PIF SAUDI INTERNATIONAL POWERED BY SOFTBANK INVESTMENT ADVISERS

January 31, 2023

Bubba Watson

Royal Greens Golf and Country Club

Press Conference

BUBBA WATSON: I shot 63 eight months ago at PGA Championship, so now you're talking about trusting everything that I couldn't do over the last eight months, trusting my skills, trusting my practice. That's a mental issue, not a physical issue.

Q. Did you work with anyone on that or is that just yourself?

BUBBA WATSON: Mentally? No, I pray a lot, but it doesn't seem to be helping all the time.

Q. How will you approach the 2023 season, sort of different journey you're going on, so what's your approach to that?

BUBBA WATSON: You know, it's an exciting time in my life. I could think of key moments. Let's just talk about golf. Forget the other part of my golf. Let's talk about golf. Turning pro for the first time, making my Tour card for the first time, and now this other adventure of a league, playing with three guys. It's going to be fun.

For me it's a teaching moment where I can learn but also help three other guys, help a league develop and grow, help change the landscape of juniors playing the game of golf at a quicker level.

It's going to be fun. It's exciting.

Q. The extra time you sort of had off, has that given you even more time to think about it, the logos, team names, and you're getting in the team spirit of that side of your next journey?

BUBBA WATSON: Yeah, for sure. I've been a part of a AA baseball team back home, so the team that I'm with back home in Pensacola, Florida, they started a franchise from scratch. They brought in a AA baseball team, and they had to start with the name, the colors, the logo and all that. I've been a part of that. My team has been a part of that.

We know how difficult it is to start from scratch, trying to start a franchise or a whole team. It's been fun. Luckily I've had the time off where I can be more involved in it, so it's been a blast, and now I'm ready to get back. The Niblicks last year - the rumor is the name is changing, but the Niblicks last year never got on the podium, so I want to get on the podium and try to be top 3 at least one event.

Q. You've enjoyed some time traveling. You've played, you've won in Asia before, won in China, and you're now back here in Asia. How important do you think it is to constantly continue to travel, expand the game? You talked about juniors playing the game. Is that important to the legacy you want to leave behind, making sure young kids see this as a fun game that everybody can play?

BUBBA WATSON: Yes, for sure. When you think about professional golf in general, Japan, Japan used to be the big events. Jack Nicklaus, Arnold, all those guys used to travel over there and play because those were the biggest events, and let's be honest, that's where the money was at first. Then the same thing with Australia; Australia has three main events that everybody knows about, and those were the big events. Australia and then Japan were the big events, and now the TOUR has taken over. The PGA TOUR has took over.

Yeah, traveling the world is what we know of professional golf, and when I was a kid, that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to travel the world to compete against other players, foreign players. We don't look on the board to see where they're from, but we just look at that score; you're trying to beat them.

Traveling the world to try to see what kind of game you have, if your game can travel, different kind of grass, different kind of weather, different kind of sand in the bunkers.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to doing that, and then growing the game. I've always been a part of growing the game. In my local community, I try and do as much as I can to grow the game of golf. If everybody on this tournament helped their local talent play the game of golf, young kids, our game would have some good growth and continue to grow over the years.

Q. You've enjoyed your time in Saudi; you're happy coming back here and playing?

BUBBA WATSON: 100 percent. It's unbelievable. The water just off of No. 16, I just want to go swim in it. It's the blue -- I can't even explain the blue color to it. It's just amazing. I've talked about my family coming over here, my kids coming over here because I want them to experience the rest of the world, not just in our bubble of the United States.

They're in school right now, so I just couldn't let them come out of school because they're going to Augusta, so there's a couple weeks coming up that they're going to miss school, so we can't let them miss too many days of school. They've got to learn at some point.

Q. Not playing last year on the LIV Tour, you were commentating, but it looked like you were having great fun. Were you champing at the bit to get back to the golf course at that time when you saw all these guys having so much fun?

BUBBA WATSON: Well, first of all, I have to say, I appreciate -- I didn't know what went on behind the scenes at a golf tournament. I get spoiled because all I do is play golf. Behind the scenes, the production team, the production men and women that we never even hear about or see, man, I have to say thank you, take my hat off to them and say thank you. They do so much behind the scenes at every event.

I was champing at the bit, yes, to get back out and play, but every time I saw someone miss a short putt, I was like, well, I haven't missed a short putt in a while, so this is actually pretty good.

It was nerve-racking, though. I'm trying to do something different that I haven't done, trying to talk on camera, trying to talk on the microphone. Yeah, it was a different challenge. It was fun, but obviously I'd rather play golf than be on the microphone.

