	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP

June 28, 2015

Bubba Watson

CROMWELL, CONNECTICUT

THE MODERATOR: Good evening, everyone. Congratulations Bubba Watson on a great victory. Reminiscent a little bit of your first win which you got here in 2010 in, again, a two-hole playoff. Talk a little bit about being back here and what this win means and how the week played out for you?

BUBBA WATSON: The week was a great week. Everything was -- my body felt good. My mind was calm. Coming down the stretch, I didn't execute. I didn't make the shots I needed to make. Paul Casey made the shots he needed to make. Then in the playoff I hit a good shot, put some pressure on him and got a victory. It does remind me of 2010 where coming down the stretch I had to hit some good shots and I didn't. That bunker I hit in the water in 2010. This time I got over the water. But, yeah, I had to force a playoff. So it's good to get the victory. I wish it was a lot easier, but a victory is a victory.

Q. You now join three other players with multiple wins this season. Looking forward down the road into the playoffs, how are you feeling about where your game is?
BUBBA WATSON: Well, I think I'm third on the FedExCup now. So moving forward, getting closer to the playoffs to how you can get. Hopefully I'll be getting close to where I can wrap it up and make the top 30. But you know, the playoffs are where it's going to come down to. This is just helping me get higher up in the playoffs before the big point events start.

Q. Having played and won in that 2010 playoff, what, if anything, could you take from that experience today?
BUBBA WATSON: Well, I mean, I proved to myself in '10 that I could win under pressure in the playoff. I proved to myself that I could mess up 17 and still have a chance to win, and so I knew that if I just kept my head down and kept doing what I needed to do, I could still have a chance to win, and that's what I did. I kept grinding it out. No matter where the shot went, I kept focused on what I needed to do at that moment, and somehow it worked out and I'm sitting here.

Q. Now you have eight PGA TOUR wins and two Masters. Where have you or have you changed your career goals or kind of recalibrated where you're at now after all these victories?
BUBBA WATSON: No. My whole goal in my career was to get ten wins. I needed two more wins. I felt like in this day and age with the talent level all across the world, everybody playing the game of golf, that 10 is a big number to get double digit wins on the PGA TOUR with as many players that are winning, all the talent, all the people know how to prepare now. Tiger Woods raised the bar for everybody, and I think that around the world they've raised the bar. So it makes it tougher to win. So 10 was always a big number it just sounds better I have ten than nine. I think double digits, if you have double digit wins this day and age, I think that's pretty good. Other people might, Tiger thinks differently than I do, but I just think that ten wins is a big number.

Q. You started off so strong. How big was 13 and that eagle?
BUBBA WATSON: Obviously, it was really big. If I miss it, I don't go in the playoffs. It was good for momentum. I hit a great shot out of the bunker. I made the putt. I was hoping nobody else would birdie, but Paul Casey decided he wanted to birdie some holes to make it interesting. So obviously it was big. It kept me going. It got me pumped up. I left a putt short on the next hole, but obviously making the putt forced me to have the playoff. If I miss it, then I'm 1 back.

Q. Can you go over the 17th hole with us, the shot and what your thinking was?
BUBBA WATSON: Well, I struggled on that hole, and it was into the wind into the mist. And I was hitting my driver good all week, so I wanted to hit this low driver, low cut, and I just overcut it. I knew the ball wasn't going to go as far because of the weather, so I tried to just cut it. Cut it down there just short of the rough line. Just overcut it into the bunker. Bunker shot was no big deal to me. When I hit it, there was a rock under my ball when I marked my ball. Had a big gouge out of my ball. I told Teddy, I said, Teddy, I hit it good. I don't know what that was. That hooked 30 yards off line. I wasn't going at the flag. I was going to the center of the green and just trying to play for par and get out of there and that thing hooked. As soon as it took off it just started at the hole and then shot to the right. So when I marked the ball I saw the big gouge, and I said it had to be a rock. I felt good over it, I was calm. Felt just as solid as it felt on 13. Then after I hit the shot, you just have to play for bogey and somehow if you make a par, you made a long putt. So I played for bogey to make sure that I was still tied for the lead and not down one.

Q. In addition to the two Travelers, you win The Masters in the playoff. You win the PGA in the playoffs and I believe New Orleans as well.
BUBBA WATSON: I've only lost one playoff, I think, in my career.

THE MODERATOR: Five out of six.

