MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 8, 2022

Bubba Watson

Quick Quotes

Q. Nice finish there.

BUBBA WATSON: Yeah, that was. I'll be honest, not that you want to know, but that was the best shot I've ever hit at Augusta National, that one right there. How far did we have? You figured up. I didn't carry the distance. So 183 with adjustment. My ball was two inches in the air.

It was like a piece of a branch about that big had fell on the ground, and my ball was sitting on top of it, and then leaves were -- two leaves behind it I couldn't move, and then two leaves touching that I couldn't move, so I had a gap way up in the trees. I was, like, 'I'm going to hit wedge as hard as I can.'

He is, like, 'all right.' Then it went to a foot, so worked out.

Q. You went back and forth on clubs a couple of times on that.

BUBBA WATSON: What happened is -- you can't even make this up, but the rules official was there. It's all in a nest, right? Then when it gusted like this, so right when I was over it, it gusted, and a leaf about four feet away blows right over top of it. Now I can't even see the ball.

I said, hey -- he was right over my shoulder here. I said, 'the ball didn't move, but the leaf covered it.'

He said, nope, there's no penalty, no nothing.

I was, like, 'yeah, I didn't think that. I was just making sure you knew.'

Then I removed the leaf very carefully. Yeah, that's why it was just such a -- and then thinking about the cut, I don't know what the cut will be. It's starting to gust now. Let's say the cut was going to be 5. If I would have double-bogeyed it, I would be at 5. I could have easily double-bogeyed it with that lie and the shot I tried to play. Luckily I got a birdie somehow.

Q. What were you able to pick off? I was standing behind you, and I saw you standing over it a little bit. What were you able to pick off?

BUBBA WATSON: I thought about trying to start moving some things around, but then, like I said, I'm 3-over at that point and not sure what the cut is going to be at the end of the day knowing that the wind is picking up, so I was thinking 4-over had a good shot at it. 5-over has a really good -- looking at it last night with the weather they're predicting, I was thinking 5-over has a shot at it. Double-bogey is what I was thinking in my head. That's the worst I can make.

I decide not to move anything. Then when I got over it for the first time, the leaf from about four feet away just literally blew right over top of my ball, and I was, like, are you kidding me?

Q. What was it you saw through the trees?

BUBBA WATSON: Very high up probably the highest point of the trees there all I was trying to do was hit a wedge. It's teed up, right? If I hit a pitching wedge as hard as I can straight up, I thought I could hit that gap. I wasn't looking at the green.

I knew roughly the number, so trying to get to the fairway, so I have a chance for par. That's what I was looking at. It came out. Because of that lie and because of the tree branch, because of the leaves -- these were big, thick leaves -- it caught a flier. It caught like a knuckler. It went straight up, and then a gust from the Gods flew. It was a pitching wedge from 138 as high as I could hit it, and somehow it went a foot from the hole. They all said, 'good shot,' the guys I was playing with. I said, 'where did it go?'

Q. When did you see it was two feet away?

BUBBA WATSON: Let's say it was one foot because I made it, so I would have been nervous at two feet. I didn't know. They both said, 'good shot.' The crowd over here on 10 was yelling. So I had no idea, and then Tom walking to the fairway said, it hit right of green and went towards the hole at a slow pace. He said, 'it might be really close.' Then he got up there and said it was a gimme, and I said, 'man, those aren't gimmes for me, I have to mark that thing.' So I didn't know until I got up there

Q. Speaking of 10, you hit a crazy shot ten years ago.

BUBBA WATSON: I was real close to the shot.

Q. I still see people walk by and talk about that shot. I saw your wife today point it out to some friends. What does that still mean to you and seeing people talk about that shot?

BUBBA WATSON: It means a lot. It's ten years ago. My reminder is I adopted my son, Caleb, two weeks before, so he is 10 years old now. It's crazy to think about that. I've got a 10-year-old.

It's a 10-year-old shot. It's one of those shots that changed my life forever. There were so many things. The platform that I've been given now hitting that shot, the ability to play the Masters for the rest of my life. There's just so many things that happened in those moments, those two weeks before and then the Masters, the shot.

Yeah, it means a lot to my family and me. It's amazing how fast it goes. It feels like it was yesterday, but it was ten years ago. Yeah, it's a dream come true to be able to pull that shot off in those moments. It's great.

Q. Did today beat that? Today was better than that shot?

BUBBA WATSON: Well, yes. Physical shot, yes. Nobody in the world would have tried that shot that I tried. There's nobody on the planet that would have tried it. We can sit here and they can tell me they would try it. There's nobody that would have tried it. I don't believe could have pulled it off.

I caught a flier, drew a pitching wedge. Hit it as high as I could hit it. Yeah, situation-wise, the hook was better, but I'm just saying physical golf shot? Even that year in '12 there was a shot on 11 and shot on 17 that I thought was better than the hook, but the hook was what helped me -- helped the victory. At that moment, yeah, it was the best shot, obviously.

Q. How is the adrenaline right now? Does that get you going for Saturday?

BUBBA WATSON: It lets me know that I'm in. It's funny you are asking that. My son, we sat in the bus yesterday, my motor home, and my son said -- we call it PGA School, but they have child care for our kids, and so we call it PGA School. So we said PGA School tomorrow. He said, yes, but on the weekend I want to walk and follow you. I want to walk the course.

I was, like, first of all, 'we've got to make it to the weekend.'

He said, 'Dad, you shouldn't think like that.' Now I get to go home and say we played it to the weekend.

Yeah, it definitely gives you momentum knowing how windy it is, how cold it's going to be tomorrow. It's going to be I think windy again tomorrow and cold, so hopefully shoot 1- or 2-under somehow, and let everybody else think about how tough it is. Yeah, there's always a chance, right? Make the cut, you have a chance.

Q. How does the cold affect this place, relative cold?

BUBBA WATSON: The ball just doesn't go as far, so shots that we normally are used to hitting -- like No. 1 here, into the wind and cold, I mean, that bunker -- you might not be able to get to that bunker.

Then when you try to hit -- like today I hit an 8-iron out of the bunker on 1, but if it's cold, now we're looking at a 6-iron. A 6-iron might not be able to get over the lip. Just changes everything. It just makes the ball not go as far, and they've made this course longer, so that's not good for us, I guess.

Q. How was the wind today?

BUBBA WATSON: It was okay. The first few holes, obviously, not as bad, but now it's starting to gust and pick up, and it's hard to tell. When you get down No. 10, it's hard to tell which way it's coming from because in the trees it bounces around. Feels like it does. Makes you think a lot.