Q. What was easier, hitting those shots from the 10th of the Masters and curving it like that, or just talking on television? How were the first few rounds? Were you nervous?

BUBBA WATSON: Well, my English isn't very well, so hitting shots is so much easier. I grew up in a small town, so my English isn't the best.

Coming up with the right words to say about somebody's golf game was difficult, but hitting a shot at that moment was easier. It was tough, but it was easier.

Q. I've been to several Masters and Augusta National, and I've always seen you even during the week before, at the ANWA tournament, at the Drive, Chip & Putt. When it was announced that everything is hunky-dory to go back to the Masters, how relieved were you, and did you do your best to make this happen?

BUBBA WATSON: No, I let the powers that be make the decisions. But yes, I was very thankful that we get to go back to the Masters.

Then LIV announced their schedule, so I won't be able to go to the women's tournament or the Drive, Chip & Putt with the kids because we'll be in Orlando.

But it's one year, I'm going to definitely be in the ears of people at LIV and try to see if I can get back there because I want to support what the Masters means to the game of golf, what the membership of Augusta means to the game of golf, and I would love to be there for the Women's Amateur and the kids on Sunday.

It's a little upsetting that I'll be playing golf the week before in Orlando, but I know it's for the best, and I'll be there supporting my team and trying to win that trophy. But I'll get to Augusta as fast as I can.

Q. I know Scotty is a very good, dear friend of yours, and he said it in a way a joke, but he said he's going to get you a different table at the Champions Dinner.

BUBBA WATSON: Hey, as long as I'm in the Champions Dinner, I'm fine. I'll sit wherever he tells me. It's fine. As long as I'm allowed back, I'll sit wherever he wants me to. I'll sit outside and just stare in the window.

Q. You talked about the growth of golf, the game worldwide. Could you expand on how all the best players playing together worldwide, how are you going to do that faster than before?

BUBBA WATSON: Well, so what I mean by that is I had surgery, and my son is sitting with me in my bed, and how I signed up with LIV is my 10-year-old son was sitting in the bed with me, and we were watching golf on the TV, and he knew the Aces -- everybody knows the Aces, they keep winning. He knew the Aces, he knew the Stingers. He didn't know individual names, he just knew the team names, and for a 10-year-old to never watch the game of golf but now watches it, now I knew that there was a product to be had. LIV has a niche, it has a reason.

My son is used to the Yankees. He's used to the Dallas Cowboys, Kansas City Chiefs. He's used to watching teams, and that's the one thing that golf, high school golf has a team, college golf has a team, and then one of the biggest events in the world is the Ryder Cup, and it's a team event. Now that professional golf has a team, we're going to be able to get the below-60-year-olds watching Golf Channel to the 10-year-olds now wanting to watch.

I think we're on to something with LIV, and that's why I want to be a part of it. When my 10-year-old never watches golf and now watches golf, and my eight-year-old daughter now understands the teams, she knows my new logo, she was a part of -- my family was a part of making the new logo and the new team colors. That's what we're trying to do.

To grow the game is not getting the 60- and 70-year-olds to play, it's getting the young kids to play. That's what I mean by getting the young kids to learn the game faster so the game is on a good growth pattern over the next 10 to 100 years.

Q. When the injury happened and you had to take the time off, what was the prognosis previously at that time before you went through the whole process? Was it really bad? Did you think that your career was over? What kind of thoughts were in your mind at that time?

BUBBA WATSON: I remember it was -- we were at PGA Championship -- first of all, as we get older, the meniscus has little tears. We all have them. We're all going to -- even if you don't feel any pain, you're going to have little tears. Your body breaks down all the time as you get older.

Somewhere my little tears kept getting worse. I don't know when. Then at the PGA Championship, I shot 63, I think that was on a Friday if I remember correctly, and now on the front nine, I hit it in a few bunkers, I hit it in a few holes in the rough, somewhere between five and eight in those holes on the front nine. I walked up No. 9, it was a long walk up to the tee, and then No. 10, so 1 and 10 are downhill, you walk off the tee. I looked at my caddie, and I'm one off the lead at this time, and I looked at my caddie, and I said, I can't walk. He goes, What do you mean? I said, my knee hurts so bad I can't walk. Anytime I took a step, the front of my knee had all the pain. It was taking the weight of my body.

I said, something is not right, and he goes, well, the clubhouse is right here; we can quit. I said, I'm one off the lead, man. I was like, Tiger Woods won with a broke leg, and I said, if I chip in and make a few putts, we've got 27 holes to battle.

I got through, adrenaline got me through because I was close to the lead on that day. Went home, we tried to tape it, we tried to do a bunch of different things without going to a doctor to see what was really wrong, and I was just going to battle it on Sunday as best as I could, but it was hurting too bad. I had to walk slower. It was killing me.