Q. How much fortitude do you need and have after all those experiences to be able to regear for a playoff?
BUBBA WATSON: Kind of funny you're asking me about the mental part because I'm not very good at it. You know, it's really about who can stay focused and committed under pressure. Today I was in between clubs going into the last hole in regulation. I knew missing it on the left was going to be my best option to get up and down to force a playoff, so that's what I did. Then in the playoffs I had perfect numbers where I could hit an 8-iron both times. So it's just about staying calm. That's what you have to do. Just breathe, walk slower. For me, walk slower, take some deep breaths and focus on the fact that no matter what, you're still coming in second place. So for me that's how I do it. Right or wrong, I don't know, but that's how I do it. Just try to take it one shot at a time and hopefully the other guy is more nervous than you.

Q. With the way the weather was today, how much different did the course play compared to the first three rounds, and other than 17, what was the most challenging hole for you?
BUBBA WATSON: The course played differently. It just played longer. The front nine I thought was quite funny was every pin was in the back which is unheard of. For some reason we used that same pin on 9 three out of the four days which was weird to us. So it made the golf course a lot tougher because that's a tricky pin. There are a couple other pins that we've used already this week, so it was different. Obviously with the weather, you don't know how the ball's going to react, especially out of the rough because it's wet. It makes the rough thicker. So the golf course played longer, so that makes it play tougher. Then guessing if the ball is going to spin or not because of the weather. The other difficult hole, oh, man. Obviously 7. I laid up about 50 yards short of the hole. I don't know. There's a lot of tough holes out here if you're not thinking straight. Number 10 I had to hit 6-iron into it and still came up 40 feet short of the hole and I hit driver off the tee, so that hole was playing pretty difficult. It usually plays pretty difficult, I think, during the week.

Q. First time you won here was obviously a memorable scene on the playoff hole with Angie. I assume it was a little less emotional this time and she wasn't here. Was she back home with the kids?
BUBBA WATSON: You know, my priorities are different. I don't cry as much from the wins now because my dad passed away in 2010, so there is more to life than having a bunch of trophies that are just going to rot away at some point. Having my son, I FaceTimed my son on the way up here so I could say hey to him before he goes to bed. There are a lot more important things in life. So it's a different drive. Her being here, we'd be crying together, holding each other, hopefully she'd give me a kiss if I wanted if she was here.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
BUBBA WATSON: They went back home. We have a house in Greenbrier. So after the U.S. Open, the three-hour time change, she wanted to give me some rest because the kids would be up different types of the day, so she was just giving me some rest. Worked out, I guess.

Q. You seem kind of self-deprecating the last couple days when you talk about the mental part of the game. Yet I think the things that you do you have to be mentally strong. So what am I missing?
BUBBA WATSON: I think you're looking too deep into it. If you've ever played golf, we're all mental. It's just who is better at that moment. I worked so hard on focusing over the ball on my set up, my putt, and anybody that tells you they're not nervous or they're not a head case on the golf course, they're lying to you. So I'm just being truthful. Just telling the truth. So for me, I know those things. I know those keys, and I've got to get better at those, and that's what I do. I talk about it. Me and Teddy talk about it. How do you get better? You have to focus on the golf course. Put your head down. It's not that I'm mad or anything like that. I'm putting my head down so I can focus on what I need to focus on. Not focusing on the crowd yelling your name or the bad stuff like the water or the out of bounds and all those things. By me saying that I'm a head case, it's not going to affect me on the golf course. I'm pretty driven when it comes to the golf course. I know to keep my head down and focus on what I need to focus on. Here I'm just joking and having fun. But we're all head cases on the golf course.

Q. When Paul was going through what he was going through on the second playoff hole, how tough is it to keep focused when you hear your caddie talking about it?
BUBBA WATSON: Well, the first thing you know as a golfer is anything can happen. So when he hit that shot I'm not thinking that he's going to mess up. I'm thinking he's going to hole it. He's going to hit this shot. He's going to hit this incredible shot and somehow I'm going to struggle it down there and we're going to go to another hole. So that's what you're thinking about. Now obviously as he hit the next shot and he missed the putt, then you think in your head I've got to two putt, three-putt. But, yeah, while he's hitting the shots and there is still a chance, you always believe there is a chance. When the first playoff hole he hit the bunker shot, and I think he got up in regulation as well out of the bunker, so we knew he was going to get up and down. You have to tell yourself that and you have to focus on what you need to focus on. Until the last moment I was still focused on I've got to make this putt. I've got to make this putt. That's how you do it. You can't give up anything because something crazy will happen and then you're losing.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297