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The tug-of-war in men’s pro golf feels two-sided most of the time. There is LIV Golf and there is the PGA Tour. But on occasion, rather quietly, a shadow figure hovers around that battle: the major championships. 

The pinnacle events of the sport, it is well known, are managed by various governing bodies. At times they are similar — the USGA and R&A act in concert to decide how golf is played at all levels — and at others they are different. But above all remains the notion that the majors matter the most. Or at least that’s what we’re led to believe.

But how much do the majors really matter?

It’s a question that has only been seriously asked this year as LIV golfers have in return for huge paydays risked the means by which they have long qualified for those events. They have joined a tour that currently does not award world ranking points, the easiest means for major qualification. Rank inside the top 50, you’re bound to play in every major. Top 60, you’re probably fine, too. And while many LIV signees would prefer to see change to the system, their joining LIV implies an acceptance that they might not play in the majors at all. Bubba Watson admitted that dilemma Wednesday, detailing how he told his children they might not be able to go to Augusta National next year. He didn’t seem to enjoy having that conversation, but he’s certainly come to grips with all potential outcomes.

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Woe is Bubba? Clear-minded is Bubba, at the very least.

LIV golfers will play their golf and let the governing bodies decide how to deal with them. Marc Leishman may be the best example. Leishman said multiple times during his press conference Wednesday that “hopefully” the world ranking points “sorts itself out” so that the major championships are not hurt by LIV golfers missing from the fields. Leishman is currently ranked No. 62 in the world, and in any other year he could easily play his way into next year’s big events. He’s played in the last 31 majors, but isn’t qualified for any of them in 2023. He and many other LIV golfers continue to mention that the ranking stipulation will eventually be sorted.

At the moment, only a select few LIV golfers are qualified for the 2023 Masters, the next men’s major. Cameron Smith is, as the reigning Open champion. He’s got it good. But Mr. Major, Brooks Koepka, will see the exemptions from his 2019 PGA Championship victory begin to run out in 2024. Most of Sergio Garcia’s major exemptions ran out this year, and with his world ranking plummeting, he will need to qualify for the PGA Championship, U.S. Open and British Open in some other way. The same could be said for Watson, who won two Masters, but is already speaking out about the idea that Augusta National could change its qualification for play.

“And I told them,” Watson said, “if they tell me that I can’t go, being a past champion, then I don’t want to be there anyway because that’s just — that’s just the wrong way to look at it it’s the game of golf. We are all trying to be the best players.”

Sitting next to Watson in the press conference was Harold Varner III, who played in each major this season for the first time in his career. Varner admitted that when he won the Saudi International in January, his sole focus was to earn enough ranking points to qualify for the Masters. “This is my first year playing in every major, so it was cool,” Varner said. “But, like, I think it’s way cooler making sure my kid doesn’t have to worry about anything. That’s about it.”

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Varner and Watson both continued on this thought late in their presser as Watson discussed how Smith’s world ranking is bound to fall.

Watson: You are not going to be playing any majors if they keep dropping you. 

Varner: I know. But it will be all right. We’ll live. A lot of kids’ lives will change.

Watson: We’ll live; you said LIV.

Varner: A lot of kids’ lives will change. I guarantee that.

Watson: I’m with ya, man. I’m with ya.

The relative indifference about being in or out of the majors is a mindset a number of LIV golfers have seemingly adopted, but discussions on the topic are often accompanied by a belief that some sort of decision is bound to arrive. 

Joaquin Niemann, who also joined LIV this week, just about dared the governing bodies to conduct majors without them: “I think we’ve got a lot of top players here, the top 48 players in the world. We earn our place in the majors and if they want to see real competition, they have to have the top players.”

So, what will the major championships do? 

We will look to Augusta National first. If the allegations in a lawsuit filed by LIV players earlier this month are true, Augusta National has not taken the rise of LIV lightly; the suit alleges that club representatives “threatened to disinvite players” from the 2022 Masters if they joined LIV. Publicly, though, club chairman Fred Ridley has shown no such aggression. In his Masters press conference in April, he said, “our mission is always to act in the best interests of the game in whatever form that may take. I think that golf’s in a good place right now.” Ridley certainly wants the best field possible at the Masters next year. He has a little more than 200 days to reach a conclusion on that front. 

Following him will be Seth Waugh, the CEO of the PGA of America, who has publicly decried LIV’s shaking up the pro golf ecosystem. A handful of LIV golfers are qualified for the PGA Championship, but not many. And playing their way into that event is not as straightforward because it doesn’t offer sectional qualifying like the U.S. and British Opens.

