Watson reveals all in emotional press conference
Bubba Watson had an emotional day Thursday, shooting four-under 68 to share the lead with Francisco Molinari at the PGA Championship. The free-spirited golfer was teary-eyed while talking with reporters about the difficult year his family has been through.
After finishing the first round at Whistling Straits Watson entertained media in a post-round press conference. One reporter brought up his emotional reaction after winning the playoff at the Travelers Championship back in June and asked Watson to explain it. Watson became overwhelmed with emotion when he revealed his family’s struggles with cancer.
“My dad has cancer,” Watson said quite simply, though it was obviously painful to speak about. He had kept silent about the ordeal to spare his family the publicity. “I didn’t tell many people because it’s really nobody’s business, you know,” he said as tears welled in his eyes. “I’m not here to get sympathy. I’m here to play golf.”
To make matters worse, the day before Christmas Watson’s wife Angie, a former basketball player, had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Watson had been in Pensacola with his father at the time, and when he found out his wife’s pituitary gland had a tumor growing on it. His father urged him to go back and be with her, saying “I’ve lived me life.”
As it turned out the initial diagnoses was wrong, but it wasn’t until two months later that the mistake was discovered. After two months went by and more tests were conducted doctors realized they had falsely diagnosed Angie.
Golf is as much a physical skill as it is a mental one, and sometimes emotions can rattle a player’s confidence. When one reporter asked if Watson believed emotion to be the Achilles’ heel of great golf he responded, “If you make putts, you win golf tournaments. That’s what it comes down to. It doesn’t matter if you got emotions,” adding that he hoped the media “won’t think I’m a sissy” for wearing his emotions on his sleeve.
Quite the contrary Watson, though it wasn’t so long ago that his emotions had negatively impacted his game.
Ask anyone and they’ll tell you Watson is a good natured, fun-loving guy. But last summer Watson’s emotions took him in a downward spiral after he missed the cut for the British Open and the following four tournaments. Watson’s frustration got the best of him, and he would become angry whenever he stepped onto a course.
Watson’s good friend and caddie Ted Scott intervened when his attitude made him almost unbearable to be around. Scott told him to do whatever it took, whether that was quit golf, or take a vacation, anything to change his attitude; otherwise Scott was leaving.
“There’s nothing outside the ropes that bothers me. But inside the ropes, I was letting everything bother me,” Watson recalled. “When he sat there as a good friend of mine and told me that he was going to quit because of my attitude, you’ve got to change it.”
Scott’s intervention changed Watson, who immediately began reshaping his attitude towards his game and, lo and behold, started playing well again.
“When I’ve been angry, my wife has yelled at me a few times and said, `Why are you angry? This is what you love to do. When you’re home, when you’re not playing golf, you’re playing golf with all the boys back home. So you love to do this. So why not just go have fun and do it?”
That’s exactly what Watson did. The week before the Travelers Championship, he and Angie were headed to practice rounds when they passed a sign for a water park. Watson decided to play hooky and blew off the day to go hangout in the sun. One week later, he won the tournament.
“The win just showed me that we’re onto something, the right thing. Let’s have fun with our lives and let’s have fun with golf,” Watson said. “That whole week, I just never thought about winning.”
Watson brings a unique energy to the tournaments he plays and is unlike any other professional golfer. He’s never taken a lesson, hits hooks and slices on purpose, and enjoys playing jokes on fellow golfers – like throwing stuff at Rickie Fowler while he tried to sleep on Thursday at the PGA. He’s never won a major and only has two wins since turning professional in 2003, but Watson approach to golf seems to be working for him, at least after Thursday’s first round.
What does he think when he looks at the leaderboard for his name?
“I’ll never look at it,” he said.
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