The Other Side Of Bubba Watson
In a bygone media era, television host Art Linkletter hosted a feature called "Kids Say the Darndest Things" on his nearly 25-year radio and television series.
If Linkletter were living today he would, no doubt, have plenty of material if he sat down with 32-year-old Bubba Watson.
On Tuesday, Watson addressed the media in a press conference that offered a great deal of insight into the life of Gerry "Bubba" Watson, who was runner-up to Martin Kaymer at last year's PGA Championship.
So without further ado, here is Watson uncensored …
- *Regarding a Tweet about NFL Hall of Famer Bubba Smith, who passed away recently and provided the moniker for Watson:
"It was in 1978, Bubba Smith was playing football. So when I was born, I was real chubby in the face and my dad wanted a baseball player and I came out chubby in the face and looked like a big football player, and he said I'm a Bubba … I'm a football player, not a baseball player. So 10 seconds after I was born, he just called me Bubba, and Bubba Smith was coming through."
- Watson claims the only conversation he has had about golf with good friend Rickie Fowler occurred last week and was about Watson's lack of mental toughness on the course. What he was told:
"[Fowler] told me to quit being a baby and just play good golf and quit crying all the time and blaming other people, or blaming the wind or blaming that didn't do right, got a bad bounce. So he told me to suck it up and be a man."
- His goal when using social media, such as Twitter:
"My goal? To show how dumb I really am.
"I like to have fun. The media probably doesn't talk about it that much, but golf is boring, as a whole. We see on television, we see the guys focusing. We see the guys bearing down, trying to win golf tournaments, trying to hit good shots. I do it, too. I lose focus really quick.
"And so for social media, Twitter and all of these things, [it] is to show the fun side, to show that we are fun and we do have fun and we do have a life."
- On the reaction to caddie Steve Williams' eyebrow-raising comments following employer Adam Scott's win at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational:
"I made a bogey, bogey on the last two holes last week, so I could care less what Stevie and all them are talking about."
- On the lessons learned from last year's PGA Championship playoff loss and his two wins this year.
"I've learned that it's hard work to win golf tournaments, to focus on the golf course, to do the things I want to do in my career. It's going to take a lot of sweat and tears and a lot of energy, and that's what I'm learning this year, and it was overwhelming at times. It feels like I'm sick. It feels like I don't want to get out of bed, because I've grinded so much."
Stuart Hall is editor of the Golf Press Association.