The heads of both the USGA and R&A have loosely mentioned that qualification exemptions can be altered for their majors, but will they actually do it? They’ll have multiple majors and many months ahead of them. Coincidentally, the European Ryder Cup team just announced an altered qualification process for 2023. Change is clearly possible, but moves these days are analyzed both in fairness and legality.

Of course, clarity could arrive jointly. Many of the people who make up the the Official World Golf Ranking board of governors are representatives of the same bodies listed above. A decision about those ranking points is what everyone hopes to hear, LIV golfers and fans alike. The clock is ticking.

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The post Bubba Watson thinks a Masters LIV ban would be ‘wrong.’ Here’s why appeared first on Golf.

The post Bubba Watson thinks a Masters LIV ban would be ‘wrong.’ Here’s why appeared first on Golf.

Was Wednesday the end of the beginning for Bubba Watson, or the beginning of the end?

On one hand, the two-time major champ made his debut as a LIV competitor at the upstart league’s fourth event in Boston, beginning his new career on golf’s controversial new tour. On the other, Watson cemented his own suspension from the PGA Tour, and brought into question his eligibility for some of golf’s biggest events.

For many like Watson, the juice is worth the squeeze; the Saudi-backed upstart league offers one final, massive payday for a group of players who have already seen many of golf’s greatest venues and experienced many of the sport’s greatest highs. But that decision comes with a series of consequences, none of which could be larger than the major championships and the Ryder Cup.

There aren’t many clear answers about where LIV golfers stand with golf’s biggest events. It remains to be seen whether the Official World Golf Ranking will accept LIV’s application for inclusion, a decision that will either solidify the new league’s standing and all but guarantee access for its players into the major championships — or significantly endanger that effort.

There is some skepticism as to whether LIV will earn inclusion in the OWGR, particularly considering that PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan is among those on the board of directors responsible for voting on LIV’s application. But as far as Watson is concerned, the decision should be a no-brainer.

“The No. 2 player in the world is now here,” he told reporters Wednesday. “So if you’re going to try to see the best players in the world, then you should have World Ranking points because these are the best players in the world here, just like everywhere else across the world.

“If you’re going to say you’re competing against the best, you’ve got to have a World Ranking system.”

But nobody outside the gates of Augusta National, not even the OWGR’s board members, can decide who earns an invitation to the Masters. The only invitational among golf’s majors, Augusta National possesses cart blanche control over who competes every year. Of course, Augusta National has operated under certain rules for years, guaranteeing groups like PGA Tour winners and past champions a spot on the tournament field. Still, the Masters has the freedom to invite who it pleases, and in much the same vein, the freedom to ignore those it doesn’t.

Could that mean Augusta National might ban LIV players — either directly or indirectly — from competing in the Masters? It could. (According to a lawsuit filed by LIV players earlier this month, Augusta National representatives “threatened to disinvite players” from the 2022 Masters if they joined LIV Golf.) It’s a reality Watson, a two-time Masters champion himself, has been forced to address, if not one he’s happy about.

“I told my kids that there is a chance, there is a possibility that we can’t go to Augusta,” he said. “I told them, if they tell me that I can’t go, being a past champion, then I don’t want to be there anyway because that’s just the wrong way to look at it. It’s the game of golf. We are all trying to be the best players.”

Ultimately, Augusta’s looming decision leaves Watson in a strange place. His future as a pro golfer — where he can and can’t play — is in question, and for the first time ever, the outcome is out of his hands.

“It’s a weird situation, being a Masters champion,” he said. “Augusta, right now, we can play in it, and I’m hoping, and praying, that they make the right decisions and past champions and people, we can all start playing.”

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The post ‘My wife loved it’: Bubba Watson explains why he’s joining LIV Golf, leaving PGA Tour appeared first on Golf.

The latest maneuver in the war between the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed upstart LIV Golf League dropped on Friday: Bubba Watson, winner of two Masters and stalwart of the U.S. Ryder Cup team, is joining LIV.

News began surfacing Friday morning before the start of the LIV tournament at Trump Bedminster in New Jersey. Then Watson himself joined the first-round YouTube stream to make the development official.

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“My wife loved it,” Watson said, “we prayed about it, we came to the decision and here we are.”

He went on to explain in more detail his reasoning for making the move to LIV.

“It’s a cliché, but I love growing the game of golf,” Watson shared, in what has become a common explanation from LIV players. “I sponsor junior golf tournaments. I’ve sponsored college tournaments; I’ve done a lot of stuff.”

He also shared that it was observing his son watching LIV tournaments, and remembering all the team names, that caused him “to realize there is something here.”

