Bubba Watson of the U.S. watches his tee shot on th second hold during third round play in the WGC-Cadillac Championship PGA golf tournament at the Doral Resort in Doral, Florida March 10, 2012. REUTERS/Joe SkipperJoe Skipper/Reuters
When people ask me which golfers to follow at a tournament, I usually advise them to stay away from the massive crowds that surround players such as Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Sure, watch them hit a shot or two, but move on. And when it comes to moving on, there's nobody more interesting to follow than Bubba Watson.
Here's why: He's a shot-shaper of the highest order. Nobody moves the ball around as much as he does, even on shots that don't call for anything but a straight ball or one with a little curvature. Every tour player can turn the ball this way or that, hit it high or low. But most players do so only when they face trouble shots, around a tree, for example.
Not Bubba. Karen Crouse of the New York Times calls him a savant when it comes to shaping shots, and that he is. Golf Channel has been replaying some of the snappers and sliders he's hit while shooting 70-62-67 to take a three-shot lead into the final round of the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral's Blue Monster course. Justin Rose, with whom Watson played the first two rounds, watched with wonder, amusement, and respect.
"It's been fun playing with him for two days," Rose said. "He hits some amazing shots. He takes some different lines."
Does he ever. Watson smashed his tee shot 305 yards into a stiff wind on the par-five eighth hole in the second round, and then twisted and turned an iron shot around and over the water in front of the green to set up an eagle. The shot was typical of Bubba ball. He sees shots differently than other players. He has to hit the shot he sees and feels.
Golfers these days often say that the multi-layer ball doesn't curve nearly as much as the balata ball of blessed memory. Watson puts the lie to that. It's true that the ball doesn't curve as much on shots that are mishit, but it can curve plenty when a golfer wants it to. And Watson wants it to curve, all the time.
Here's how he described his play on the sixth hole at Doral in the second round.
"I sliced driver off the tee behind a tree. Had 136 hole. So I took out a wide‑open 9‑iron, aimed it about 40 yards to the right. Sliced it out of the rough to about, I don't know, eight feet. Who does a draw up that way? The sad thing is I could see that in my head."
Huh? Did he refer to what he saw as "the sad thing?" It's the beautiful thing. Soccer has often been called the "beautiful" game because of its intricacies and the way players move the ball around with their feet. Ballet on grass. Well, Watson turns golf into a "beautiful" game, an artistic game. He makes the ball dance.
Ballet in the air and on the ground when his ball lands and dances this way and that way, every which way but straight.
I talked to Mark Calcavecchia about Watson. He recalled the first time he played with Watson. I'm paraphrasing, but he said something like this about how Watson, a lefty, played one particular hole.
"We're on this par-three, about 190 yards. The pin's way back right. He stands there with an eight-iron and sets up with his left foot drawn way back. He's aiming miles left, and he's closed the face way down with the toe in. I'm thinking, 'What's he doing?' You might see this on a driving range from a 25-handicapper who doesn't know how to set up. Then he hits this screaming bullet that starts 40 yards left of the green, takes a right turn, lands on the front of the green and rolls all the way back to a few feet from the hole. So I think, 'Hmm, this guy can play."
David Hearn was saying something similar when we chatted this week. He recalled playing with Bubba, who had a wedge in his hands. Bubba hooked the wedge about 50 yards. Some flight path.
"He's probably the most interesting guy to watch," NBC's Johnny Miller said after the third round at Doral. "I hope young people watching say, hey, that's the way to play, not just [being]a one-shot wonder."
It used to be said of Ben Hogan, the master of ball flight, that he had his own channel in the sky.
Bubba?
He has many channels in the sky. Watch him whenever you can.