WHERE has the man named Watson disappeared to? Even Sherlock Holmes would have been left scratching his deerstalker with mystified contemplation Bubba Watson is still in the world’s top 50 – only just – but it’s been all pretty quiet on the golfing front for the two-time Masters champion of late. Well, that’s one way of putting it.
“Let’s just get right to it, it’s terrible,” declared Watson of a topsy-turvy campaign that has seen him miss six cuts, including a first at Augusta, and has led to him slithering from 10th on the world rankings at the start of the year to 49th.
The Open Championship is hardly a happy hunting ground for Watson either as he looks for a little pick me up.
Read more: Jordan Spieth savours this Open era of Major moments
He’s missed the cut in half of his eight previous appearances and has mustered just one top-25 finish.
If he’s looking for a change in fortune here in jaunty old Southport, he may be better off just shoving a few quid in the fruit machines at the Pleasureland and taking his chances.
Of course, golf is not the be all and end all and the left-hander is certainly not going to let the inevitable ups-and-downs that are par for the course in this infuriating game get the better of him.
“What I believe has happened is life,” he said. “Sometimes you get focused on something and it hurts somewhere else, right?
“The whole thing I have focused on this year is family. Do you just want to keep focusing on golf or do you focus on this?
“You are going to have years, weeks and months when you are better at one thing than you are the other one. I’m not smart enough to figure out how to do both.
Read more: Jordan Spieth savours this Open era of Major moments
“Jack Nicklaus seems like he was a phenomenal father and golfer. I haven’t figured out how to do both but it is a learning process. It’s been tough but I know I am on the right path in life.”
Despite owning his own candy store called Bubba’s Sweet Spot, Watson has managed to shed some 15lbs on a sugar-free diet.
The 38-year-old has never been everybody’s sweetest thing, mind you.
In 2011, for instance, his first trip to France for the French Open went down like a sack of spanners with the tut-tutting locals when he described a variety of well-kent Paris landmarks as “that big tower, “a building starting with an L” and “this arch I drove round in a circle.”
It was was not quite the kind of informative travel review that would grace the pages of a Conde Nast guide.
“I got a bad rap in France,” he said. “We went sightseeing but obviously I didn’t know the names of anything.
“At first I was bothered by the perception [of me]. I was younger and more immature and people were writing bad stuff which wasn’t true.
“Someone said I’d dropped a 10,000 dollar bottle of champagne but I don’t allow alcohol in my house.
Read more: Jordan Spieth savours this Open era of Major moments
“I might pay 10 grand for something but not for alcohol, so that story is false.
“My dad always said 50 per cent of the world are going to like you and 50 per cent are going to hate you.
“It may be 40-40 and the other 10 don’t care. I’ve realised that should be 20 so the other 10 must really hate me.
“It was hurtful but that’s life. People said bad things about me in high school. I had to learn how to deal with it.”
His preparation for this week’s Open Championship has included a fishing trip and a golfing limber up at nearby Formby Ladies Golf Club.
Like his DIY approach to golf, Watson will continue to things his way.
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