Name any top golfer, and it’s a fair bet that they will have a quote attributed to them about the importance of the mental side of the game. “I am about five inches from being an outstanding golfer,” Ben Crenshaw famously said to cite one example, “That’s the distance my left ear is from my right.”

In a game where the vast majority of the top exponents are now so physically and technically attuned for success, Bubba Watson has always been something of a quirk. Self-taught, his off-the-cuff style has won him plenty of admirers in the galleries, and delivered him not inconsiderable success. He tees up at Augusta today looking for his third green jacket, after all.

And yet, at times, the boy from Bagdad can make it hard to love him, not least of all among his peers. A survey carried out among tour players last year by ESPN.com famously saw Watson named as the player that other professionals would be least likely to aid if he was to be in a fight in parking lot. And it wasn’t close.

His treatment of caddie Ted Scott has also come under the microscope, with Watson’s frequent outbursts towards a man he describes as being among his best friends earning the caddie support on Twitter under the hashtag #PrayForTedScott.

But could the boorish behaviour often exhibited by Watson on the course be motivated by something deeper than just simply, to use an Americanism, being a jerk?

In an interview with CBS programme ’60 Minutes’ last weekend, Watson was remarkably candid about his mental struggles, and how they have affected his behaviour. With so much stock put in the mental side of golf at the top level, it was quite something to hear an elite competitor in the sport admit to any sort of fragility on that score, whether that be on the course or away from the spotlight.

"I have a lot of mental issues,” he said. “I just am so fearful of things, which I shouldn’t be, right?

“Scared of heights. Scared of buildings falling on me. Scared of the dark. Scared of crowds. Those are my biggest issues.

"In between holes is really scary to me because there’s so many people that close to you. I’m just scared of people in general."

For a professional golfer, a fear of people and crowds is not an insignificant handicap, with thronging galleries and countless cameras gawking at your every move. With such anxieties at the forefront of his mind, the stress and pressure of playing golf in such a setting may well be a trigger for the more unpalatable side of Watson’s personality.

The fact that he is willing to open up about his mental problems in an age of often robotic sports ‘personalities’ though, will surely serve to endear him to a wider audience.

"Whew, man, he is a mess, but he’s a fun mess, you know?" said his afore-mentioned long suffering caddie Scott recently. The bag man recounts a story about Watson from when he was first starting out as a professional, when a 10-year-old kid asked him for his autograph. Watson had ignored the presence of the young fan, not through disdain for the request, but through the fear and anxiety of a stranger approaching him.

It seems remarkable that a top-level sportsman could react in such a way to a seemingly mundane incident, but the anecdote offers a window into the mind of Watson, and what motivates what many label as his strange behaviour at times.

Watson spoke after the interview of it being a cathartic form of self-improvement for him, and thanked the press - although perhaps not from the heart - for calling him out when he has rubbed someone up the wrong way.

Take that side of Watson away however, and might you also take away the sometimes breathtaking genius of his play in the most pressurised of environments, like his scarcely-believable recovery shot to pip Louis Oosthuizen to the Masters title in 2012.

"I think it was good to show the issues I have," he said. "There are issues that you have that I don't. Mine just happen to be with cameras in my face.

"If you ever look at my career, the tougher the situation, I've always seemed to come to the top. I think it's because of ‘hyper-focus’. When I'm in trouble, I'm able to hit some shots that don't seem doable. I think that's because I get so zoned in, and I can pull some of these shots off."

It would not be a surprise then, despite his current state of mental fragility, to see the maverick misfit don the green jacket again on Sunday night. And perhaps through the frank admission of his weaknesses, he will be a more popular champion than ever before.

"He’s an artist for sure," his caddie Scott surmised. "I’m just carrying the brushes."