The Telegraph reports that Watson’s financial reward for leaving the PGA Tour for LIV comes in at around $50 million, which no doubt provided major incentive to join the controversial league, financed by the Saudi Arabian government, especially since Watson is 43 years old and has not won a tournament since 2018.

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Watson also appeared in promotional videos for LIV Golf as far back as early June — before the first LIV event was played — suggesting his decision may have been made long ago.

Watson spoke with the LIV analysts from his home while recovering from “meniscus preservation surgery” on his knee. The recovery process will prevent Bubba from actually playing a LIV event until next year, but he hopes to be well enough to start practicing by October.

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The post The ridiculous reason Bubba Watson *intentionally* drove into the rough at the PGA Championship appeared first on Golf.

The post The ridiculous reason Bubba Watson *intentionally* drove into the rough at the PGA Championship appeared first on Golf.

Old habits die hard. Or, in the case of Bubba Watson, not nearly hard enough.

At the PGA Championship, the two-time Masters champ is having a driving week for the ages — seeing major gains in both distance and consistency off the tee at a blustery (and decidedly toothy) Southern Hills setup. Through two rounds at the PGA, Watson has gained close to two-and-a-half strokes off the tee, averaging 355 yards per drive while finding 75 percent of his fairways.

These are tremendous numbers — a blend of consistency and performance the 43-year-old has been seeking for years. And the kicker? They came after he (finally) elected to trade out one of the oldest components of his bag — his driver shaft — in favor of a newer, whippier, lighter option.

On Friday, the new shaft played a key role in one of the best driving rounds of Watson’s career. Even as winds whipped throughout the property at Southern Hills, Watson worked the ball around with ease, driving fairway after fairway en route to the low round of the day, a 7-under 63.

Accessories

But the most impressive drive of Watson’s Friday was the only one that didn’t wind up the fairway. And the reason? Because Watson was striking it so good, he hit it into the rough intentionally.

The drive came on the 13th hole, a monster par-5 that’s played as a three-shot hole for most of the field at the PGA. According to Watson, the decision to aim for the rough was driven not by strategy, but rather by mentality. With 17 and 18 — two of the toughest holes on the golf course — still ahead, Watson had simply been striking it too well. It was, in his estimation, a recipe for disaster.

“It was funny, I told my caddie on 13, I told him I was going to hit it in the rough because I wanted to get that out of my head,” Watson said. “I hadn’t missed a fairway yet, and I didn’t want to go to 17 or 18 having a chance to hit every fairway.”

So, Watson and his caddie Gabe Sauer hatched a plan to aim for the thick stuff.

“I was like, ‘we need to go ahead and hit it in the rough,'” Watson said. “We can’t get to this par-5 in two anyway, so I just tried to hit it in the rough over there to the right and then chip it down the fairway.”

And so, that’s exactly what Watson did, hitting a 317-yard drive down the right rough, then dropping his second shot into the fairway 130 yards from the flagstick. From there, the 636-yard par-5 was easy work.

“Chipped it down and still made birdie, so it worked out good,” Watson said with a laugh.

As for the overarching strategy — that worked out too. Watson hit fairways on both No. 17 and 18, playing the two-hole closing stretch at 1-under.

On Saturday at the PGA Championship, Watson enters with a legit shot at the lead. Well, so long as that’s where he’s aiming.

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The post Wall-to-Wall Equipment: Putter change has Justin Thomas primed for PGA Championship appeared first on Golf.

Welcome to Wall-to-Wall Equipment, the Monday morning gear wrap-up in which GOLF equipment editor Jonathan Wall takes you through the latest trends, rumors and breaking news.

Putter power

Ranked inside the top-30 in five Strokes Gained categories on Tour, Justin Thomas has been the picture of consistency this season. He’s a perfect 12-for-12 in cuts made and has only finished outside the top-25 on three separate occasions — and one was a non-stroke play event (Dell Technologies Match Play).

Looking strictly at the numbers, Thomas should have at least a win or two this season. But he’s still stuck on zero. The one thing holding him back? A balky putter. Prior to the AT&T Byron Nelson, Thomas was ranked just inside the top-90 in SG: Putting and couldn’t seem to get on track, which prompted him to make a change ahead of the PGA Championship.

With a month to work on the putter at home, Thomas dug into his equipment closet and unearthed a Scotty Cameron that looked identical to one he tried last year during the Open Championship: a T5 with a custom “knuckle” neck. The neck was a significant change from the small slant neck on Thomas’ old gamer and more closely resembled what’s currently on a Newport 2 — Thomas’ putter of choice until several years ago.

