ALWAYS responds to every single message, even it’s a short “haha, nice”, it’s still a nice touch.
After he made that three footer to take home the Travelers Championship, the tears flowed and Bubba went looking for his wife Angie, embracing in tearful hug. When David Feherty finally was able to grab him for a quick post victory interview, Bubba could barely compose himself when he spoke about his father who is currently battling cancer. “My dad is currently battling cancer, I’m playing for my family. I love you dad”, is pretty much all he was able to get out before walking away from the camera. It was enough, and gave us just one more reason as to why everybody loves Bubba. As if we needed one.
About Jeff Palopoli
Web marketer, father, husband, and golf blogger continually searching for the golf game I used to have.
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