Then I come to find out when I got home I had on one side -- one side of my knee I had a tear, it tore, and then on the other side it detached; my meniscus detached, it came off the -- I'm just using my English terms, come off the bone.

So they had to put -- I learned today they had to put an anchor on one side of my knee to wrap the meniscus around it. We didn't want to just shave it. I wanted long-term -- I wanted to be able to play golf long-term. I didn't want arthritis and just shave it and cut out my meniscus. I wanted to be able to play for many, many years, so they put an anchor in there, wrapped it. We saved as much of the meniscus as we could.

That's what made the process a lot longer than normal. Like you just scope it, you can play golf in a couple weeks, but I took the long process because I wanted to play golf, and I wanted to play golf at a high level for many years.

Q. How has the comeback been? How long have you practiced? How comfortable are you feeling hitting all your shots?

BUBBA WATSON: I feel good. At home it's easy. At home with the boys, it's easy. Out here with good golfers, it might be a little tougher.

You know, it was -- I don't know when I started with LIV, when I started commentating, but I think it might have been Chicago -- no, not Chicago. Might have been Boston. There was one tournament when I started hitting like 70-yard chip shots. I took a lob wedge and just hit a couple shots.

Then in Chicago, I think it was a 9-iron. I got to a 9-iron.

Then in Thailand, I didn't take my clubs to Thailand but I talked to a Ping rep in Thailand and he gave me a 7-iron, so he hit 7-irons in Thailand. I took that 7-iron here. So I hit 7-irons here.

Then Miami, I hit three drivers that week, but I had all my other clubs in Miami, so I played nine holes in Miami.

So I've been playing full on driver, no limitations sometime after Miami, close to December, so I've been playing for a couple months, full on, carrying my bag, walking, full drivers. There's no health problem anymore except mental. I've got to have confidence in what I'm doing.

I had to learn -- six months away from golf, so I had to learn my stance again. When I say my stance, how close, how far away from the ball, ball too far forward, too far back. I had to learn that stuff just because you're rusty. I'm going to be rusty this week, but hopefully the adrenaline runs off and the rust runs off and I'll be able to battle again this weekend.

Q. Just to go back to when you were talking about the growth of the game and the importance of your son looking at it, I was just wondering, was there an experience when you were growing up as a 10-year-old or 11-year-old which is kind of guiding your attitude towards this, too?

BUBBA WATSON: Yeah, so when I was a kid, my favorite player of all time was Payne Stewart. My grandma handmade me knickers, plus-fours, wherever you are in the world. But my grandma made those, because I wanted to be like Payne Stewart. Payne Stewart stood out to me because he was different, not because -- he was a great golfer, that's a given, but he stood out to me because I could recognize him. I knew who that was.

So when you think about now the team events, you know at the Ryder Cup, you know which country or team you're pulling for because of colors, logos. Same thing now with LIV. You're going to know a logo and pull for that team just like soccer players, football players, baseball players, basketball players. You know that team logo.

Going back to -- Golf Channel wasn't around when I was that age, but Payne Stewart and the big events were on TV, so I watched, and then obviously I was a senior in high school when Tiger Woods won in '97. Watching Tiger -- I've never had a lesson but watching Tiger help me with the way I swung the club, watching him when he won in '97.

Yeah, there's different moments. We don't have 24-hour golf when I was that age like we do now, so it was different times that you saw different moments in the history of golf that really inspired -- my club is off the ground now. My driver is off the ground when I tee off because of Greg Norman. He used to do that. He used to hover it. In my head I hover it now because I'm locked in. Keep the driver off the ground, your body has to be tense, tenser, whatever. If it's on the ground you're loose and then you have to pick it up.

Watching Greg Norman, I just -- so different players kind of changed the way I played golf even at 10 years old like you were asking. Yeah, different things like that have changed the reason why I play and why I play. That's how I've kind of developed my game.

My son, like I said, he doesn't play golf, but now his whole goal was -- I'll put this out there, his whole goal was to play in the PNC, which is the parent-junior, and now I'm not allowed to play in it. As soon as I see Jay Monahan -- if Jay Monahan is watching this, I'll see you at Augusta and I'll try to beg you to let us play the PNC again.

I never took a dollar for the PNC. I've played in the PNC twice. My dad is passed away, so I played with my father-in-law, I gave it all to a children's hospital. It wasn't about money for me. This is about helping. This is about maybe one day being able to play with my son.

It's a cool tournament, and my son was kind of disappointed that he knows we're not going to play in that, but he still gets to caddie for me at Augusta, so he's happy about that.