The custom knuckle neck — which typically takes roughly a day to weld the neck, cut the shaft and sandblast the knuckle — offers slightly less toe hang than Thomas’ previous putter, making it a best of both worlds option for the former major winner.

Instruction

Thomas wound up going back to his Futura X5.5 gamer shortly after the Open Championship but offered feedback on the sound that Cameron used to create an updated version for Thomas that went into play for the first time at TPC Craig Ranch.

“The one he’s using is similar to the one he put in the bag at the British Open last year,” Scotty Cameron Tour rep Drew Page told GOLF.com. “The only difference is there’s a plate in the back that was added to change sound. He wanted it to be a little bit closer to his old gamer. He told us the sound was a little hollow compared to his previous gamer, which had more of a tingy sound at impact. Little bit louder.”

To correct the issue, Cameron added an aluminum plate behind the back cavity — where the “cherry bombs” are usually located — to replicate the sound of Thomas’ gamer.

Besides the addition of the aluminum plate, Page said the other big change for Thomas was going away from the small slant and back into a neck that helped with his face closure rate.

“The putter helps his stroke a little more and gives him some stability. He’s able to see his start lines better, which is really important to him. It’s given him some added confidence. The neck helps with the open and closure rate — and he’s seeing that through the video work he’s done.”

Page confirmed the head material and alignment aid setup is identical to Thomas’ old gamer. The one thing that’s helped Thomas get comfortable with the putter is simply time at home on the practice green.

“For him, it’s just getting comfortable over [the new putter] in pressure situations,” Page said. “Those little putts you’re used to with your gamer that you’d rarely ever change. It’s just getting comfortable with that, and that’s what he’s had time to do.”

The time at home paid off immediately for Thomas, who finished T5 and ranked 20th in SG: Putting — a welcome sight for someone who’s expected to contend this week at Southern Hills.

Good to go

The putters found on the practice putting green at PGA Tour events are commonly referred to as “demo putters.” The different head shapes and alignment options give pros the opportunity to see what works.

Considering what’s at stake each week on Tour, you’d expect a pro would test a demo and then have it built to his specs. Only it’s the exact opposite for many of the best players on the planet.

“On the Tour side, they are just looking for something that works that week,” Ping Tour rep Dylan Goodwin told GOLF.com. “They’ll usually just slap their grip on it and go. We believe in fitting the putter to the player, but once a pro sees something they like on the practice green, it’s going straight in the bag.”

In Sebastian Munoz’s case, he shot 60 and finished T3 at the AT&T Byron Nelson with a Ping PLD Anser Milled that was straight from the Ping staff bag, minus a new grip (more on that in a moment).

According to Goodwin, Munoz had been locked into a 2021 Cushin 4 with an alignment line but felt as if he was becoming too reliant on the line at address, which prompted him to seek out a potential change at the RBC Heritage.

“He told me he wanted to get back to feeling the line of the actual putt itself and getting more married to the speed,” Goodwin said.

Goodwin walked Munoz through Ping’s lineup and offered up a few options that didn’t feature an alignment aid, including a PLD Anser Milled that came stock without a line.

“It was just one of my standard demo putters,” Goodwin said. “It’s 35 inches, 20 [degree lie angle] and 3 [degrees of loft]. I asked him if he wanted to adjust the specs and he told me he actually wanted to keep it as-is. The feedback he gave me was he felt like he had a lot of control over the putter face, and without having any lines, it freed him up to roll it and not get too caught up in the pre-shot routine, essentially.

The only change Munoz made to the putter was the addition of a Ping prototype grip.

“It’s essentially a larger version of the PP58,” Goodwin said. “I was just looking for feedback on the grip, but he liked it so much, that he decided to have it added to the putter.”

Munoz finished T11 in SG: Putting (plus-4.074) with the relatively new wand.

End of the road

In a sport where players change equipment to stay ahead of the gear curve (and their peers), Bubba Watson has remained steadfastly loyal to a multi-material Grafalloy BiMatrix driver shaft that True Temper first introduced in the late 1990s. Deemed a modern marvel at the time it was introduced, the shaft featured a steel tip section attached to a lightweight graphite body.

Geared for those with immense swing speed who required a stable part to pair with their driver head, BiMatrix still produced a high trajectory, making it a worthy option for modern low spin golf balls.

Watson found the shaft to be the perfect complement for every Ping driver he used, dating back to before he turned pro in 2002. Despite the hefty weight (80 grams), Watson had no problem leading the Tour in driving distance on five separate occasions, including three straight years from 2006 to 2008.

