MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 9, 2022

Bubba Watson

Quick Quotes

Q. The conditions were very, very difficult for so many of you guys out there. How would you describe it?

BUBBA WATSON: It's just gusty winds. It seemed like today all of my shots I was kind of in between clubs, where you want to hit like a baby shot or you want to hit a full shot. So you're trying to guess on the wind.

Obviously Scheffler, he's guessing pretty good right now. But everybody -- there's so much talent on the TOUR and professional golf that guys are going to find ways to play good golf, right?

I haven't made any putts. I haven't guessed right on the wind yet. So, yeah, I had a rough day.

Q. You've obviously won around here twice. How impressive is what Scottie is doing right now?

BUBBA WATSON: It's really good. We've seen it -- I can name players all day long, but we've seen guys who get on a hot streak and they make a run, they start making putts.

What I'm impressed with is his short game. I've always been impressed with his short game. Seems that even when he hits it off the green, he can get up and down, make it a ten-footer, making a six-footer.

That's what you've got to do around here and all the other golf courses he's won at this year.

Obviously, having Teddy on the bag, you know, calm him down. Been around this place, obviously. Should help him a lot. Doesn't mean he's going to win. Just means it's definitely going to help.

Q. Obviously you had Teddy on your bag for a long time. What does he bring to a bag like yours or like Scottie's as a caddie?

BUBBA WATSON: Well, he just brings confidence. When a guy's confident in the club selection, the guy's confident in the yardage, confident in the wind -- even if he's lying to you and he just sounds confident, it gives you confidence, right?

That's what a great caddie's going to do, a good caddie's going to do, and that's really what it is.

That was the thing. Today it was always second guessing. It doesn't matter who was on my bag today, I was second guessing. I just didn't trust it.

On 18 I thought I hit a good shot, and somehow the wind, it just kept cutting, and the wind didn't push it back on 18. I guessed wrong on 1 where I made a triple bogey. I thought the club was a short club and not a long club, and it went long and shot off down towards No. 9 tee.

Q. It's presumptive to assume he'll go into tomorrow as the leader, but it certainly seems that way.

BUBBA WATSON: Golf is hard, so you never know.

Q. You've been there.

BUBBA WATSON: Somebody sounds like they just holed it on 10 green. He might have taken a bigger lead.

Q. You know those shoes. What's it like to go into Sunday for the first time in your career as the leader of the pack?

BUBBA WATSON: Yeah, he's just got to do what he's doing. Again, having a great team around him, he has a great team around him. Not only his manager, not only his swing coach, he has Teddy on the bag; his wife is a solid mind. She's going to be right there for him. His whole team's going to be there for him, his whole family.

Really what it is, it's just about taking -- if everybody's doing the right thing they're going to take his mind off of golf. They're going to talk about other things, talk about other sports, maybe NASCAR. Tiger did it, so I figured I should do it (Laughter).

You know, it's going to take his mind off other things. I don't know what he's talked about, but a strong Christian man, he's going to be reading things. He's going to be just focused on life and not focused on the golf tournament.

Again, it doesn't mean he's going to win. It doesn't mean he's not going to win. It just means, even if he plays bad, he's still going to have a great team around him and a beautiful wife to go home to and just enjoy life and wait for the fight to do it again.

If he wins, he'll wait for the fight a year and do it again.

Q. What's the biggest thing around here that Teddy brings to his bag? Just some of the knowledge in general or just knowing -- especially in the situation that he's in now, he obviously was in that with you twice.

BUBBA WATSON: I think the knowledge of being around here enough. We started, the first time was '08; skipped '09. We didn't skip it. I wasn't in the field. And we were here since '10. So the knowledge of winning helps a lot.

We've seen so much, the good rounds, the bad rounds. We've seen weather. We've seen conditions.

There's a few new greens that makes putting a little different on some of the -- a couple holes on the back nine. But like when I won in '14 I told myself, I just kept telling myself, I've done it before. The back nine is going to be so hard on Sunday. Luckily, I had nobody make birdies after No. 13 so I could just hang on for dear life.

But knowing that, it's going to give him confidence. Knowing that he's got a guy on the bag that's won around here, that has notes. Obviously, you can't have the old books. You've got to have the new book from this year, but he's going to have mental notes that he knows that he's been through with me.

So, yeah, it's going to give him nothing but confidence and joy knowing that he has all the information. It doesn't mean you're going to execute, but yeah.

Q. How quick are the greens in comparison to most Masters?

BUBBA WATSON: They're not as fast. Because we knew -- I'm going to say we, like I helped do it. They knew that the wind was coming. We all knew the wind was coming. If you get them as fast as -- gosh, I think Sunday they were really fast. We'll call it tournament speed.

So they were really fast, and there was no way with this wind they could keep it like that. Then obviously moisture is going to slow them down too.

I mean, they're fast. They're scary. But they're not what a bright, no wind, sunny day is going to do. So tomorrow there could be a way to speed them up. Hopefully speed them up after I finish.