THE NORTHERN TRUST

August 20, 2020

Bubba Watson

TPC Boston

Quick Quotes

Q. How happy are you with the round? What made you happiest?

BUBBA WATSON: Gosh, the concentration over the putts. Put in a new putter, a B60. My first putter ever as a child was a B60. Got it when I was eight years old and so I used that up till probably, gosh, 2004 or something. So I used it till a little after I turned pro. So to get a B60 back in the bag just feels like an old friend and it was nice to go out there and putt and be confident over it.

Q. What's the difference in that putter versus ones you've used in your professional career?

BUBBA WATSON: Again, this is what they told me, the engineers at PING told me. The different toe hang. There's face balance. I tried a mallet a few weeks ago. That's face balance. The Anser style that I used for years has more toe hang.

B60 is kind of the hybrid right in the middle of those and so for some reason, that's is better for my stroke, and that's where we are. You know, asking the engineers at Ping to help me out and see what they see and what they think and that's what we came up with, going back to that.

Q. Following up on what you're talking about --

BUBBA WATSON: Nice mask.

Q. Thank you. Had it for a couple weeks now. How long have you been working with the breathing coach?

BUBBA WATSON: Monday. Monday. So what's today -- today's Thursday. However many days that is. I'm not good at math.

Q. Three or four.

BUBBA WATSON: Actually on a Zoom call working on breathing. Have a thing hooked up to my finger, have a computer and have a belt around my stomach. And we're working on it, trying to get my breathing, my heart rate to match up in a relaxed state.

Obviously when you're going up a hill it doesn't match up as well, right. They kind of go anywhere. So we are trying to figure out how to get into a relax the state quicker and that's what they are helping me do now and then we're going to work on the brain a little bit after that.

Q. What prompted you to want to work with someone like that?

BUBBA WATSON: You know, when I just hear myself, when I hear myself over, gosh, I would say over the last 15 years, always talk about the physical things I immediate to work on but I never did anything about it, right. Off the course, I'm even keel. I can kind of relax, but on course is where I get headless and I start going, ramped up going too fast and so we are trying to slow down to where I am off the course and so that's what we are working on trying to do that. And then finally I guess as I get older I get smarter, I realize maybe I should work on it. I work on putting and chipping. Maybe I can work on the mental part.

Q. What do you think the difference is between your off-course personality?

BUBBA WATSON: I think it's just the best way to say it would be some form of mental issues where you feel like you should perform like these guys week-in and week-out, and you know, you don't do it.

I put expectations on myself. And I let other people's expectations creep in instead of focus on my own set of goals that I have and lose train of thought that way instead of focus on your goals, you focus on something else. Collin Morikawa said it best after he won: He's focused on his own goals, not other people's expectations.

Q. Can you give us an example where you implemented that?

BUBBA WATSON: If I miss the green, you hit a shot that you don't like or hit a putt you don't like. Anything you don't like, and then you just kind of start taking deep breaths, and you start, I won't tell you my secrets completely, but you start breathing differently and focusing on those things instead of focusing on this over here.

You just kind of deflect a little bit. Obviously we all know; the world has proven it that breathing properly and breathing the right way can definitely calm you down and relief some stress or anxiety.

Q. From a physical side are you working with Claude Harmon?

BUBBA WATSON: No. He fired me. He said, "Man, you're so mental, we can't even work together."

No, Claude is such a good friend. I reached out to him and I said, "Hey, is there any way you could just watch me for would weeks and see if you see anything."

Again I always thought it was not physical, it's the mental and after two weeks I said, "Hey, it's mental."

And he goes, "Yeah, it's mental." That was it. It wasn't a thing that it was a long-term deal anything like that. It was asking a buddy if you could just look; see anything that me and Teddy are missing, and that's what it was.

Q. Do you feel you're striking it well now?

BUBBA WATSON: For this whole year I've had a few Top-10s. I think I've hit it really nicely. Hit some putts here and there. I've dabbled with some putters, and now I've got my breathing down so hopefully we're off and running.