Accessories

Up until last week, Watson was playing the oldest driver shaft on Tour. But like all good things, there comes a point where even the longest hitters on Tour have to question if a piece of gear that helped them reach the pinnacle of professional golf is now holding them back. It’s a reminder that Father Time is still undefeated.

In Watson’s case, a decrease in speed was the impetus behind a driver shaft change last week at the AT&T Byron Nelson. At 43, Watson felt a move away from an 80-gram shaft into something lighter could help him gain back some of the speed he’d lost in the last year.

Watson requested several shafts to test at home, including a Project X HZRDUS Smoke RDX Black 60TX shaft that received a special shoutout on his social media feed. At 60 grams in weight, the HZRDUS Smoke RDX is a full 20 grams lighter than BiMatrix but still provided the necessary stability Watson requires to work the ball in his optimal launch windows.

(Click here to read the full story.)

Spy pics

Xander Schauffele debuted a yet-to-be-released 52-degree Callaway Jaws “Raw” wedge that should get gearheads excited. Unlike the previous version of Jaws Raw which was designed to rust all over, this Tour version appears to have a chrome body and raw face.

Callaway reps refrained from commenting on the wedge, but the addition of a plated finish would likely deter the head from rusting while producing a similar feel to the previous Jaws Raw.

In addition to Schauffele, Marc Leishman was also spotted using the same Tour-only Jaws Prototype wedges.

Another shot

Kevin Kisner gave Callaway’s Rogue ST driver a shot at the beginning of the year before going back to a Great Big Bertha. Some additional testing allowed Kisner to get back into a Rogue ST Triple Diamond LS at the Byron Nelson that matched up with the spin rate he was hoping to see.

“He was just looking for a couple hundred more RPMs of spin,” said Callaway PGA Tour manager Jacob Davidson. “It’s a 9-degree head that does the trick. We made a couple of tweaks and it should be good to go.”

Quick-hitters: Dustin Johnson returned to Fujikura’s Speeder 661X shaft in his TaylorMade Stealth Plus driver. … Henrik Stenson’s Callaway Diablo Octane Tour 3-wood was in the bag last week. … Sam Horsfield notched the first Tour victory for Bettinardi’s Inovai 8.0 putter. … K.H. Lee’s win at the AT&T Byron Nelson was the first for True Temper’s Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Mid iron shaft.

Want to overhaul your bag for 2022? Find a fitting location near you at GOLF’s affiliate company True Spec Golf. For more on the latest gear news and information, check out our latest Fully Equipped podcast below.

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The post Why Bubba Watson finally removed this 20-plus-year-old gear component appeared first on Golf.

The post Why Bubba Watson finally removed this 20-plus-year-old gear component appeared first on Golf.

Golf equipment has changed considerably in the last two decades. We’ve seen titanium overthrow steel; adjustable weights become the norm in the woods category; the advent of the hollow-body blade; and mallets go from a complete outsider to a common sight at your local course — and on Tour.

It’s important to put this period of rapid gear change into context when discussing a piece of equipment that hasn’t changed during this timeframe. That would be Bubba Watson’s pink Grafalloy BiMatrix driver shaft.

In a sport where players change equipment to stay ahead of the gear curve (and their peers), Watson has remained steadfastly loyal to the multi-material driver shaft that True Temper first introduced in the late 1990s. Deemed a modern marvel at the time it was introduced, the shaft featured a steel tip section attached to a lightweight graphite body.

Geared for those with immense swing speed who required a stable part to pair with their driver head, BiMatrix still produced a high trajectory, making it a worthy option for modern low spin golf balls.

Watson found the shaft to be the perfect complement for every Ping driver he used, dating back to before he turned pro in 2002. Despite the hefty weight (80 grams), Watson had no problem leading the tour in driving distance on five separate occasions, including three straight years from 2006 to 2008.

“I’m a feel player,” Watson said several years back. “Always have been. Working the ball is important to me off the tee, and that requires a certain level of trust in the equipment. Ping has always made me great drivers, and that shaft has always worked with them. It’s a familiar feel for sure.”

Up until last week, Watson was playing the oldest driver shaft on Tour. But like all good things, there comes a point where even the longest hitters on Tour have to question if a piece of gear that helped them reach the pinnacle of professional golf is now holding them back. It’s a reminder that Father Time is still undefeated.

In Watson’s case, a decrease in speed was the impetus behind a driver shaft change last week at the AT&T Byron Nelson. At 43, Watson felt a move away from an 80-gram shaft into something lighter could help him gain back some of the speed he’d lost in the last year.

