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THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLASeptember 25, 2008Bubba WatsonATLANTA, GEORGIA BUBBA WATSON: Not bad. Birdie, birdie is always good. Last hole with the pin up front with the way the greens are, downwind, it's hard to get it close. So just hole a bunker shot, why not. Q. I saw your reaction on 18. BUBBA WATSON: I thought it was going to -- with it windy like this, we thought it was easily there. We were trying to challenge the front like what Chad did, and we just happened to come up five feet short. Q. How is the course playing? BUBBA WATSON: Hard. I got off to a shaky start with a few holes in a row there on 5, 6, and 7. If you can keep it in the fairway you can play the course, because the greens are receptive from the fairway. But from the rough you have no clue what it's going to do, and they're fast. They're lightning quick right now. There's always going to be some scores, whoever is on the course is going to shoot low. Right now there's a few people that are 3-under. Q. I read about you with the Bulldog Nation, providing a good atmosphere for kids. BUBBA WATSON: It's just something I wanted to do. I felt like it was wrong for me to help kids and do my junior tournament and tell them to go to school and then me not be able to back it up. I already had a degree from a junior college, so now I've got two degrees and a high school diploma. So I guess I've got enough education to start telling the truth. Q. Did you get a couple more, "Go dogs "today? BUBBA WATSON: I got a couple more today. Hopefully Sunday they'll start saying, "Go dogs." Hopefully that Saturday night game will go our way. Q. Did you know that making the TOUR Championship was going to get you in the Masters and the U.S. Open? And if so, how much was that on your mind in those playoff events? BUBBA WATSON: It's always on your mind. And, yes, I knew. Probably everybody. Tiger doesn't care, he's in. But, no, I knew. I knew what it meant. It gets me in my first World Golf Championships in Miami there. So, yeah, I mean, it was big, and I've always wanted to play Bethpage Black with it in U.S. Open conditions, so I'm there. I might not want to after a couple days there, but I'm there. It's a lot better knowing that you're going into that. I've got a couple majors under my belt coming up, and I've got a World Golf Championships coming in. Q. The volatility in the points actually played in your favor. Was it really on your mind when you started at the Barclays, like, Hey, I've got some ground to make up here, but that you knew you could do it? BUBBA WATSON: You knew you could do it. You know, hopefully they'll tweak it a little bit because it's too much. I'm one that got helped and it's still not right. Or we could change the name of this tournament. The TOUR Championship -- if we had a tournament that was our best 30 against the world's best 30, I'm probably not in the Top 30. I might be 31, but I'm probably not in the Top 30 that they'd pick. That's just the truth. I'm not downing myself or anything. I'm happy to be here, but I don't think we should call it the TOUR Championship. Q. What is it that would make you say you didn't belong, because of where you are on the Money List or the World Ranking? BUBBA WATSON: I've never won a tournament in my life, and I'm 97th in the world. So I think there's at least 30 Americans inside of 97. I'm not downing myself. I'm going to accept everything. I'm going to take the check they give us here, do everything. I'm going to go to the Masters just like they say I can. But I haven't proven myself. I haven't done anything. It's kind of unfair to see Padraig Harrington has won two majors and he's not here. The fans want to see that instead of me. They don't want to see me slashing it around. Q. What would you like to see done? BUBBA WATSON: I have no clue. Think about it, the first time everybody was unsure of it. This year we went maybe too far, so we could meet in the middle, or they might like it. Because it had some impact. Let's change the name of this tournament. Let's not call it the TOUR Championship, let's call it the final playoff, or let's call it something else. But it's not our Top 30 on our TOUR, I don't believe, because I'm not in the Top 30. Nobody in this world would say I'm Top 30. There's no media out there that would say I'm Top 30. Q. Is it nice to know that you don't have to worry about the fall events to grind your way into those other majors next year? That's the benefit for you. BUBBA WATSON: I don't think grinding them out in those gets you into the majors. Oh, yeah, you're right then. Yeah, it is. The U.S. Open is a hard qualifier. Now I don't have to qualify for it even if I didn't make through the Money List. It's a hard qualifier, the 36 holes the week before, and Augusta is just hard to get in. You've got to win a tournament. I've never won, and this is going to be my second year in a row at Augusta, so it's going to be nice. Q. Some people from Athens would say you're in the Top 30. BUBBA WATSON: Right now. About four months ago they wouldn't have said that. We tried to keep it quiet that I was going there and studying and everything. I didn't want my parents to know until after I got the word. Q. (No microphone.) BUBBA WATSON: Yeah, exactly. If you don't support them they're not going to love you back, you know? Q. Do you think your folks would be more proud that you graduated or winning a tournament? BUBBA WATSON: My parents are more proud that I graduated and stuck it out. Winning a golf tournament means nothing to them. That's just being honest. We've got to worry about gas prices, not winning a golf tournament. End of FastScripts |
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