Bubba Watson’s palate can perhaps best be summed up by where he celebrated his win at the 2014 Masters: Waffle House. After claiming his second green jacket that year, Watson dined with wife Angie, then-caddie Ted Scott and friends at an Augusta-area Waffle House, the restaurant chain best known for its smothered hash browns and other greasy breakfast delights.
A year later, Watson played the role of host at the Masters Champions Dinner. His menu selection: Caesar salad, grilled chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, corn, macaroni and cheese, and cornbread, followed by a dessert of confetti cake and vanilla ice cream.
If Watson’s dinner guests had a feeling of déjà vu, that’s because the menu was identical to what Watson had served when he hosted his first dinner, in 2013.
Point is, the man likes what he likes: comfort food. Which means Watson likely wasn’t salivating when Hideki Matsuyama served up sashimi a year ago; or in 2018 when Sergio Garcia plated Spanish lobster rice; or a year before that when Adam Scott chose a starter of artichoke and arugula salad with calamari.
This year, though? Bubba best bring his appetite, because Scottie Scheffler’s menu, which Augusta National announced earlier this week, is squarely in Watson’s wheelhouse. Among the offerings: cheeseburger sliders, firecracker shrimp, Texas ribeye steak and warm chocolate chip skillet cookie. As Casey Bannon of The Golfer’s Journal quipped, the meal has strong Applebee’s vibes — and, subsequently, Watson’s stamp of approval.
“I’ll give you a secret,” Watson said Thursday from the LIV event in Tucson, Ariz. “Normally I eat before, eat a couple burritos before I go to the dinner, because I don’t know what they’re going to have. But when I saw [Scheffler’s] menu, definitely want the dessert, and I definitely want a couple sliders. So yeah, I can’t wait.”
Chipotle or the like before the Champions Dinner?! Vintage Bubba.
There has been much speculation about this year’s dinner — not so much about what Scheffler would serve but more so about what the atmosphere will be like with PGA Tour loyalists sitting shoulder to shoulder around a table with LIV defectors like Watson, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed and Sergio Garcia.
Will Fred Couples give Phil the cold shoulder? Will Jordan Spieth decline to pass Reed the ketchup? Will Ben Crenshaw toss a dinner roll at Sergio? For his part, Watson said, he’s not expecting any fireworks.
“I still reach out on their birthdays, reach out at Christmas,” Watson said of his Tour pals. “We still talk. I still watch and pull for my guys. So I can’t wait to get there because when you’re wearing the green jacket at the dinner, everything goes out the window. You know how blessed you are to be in that room and how thankful you are to be in that room.”
Especially when burgers are on the menu.