Watson requested several shafts to test at home, including a Project X HZRDUS Smoke RDX Black 60TX shaft that received a special shoutout on his social media feed. At 60 grams in weight, the HZRDUS Smoke RDX is a full 20 grams lighter than BiMatrix but still provided the necessary stability Watson requires to work the ball in his optimal launch windows.

“He was definitely excited about more distance,” said True Temper Tour rep Paul Loegering. “For someone who has been a distance leader for so long, it was important to try and find a way to stay long by going lighter without sacrificing dispersion and stability.”

Once Watson had thoroughly vetted the shaft, his team reached out to True Temper to see if there was a way to get Watson a custom version. As someone who’s known for his hot-pink gear, Watson wanted to keep the look of his gear consistent.

With supply chain issues snarling most of the industry, True Temper was still able to deliver a custom part to Watson in Texas

“Now that we’re running a bunch of different sports out of the same facility, it’s extremely busy to get stuff in through the queue,” said Loegering. “In this situation, we were able to take the existing RDX Black shaft without the paint and managed to get a custom paint job on there in four days. It’s just like making a prototype when it comes to the graphics, which is the fun part.

“We stayed in contact with Bubba’s team during the process to ensure he was good with the final look. I saw five versions [of the shaft] the week prior when I was in D.C., which tells you we didn’t just go with the first set of graphics we came up with.”

The final version of the shaft features “Bubba Smoke” emblazoned behind a pink backdrop. Watson officially put the shaft in play last week, along with a second HZRDUS Smoke Black 80 6.5 shaft in his Ping G425 Max 3-wood — a sign that he’s trying his best to get acclimated to one of Project X’s most popular parts.

With accuracy at a premium this week at Southern Hills, Watson will need a combination of distance and dispersion to stay in the mix. He’s hoping the new shafts provide the perfect recipe for success.

Want to overhaul your bag for 2022? Find a fitting location near you at GOLF’s affiliate company True Spec Golf. For more on the latest gear news and information, check out our latest Fully Equipped podcast below.

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The post Bubba Watson reveals why he split with longtime caddie Ted Scott appeared first on Golf.

The post Bubba Watson reveals why he split with longtime caddie Ted Scott appeared first on Golf.

Bubba Watson and longtime caddie Ted Scott were a seemingly bulletproof partnership, with Watson winning two Masters and 10 PGA Tour events during their 15-year tenure, despite weathering some public on-course dust-ups.

That’s why it came as such a surprise when, last September, Watson announced that the two were going their separate ways at the end of the season. Scott ended up taking over the bag for Scottie Scheffler, while Watson has employed Gabe Sauer.

Watson emphasized his love and gratitude for Scott when he announced their separation on social media, but many wondered what the reason for the parting could be. After signing for a final-round 71 on Sunday at Augusta National, Watson finally revealed his surprising rationale.

“I have no regrets, and I don’t think he does either,” Watson said. “[Scott] has made more money now without me. He needed ten more years. I haven’t told anybody, but I had some struggles this offseason. Wrote a book about some struggles. My wrist, I had a wrist injury all last year. Had some PRP.

“So I called him and told him. I said, look, man, I’m 43 years old. I don’t know what I’m going to do. My wrist is killing me. He is like he needs ten more years, and I gave him — I felt like a nice retirement package when we split up, but we split up mutually.”

Watson said that he and Scott are friends who still text each other, hang out and play practice rounds together, but his own unknowns prevented him from committing to Scott.

“I can’t tell him what I’m going to do in ten years. I can’t tell you what I’m going to do in six months,” Watson said. “He needed ten years for his own personal retirement and things going on in his life, and so we just split up. No big deal.”

Watson said that he’s thrilled that Scott not only has a lucrative new gig with Scheffler, but also that Scheffler, whom he also considers a friend, will have the chance to learn from Scott like Watson did.

“I want nothing more than these young guys to be better than me, right?” Watson said. “Just like I’m trying to teach my kids to be better than me. Not in golf, but in life.”

“[Scott] has made more money, so now I guess he’s happy he left,” Watson added.

As for the status of Watson’s wrist, he says he isn’t sure how he hurt it, but suspects it was “bad golf.”

“I made the cut [at the Masters],” he said. “So I’m good.”

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Ed. note: Just as Augusta National is the ultimate insiders’ club, the Masters is the ultimate insiders’ tournament. Nearly nine decades after the storied venue was founded, the Augusta Experience has remained shrouded in mystery. To unlock some of its secrets, we asked those who have been part of the experience to describe one element of what makes Augusta Augusta and the Masters the Masters. The Tkth installment of our “What It’s Like…” series (below) was contributed by veteran caddie Ted Scott, who was on the bag for both of Bubba Watson’s Masters wins.

