MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 10, 2022

Bubba Watson

Quick Quotes

Q. Bubba, what's one memory you'll take away most from this Masters?

BUBBA WATSON: Memory, gosh. Truthfully, it's the inspiration of Tiger. Tiger -- forget score. I don't care. He might not say that to the media, but forget score, right? It's pretty inspirational.

Ten-year anniversary of my win, but watching him walk, gosh, I cry on a paper cut. For him to be able to walk and make the cut is pretty spectacular.

Q. A little more scorable today, it seemed. They want the Sunday fireworks?

BUBBA WATSON: For sure. Obviously, when I teed off, it was a little cooler, but getting the nice temperatures, a little bit less wind. On the back nine there's still some gusts up there that's going to trick some people just because of the pressure, but, yeah, it's definitely more gettable. I think there was -- I thought I saw a guy that was 5-under through nine.

Q. Also made the turn at 5-under.

BUBBA WATSON: Right now there's a guy 6-under, Lee. It says 4-over, and now he is 2-under through nine. Yes, I knew there was somebody. Not bad. Yeah, it's definitely gettable. I mean, more gettable.

Q. Right.

BUBBA WATSON: Gettable is a stretch.

Q. Are we in an era right now or at least a little period here where we truly have more parity than ever before? We've seen parity kind of coming on, but it seems like it gets harder and harder to hold up at not only No. 1, but top ten in the world.

BUBBA WATSON: Yes. You know, there's other walks of life we're dealing with. We're not just sitting here hitting balls every day.

I think the talent level is through the roof right now. Think about it. We can sit here and debate year after year, week after week the field strength.

Years ago the field strength -- Asia is now playing. When you think about that, just that alone, that brings a whole different dynamic, whole different -- just a bigger crowd playing the game of golf, so it's harder to stay No. 1 because there's other talent coming after you. You become No. 1 -- I've never been No. 1, but when I became No. 2, I sat back in my lounge chair and was, like, yeah, I made it.

I told Harold earlier this year when Harold made that long bomb on me in Saudi Arabia, I told him, I said you can't party for a week, man. You got to go home and practice. These young kids are trying to beat you. They're mad you just made that putt. They're trying to beat you next week. If are you partying, guess what, they're already one or two or three shots up on you.

Not that he shouldn't celebrate his victory. That's totally fine, but he has to now reset and be hungry again. These guys are hungry.

Scottie Scheffler is hungry. I'm not saying he is going to win today, but he is hungry. He's watched all these great champions win. He watched Tiger win, what, 82 times. He wants to do that, right? So he is hungry.

Yeah, everybody out here that just won a trophy might have lost a little bit of hunger, and the other guys are hungrier. That's where to be No. 1 or to stay at top ten is not as easy as it used to be.

Q. Is that how you felt a little bit with maybe the first masters win was --

BUBBA WATSON: No, I was celebrating for years.

(Laughter).

Q. You might have lost an edge.

BUBBA WATSON: These guys are more talented than me. For me to hit a couple of good shots is one thing, but for me to stay on top for six, seven months, that's -- I don't have that kind of mind capacity to do that, so I was just happy with one and then somehow snuck in there for two.

These guys are just -- we've learned differently. Since '97 watching Tiger, listening to Tiger, everybody has changed. As I get older, my goals in life change, same as these guys. These guys' goals in life will change. Obviously not right now because these guys are young and hungry, like I said.

Q. How did you and Scottie first become friends?

BUBBA WATSON: Bible study. Young guy, Brad Payne is the guy out here now that runs Bible study. Him and another guy run Bible study. We became friends. You seek out a young guy and try to help them, so we became friends. That's how we joined up and played in New Orleans. Got to know him over time. That's really it.

Q. What do you like about him?

BUBBA WATSON: What do I like about him? Gosh, truthfully it's not about the golf. It's about who he is as a person, who his family is, his upbringing, what he is trying to do in life, and he is fun to hang out with. He is just a naturally funny guy and brings smiles to the room.

Obviously, pleased beyond belief for Teddy to be on his bag and help him. I want nothing more than these young guys to be better than me, right? Just like I'm trying to teach my kids to be better than me. Not in golf, but in life.

So it's awesome to see that.

Q. Is there any way that he approaches it that you feel like is similar to you, just the way he plays the game? A lot of times you talk about creativity. How does that fit for Augusta?

BUBBA WATSON: Yeah, he is trying to hit shots. You are trying to hit shots. Augusta is the best example of trying to hit shots. Even if it looks like an easy wedge from the middle of the fairway, you're still trying to hit some kind of shot because the wind is coming this way and the slope is coming a certain way.

Yeah, it's a perfect kind of setting for him to try to create, and having Teddy on the bag, being around me trying to create is just going to help him that much more.

Q. How much does it help Teddy and Scottie and also yourself, if you share values and you know the person off the course, how does it help on the course?

BUBBA WATSON: Well, it's the ultimate trying to -- what we're trying to achieve in life. Forget golf, right? We're all trying to play good golf. We're all trying to win. Anybody that signs up is trying to win, but just other goals trying to do in life.

That's why I hired Teddy years ago in '06, and now Teddy being on the bag with Scottie. All three of us are trying to do the same things. We're trying to be the best husband we can be, trying to be the best parent we can be. Scottie is not a parent yet, but he will be at some point. We're trying to do the same goals in life, and then golf just gets in the way. If you get your life somewhat in order, maybe a few more putts will go in.

Q. I got here a little late, but will you address why you and Teddy parted ways, and do you have any regrets?

BUBBA WATSON: I have no regrets, and I don't think he does either. He has made more money now without me. He needed ten more years. I haven't told anybody, but I had some struggles this offseason. Wrote a book about some struggles. My wrist, I had a wrist injury all last year. Had some PRP.

So I called him and told him. I said, look, man, I'm 43 years old. I don't know what I'm going to do. My wrist is killing me. He is like he needs ten more years, and I gave him -- I felt like a nice retirement package when we split up, but we split up mutually.

We're still great friends. We hang out. We played practice rounds together a couple of tournaments ago. Very thankful and awesome for a friend of mine to have a great bag like that, right? He can now teach another young kid hopefully leadership like he taught me for, what, 15 years.

No, it was just a mutual split-up. I can't tell him what I'm going to do in ten years. I can't tell you what I'm going to do in six months. He needed ten years for his own personal retirement and things going on in his life, and so we just split up. No big deal.

I say we're still friends. We still text each other, so behind the door he might not be friends with me, but he has made more money, so now I guess he's happy he left.

Q. What's the status of your wrist?

BUBBA WATSON: It's good. I made the cut, so I'm good.

Q. All better?

BUBBA WATSON: If you looked at my thing, I set out -- I'm struggling to get 15 events in. I had to sit out all last year. Doctor said I was good to go to play QBE and the father/son PNC. Obviously, I didn't want to miss PNC because I want my son to see it. I want him to want to be there one year.

It was sore when I played those two events back-to-back weeks. That was the first time I played in nine weeks, ten weeks. First time I hit balls. I told Lexi at QBE, hey, I haven't hit balls in nine weeks, so hopefully I'm okay. I had to get out some cobwebs there, but it's been good ever since.

Q. Do you know how you hurt it?

BUBBA WATSON: Bad golf, I guess. I have no idea.