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THE BARCLAYS

August 27, 2015

Bubba Watson

Edison, New Jersey

Q. How would you assess today?
BUBBA WATSON: Really good. Today was really good. We were joking out there, I don't know what the numbers are, but it was supposed to be 7 miles an hour at most with the wind and it seems like there were a couple shots that it was a little more than 7 miles an hour.

I missed the cut the last time we played at this golf course, so obviously this is a big step forward for me, where I have a good shot at making the cut tomorrow.

Q. When you first saw this golf course --
BUBBA WATSON: Very difficult --

Q. When --
BUBBA WATSON: A couple days ago you're saying?

Q. First time?
BUBBA WATSON: I loved it a few years ago. It didn't love me.

You know, we took a different strategy. PING makes a good driver, so we were going to try to hit driver as much as we can. The rough is so thick that I would rather miss my driver in the rough than an iron off the tee or something like that.

The only hole really concerned about is 17. I don't like the shot -- it's a blinds shot, so I don't like that shot. So I took 4-iron and tried to hit it over the edge of the bunkers like I did today. It's a long shot into the green, but I made par at the end of the day, so it worked out.

Q. The way you played it the first time --
BUBBA WATSON: I don't remember. There's a lot of stuff that happened in my life since 2011, I think it was. So I'm not really -- I just know I missed the cut.

Q. As well as Jordan has played this year, were you surprised at that back nine?
BUBBA WATSON: It's golf. I've played many a rounds a lot worse than that. So I'm not going to say anything to the No. 1 in the world, No. 1 on FedExCup by a long shot. You know, I'm still going to take advice from him.

But no, it's one of those things. It's golf. And again, it's Atlanta that we are all worried about. You can win these three, these next three tournaments, still not win the FedExCup. So Atlanta is where we really need to be peeking.

Q. Do you try to win this week?
BUBBA WATSON: I try to win every week. It might not look like it when I 3-putt the last hole, but yes.

Q. You say you want to try to finish inside the Top-20 in every start --
BUBBA WATSON: Yeah. I haven't done that, thank you for bringing that up. Thank you.

Q. The ones you've missed have been the majors. Those have been almost your worst results --
BUBBA WATSON: Because those are tougher courses. I don't know if you've ever played them --

Q. You've played some of those courses very well --
BUBBA WATSON: Right. My thinking is getting better. No matter what people say or what people hear, what people write, me as a person is getting a lot better. Me as a husband, me as a dad, is getting a lot better.

You know, I had some issues growing up where I was very angry at the world and at the golf, and so I've tried to get better at that. And so over the past few years, I've grown up, I guess you'd say, and my thinking, my processes, either I'm getting better as a person or I'm just tired of hitting bad shots on the golf course. So I'm thinking better.

And I'm taking off some tournaments that I normally don't take off just to have more energy. We always talk about energy. Tiger's talked about it; Phil's talked about it; these young guns have talked about it, Jason Day and Spieth have talked about it. That's really, when you look at the schedule, how our you are going to play your best and you're out here, you have to have rest.

Q. How about the threesome today?
BUBBA WATSON: Yeah, especially when I was beating them. I'm the low man on the totem pole today.

It's good. We all had fun. We were joking. Obviously we were trying to play our best golf but at the same time we are all friends, we are all pulling for each other and we support each earth.

Q. What about this course suits your eye?
BUBBA WATSON: Nothing. Well, the scorecard suited my eye. We'll take the scorecard all day.

If you look, and I'm not making excuses about how I play golf. But you look at the golf course, it's a blind shot off No. 1. If you leave it in the right spot, it's a blind shot on the second shot. No. 2 is a blind shot where it's landing.

I can keep going; there's a lot of blind shot outs there. And for me, for me being a visual player, I can't see the -- it's not tree-lined as well, so I can't see my landing and how I want to shape the balls.

It's difficult for me, and my caddie told me, he said, well, you missed the cut last time, so you should be able to beat that. But it's all about trust. You've got to trust that you're going to aim it over here and it's going to cut back.

And today the only shot I wish I could redo, I didn't trust the par 3, and for me, when you look at that par 3 where I made a bogey, where was that, No. 6 I think, you could barely see part of the green.

So it's kind of a blind shot, and I was worried about -- it looked like that club could go over, really just in my mind playing tricks. So I didn't commit to it. That's really the only shot I wish I could redo. It was a difficult putt on 9, so not really too mad about that.

Q. You've won on courses where you --
BUBBA WATSON: Yeah, you get lucky sometimes. When you're somewhat good at the game, I don't know if you know that I'm pretty decent at it, you get lucky once in awhile. You make the ten-footers instead of leave it short on the last hole.

Q. Will you think about your round later tonight?
BUBBA WATSON: No. That was an easy one.

Q. Will you think more about the 65 or the 3-putt to close?
BUBBA WATSON: I'm so dumb, I'm not going to think about it. I'm going to think tomorrow, how am I going to sleep 12 hours, what Caleb wants to do in the morning. The house we rented has a little playground behind it, so he'll be wanting to play back there. That's what I'll be doing.

No, I didn't think about what I shot, if it was an 81 or if it was a 60, I don't think about it. I just come out the next day and try to be aggressive and hit my targets that Teddy tells me to hit on blind shots.

Q. Seemed like there was a couple shots in the rough going to the green and I wonder if that wasn't actually a better spot to be because there's no spin to worry about, you can almost run to the hole --
BUBBA WATSON: I'll use number -- what hole is that, No. 9, as an example. It's 119, easy shot. The lie was not 100 percent good but it was pretty good for me and my impact. The only thing it did on the tee, on the shot, it shot a little to the left. So if it's at the hole where I'm trying to hit it, it stays up there, and then I have a chance.

And then obviously on -- I don't know the holes, 12, 13, 15 -- whatever the shorter hole where I was in the rough. I hit to like a foot -- yes. After watching the two guys spin it back, I'm like, oh, I'm actually bad but good.

And so yes, and so that's what me and Teddy have talked about this week is hitting driver so that you can be bad but good at the same time.

JASON DAY: Was it an honor to play with Jason Day?

BUBBA WATSON: Jason Day is one of my favorite golfers of all time because his son has the best hair I've ever seen. And by the way, he was at my house yesterday eating up all my macaroni and cheese, by the way. So you owe me for that.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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