Previous installments: The guest experience | Hitting the media lottery | Hosting the Champions Dinner | Being a Masters rookie | Sinking green-jacket dreams at 12 | Working on the Masters grounds crew | Staying in the Crow’s Nest | Hitting a ceremonial opening tee shot

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I won’t lie. I won’t pretend that working as Bubba Watson’s caddie down the stretch of the 2012 Masters was like any other time with the bag. I was acutely aware of what was at stake, of how important it was that I do my job well.

At times, my mind drifted. How could it not? This was the Masters, the tournament I watched every year as a kid, the tournament where I felt I knew pretty much every hole by heart. And now here I was, not as a spectator but as the caddie of a guy who had a chance to win this thing. I felt like I was in a movie.

Lifestyle

Fast-forward to the Sunday playoff against Louis Oosthuizen. People were blown away by how Bubba was able to hook his gap wedge shot onto the green. I was not. I had been around Bubba long enough to know the guy had the shot. He has a million shots! Nothing he ever did surprised me.

Even so, when it was over, I was almost in a state of shock. I asked myself that night, and on many occasions later: Did this really happen? Did my guy win the Masters?

Well, I didn’t sleep at all that night. There must have been hundreds of calls or texts on my phone, and I felt I owed a response to everyone who had been kind enough to reach out. I don’t think I finished until 6 or 7 in the morning, maybe later.

Two years later, in 2014, when Bubba captured his second green jacket in his battle with Jordan Spieth, it was just as exciting. Yes, the pressure was a little less because he had already won one, but this was the Masters, where winning could never get old.

With reporting by Michael Arkush

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The post How good was this Bubba Watson Masters shot? It dodged rules infractions and a dozen trees  appeared first on Golf.

The post How good was this Bubba Watson Masters shot? It dodged rules infractions and a dozen trees  appeared first on Golf.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Bubba Watson hunched over his ball for a half-minute. Below it, in the pine straw right of the 18th fairway at Augusta National, was part of a tree branch. On top of it were leaves. Behind him was a rules official. In front of him were a dozen trees. All of those elements worked together to leave him with just this: 

Nothing.   

We’ve seen Watson wonders before. It was here, remember, a decade ago, on the 10th hole, on the second hole of a sudden death playoff to win the Masters, that he hit possibly his greatest miracle, a hook from the straw that rolled to 10 feet and gave him the first of his two Masters victories. But what he conjured on Friday at the same event? It’s not hyperbole to suggest that it’s the best shot of the second round. But Watson thought it should go further. 

“Nobody in the world would have tried that shot that I tried,” Watson said. “There’s nobody on the planet that would have tried it. We can sit here and they can tell me they would try it. There’s nobody that would have tried it. I don’t believe they could have pulled it off.”

Was it better than his 2011 magic?

“I’ll be honest, not that you want to know, but that was the best shot I’ve ever hit at Augusta National, that one right there,” he said. 

So, yeah, it was that good. From 10 yards right of the ball, let’s watch. After his tee shot on the 465-yard par-4 banked off a tree and dropped down, Watson squatted down to think about clearing off the leaves around his ball. He stopped. Should his ball move, it’s a one-shot penalty, and at three over at that point and hovering near the cutline for the weekend, he couldn’t afford to take on more strokes. The official watched from a few yards back of Watson. 

Instruction

But wait, there’s more. Augusta wasn’t done. The wind blew, and the lie worsened. On top of his ball was now a leaf, too. Watson stepped back, told the official that “a leaf moved but not the ball,” was cleared of any infraction, performed the surgery to remove it and addressed his ball.

“I thought about trying to start moving some things around, but then, like I said, I’m three over at that point and not sure what the cut is going to be at the end of the day knowing that the wind is picking up, so I was thinking four over had a good shot at it. Five over has a really good — looking at it last night with the weather they’re predicting, I was thinking five over has a shot at it. Double bogey is what I was thinking in my head. That’s the worst I can make.

“I decided not to move anything. Then when I got over it for the first time, the leaf from about four feet away just literally blew right over top of my ball, and I was, like, are you kidding me?”

Of course, he still hadn’t actually hit the ball, which was measured at 171 yards from the hole. The dozen or so 100-foot-tall trees and their branches hadn’t gone anywhere, and a safe punch-out wasn’t much of an option, either. 

Did he have a window? Technically, yes, but it required some moxie. 

News

“Very high up probably the highest point of the trees there all I was trying to do was hit a wedge,” Watson said. “It’s teed up, right? If I hit a pitching wedge as hard as I can straight up, I thought I could hit that gap. I wasn’t looking at the green.

“I knew roughly the number, so trying to get to the fairway, so I have a chance for par. That’s what I was looking at. It came out. Because of that lie and because of the tree branch, because of the leaves — these were big, thick leaves — it caught a flier. It caught like a knuckler. It went straight up, and then a gust from the gods flew. It was a pitching wedge from 138 as high as I could hit it.

“And somehow it went a foot from the hole.”

Technically, two, but who’s counting. From the pine straw, with a tree branch under his ball, with leaves around it, with trees above it, Watson squeezed a wedge through all of it, his ball bounced just ahead of the green, and it rolled the rest of the way. 

Neither Watson nor those of us 10 yards to his right knew until his playing partner, Tom Hoge, shouted out. 

News

“I had no idea, and then Tom walking to the fairway said, it hit right of the green and went towards the hole at a slow pace. He said, ‘It might be really close.’ Then he got up there and said it was a gimme, and I said, ‘Man, those aren’t gimmes for me. I have to mark that thing.’ So I didn’t know until I got up there.”

Watson cleaned up from there for a birdie 3, and he’s two over heading into the weekend. Afterward, as he claimed the shot to be his greatest at Augusta, I had to ask: 

Are you sure? 

What about the one that won you the Masters?

“Well, yes. Physical shot, yes,” Watson said. “… I caught a flier, drew a pitching wedge. Hit it as high as I could hit it. Yeah, situation-wise, the hook was better, but I’m just saying physical golf shot.”

And what did you think, nearby patron?

“I can’t do that,” he said.

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The post Highly diversified: Bubba Watson the businessman is a lot like Bubba Watson the golfer appeared first on Golf.

The post Highly diversified: Bubba Watson the businessman is a lot like Bubba Watson the golfer appeared first on Golf.

In the era of prodigious purses and savvy strategic thinking, pro golfers are making it their business to be in business outside of their sport, while show-biz stalwarts and superstar athletes like Steph Curry, Peyton Manning and Andy Roddick are discovering that the smart money is in golf itself. In our Golf & Business package (which you can also find in the Jan/Feb 2022 issue of GOLF Magazine), we’ll go inside their wallets.

Part 1: Why Abraham Ancer and Mark Wahlberg teamed up in the tequila business

***

As anyone who’s ever watched his parabolic shots on Toptracer can attest, Bubba Watson doesn’t do straightforward. Point A to Point B is invariably a winding road: Bubba gonna Bubba. So, back when the two-time Masters champion decided to join the march of his fellow golf pros on the entrepreneurial route, it’s little surprise that he skipped the private label wine. You might as well have asked him to hit a stock 8-iron.

Where to begin in Watson’s world of investments? How about the sweet spot — literally. Bubba’s Sweet Spot, a candy shop, sates sugar cravings in Pensacola, Fla., where the homegrown Watson has assembled a business portfolio as varied as his shotmaking. Car dealership? Check. (Specifically, Sandy & Bubba’s Milton Chevrolet.) Apartment complex? The man built it and sold it himself, like a player carrying his own sticks. Part ownership of a Double-A minor league baseball team? Please welcome to the field your Pensacola Blue Wahoos!

What, you were expecting a driving range?

Gear

Actually, Watson does own a driving range, Pensacola Golf Center, but in keeping with his nature, it’s a mix of down-home and buttoned-up. Jeans and T-shirts ham-and-egg it with chinos and collared polos all down the line. Whatever works for you.

“It isn’t about money,” Watson recently said. “The people I partner with, they all want to give back. It’s about helping the community that helped raise me and become who I am.”

Watson’s latest financial foray: a stake in Linksoul, the lifestyle clothing maker cofounded by John Ashworth. Per their website, Linksoul prefers you view it “more as a philosophy than a brand … more of an experience than a clothing company.” Yes, it’s based in California, not the Florida panhandle, in case that wasn’t clear. But there’s substance in their Tao that helped draw Watson into the fold. Linksoul HQ includes a community event space that hosts art shows, concerts, workshops and documentary film screenings, for starters. The brand-cum-philosophy also led the fight to save a local muni, Goat Hill Park, from being plowed under, then spent two years refurbishing the course, making it a sustainable community park with accessible public golf for all — including many junior golfers.

“The mission … and the money they’ve been able to raise for charity … it’s a special thing to be a part of,” Watson told Fortune in the wake of his investment. “This is what drew me to it. I’m all about my heart and where my heart leads me.”

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