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BOB HOPE CLASSIC

January 23, 2010

Bubba Watson

LA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA

DOUG MILNE: Bubba Watson, thanks for coming back and joining us for another consecutive day. Great solid round today. 4-under par 68. 20-under. Still has you at the top of the leaderboard. Just a few comments on the course, the conditions, and your play today.
BUBBA WATSON: Course is in great shape. For the water that we had, it's great. The rain that we had. It was in great shape. It was just -- it wasn't as wet as I was expecting. But it was fine. The greens held up nicely again.
My play was not very good. I was 1-over through the first eight holes. I missed some putts. I made a bogey on 17, so my 8th hole. And then I made a good up-and-down on 18 for birdie.
I hit a nice -- another nice shot into 1. My 10th hole. Made a birdie there. Made like a 7-footer.
I hit a 5-iron just over the green on No. 2. Chipped it to about four feet, five feet. Made it for birdie.
4, I hit a 4-wood off the tee, 52 degree to about 15 feet, straight up the hill putt.
Then 8, I birdied 8? Oh, yeah. Sliced a driver into the trees, hooked a lob went from 95 yards around a tree to about three feet. 3.5 feet actually is what they said on the screen.
(Laughter.)
And then got it to go in somehow.

Q. We want accuracy?
BUBBA WATSON: Exactly.
(Laughter.)

Q. A 68 in most places, 68 is pretty good golf. You kind of sound like you think this could have been 65, 64?
BUBBA WATSON: Oh, no. I just played bad. The 68 was getting a lot out of my round today. So I'm not mad at a 68. It's just I'm mad at I wanted to play better. But I didn't play very good today. On a different golf course, a tougher golf course, I just held it together. My caddie kept yelling at me trying to get me to pay attention and stay focused. And I got a break on that chip shot on 18. So I just hung in there.
I made pars when I needed to get up-and-down. I just hung in there. The only one I missed, the putt that I really needed to make was on 17. I miss a 2-footer on a par five for birdie. But made a par. So I just probably -- I should have been 71 or 72 and somehow I got a 68 out of it.

Q. And yet you went on the streak there of, what, four birdies in five holes in the middle of the round?
BUBBA WATSON: Yeah.

Q. You must have been hitting it pretty good?
BUBBA WATSON: I just hit a terrible drive on 1, hit a terrible 3-iron into 18. I hit the perfect chip shot that landed eight feet short of the green, hopped into the rough, trickled to about three feet and limbed the putt in for birdie. So there was nothing good to me except I made the putt.
No. 1, I hit a good drive, I spun it back to about seven feet and made that putt. Lipped in on the right side.
Number 2, I hit a great 5-iron, over the green, chipped it to about five feet, and then lipped that putt in.
It was just -- I hung in there. It wasn't like a great stretch, it wasn't anything that was real quality. If you were watching me and didn't watch me putt out, you would think that I shot a million, so...
(Laughter.)

Q. Could you talk about your expectations coming in to today after such a great round yesterday on the tougher course and now where you are? Are you reasonably satisfied or are you disappointed?
BUBBA WATSON: Always satisfied. I'm playing golf for a living. I wouldn't want to switch with any of y'all. So I'm satisfied every day I get to play.

Q. You are a smart guy.
BUBBA WATSON: Yeah. I guess.
You know, it's just, I'm always satisfied. Do I want to win a golf tournament? Yes. Do I want to win this one? Yes, I want to win this one, the next one, I want to win all of them.
But again, I'm not going to pout. Once the round's over, once I sign my scorecard, I'm going to go have fun with my friends and family. I'm not going to let it linger. I shot 62 yesterday. I forgot about it. I just went out there today and tried to play good. And I started off slow and it came back. So today I shot 68.
We got 36 holes left. My expectations are, hopefully, I can make the cut tomorrow. And I'll be able to play the last day.
I'm trying to keep my attitude just having fun out here. For the last few years, I get down, and I get down on myself. I'm just trying to change the way I think about it and move on.
So far it's working, so far this year.

Q. What's the impetus for the change? Was there a time when you were just so down and said I got to change something?
BUBBA WATSON: To me, to be honest with you, I've been a Christian for a few years now and I wasn't acting like a Christian on the golf course. It just wasn't the right thing to do. I let myself down, my family down. It looked bad.
So my caddie told me I needed to straighten up, you know. And so here we are. And right now, we're playing good. Hopefully just everything goes good. I've been trying to change the way I carry myself throughout my life. That's what I need to do. That's one of my negatives that I had, one of my big sins, I guess you would say, that I was doing, and I needed to change it. So right now it's working. We're always going to sin, but right now, it's going the right direction right now.

Q. Tell us about Tweeting Ellen Degeneres on her birthday. I read something about that. And the other is, if you had a chance to go to Dubai with a big payoff, opposite this tournament, knowing you would play the U. S. TOUR, would you go?
BUBBA WATSON: The first one is because I'm not right in my head.
(Laughter.)
It's just, it's fun for me. It's something for me to do. It's hard to talk to fans at a golf tournament because I'm trying to grind it, I'm trying to hit balls, trying to prepare myself.
So during -- so for Twitter, it's easy to do a 30-second, minute video, and why not get on Ellen's show and have fun? She's on Twitter. So I just felt like that was the right thing to do.
If you looked at my Twitter, I called out Shaq, I called out Larry Fitzgerald, and now I'm just trying to get on the show. So I'm not really calling her out. I'm just trying to make her happy. But I guess her birthday is next week, next Tuesday, I think, so I was just having fun with it and the fans are laughing on Twitter, so it's just been fun.
Dubai? The Dubai tournament this week? Or Abu Dhabi or whatever it is? Opposite this field? I would play here. The reason being is it's a great tournament here. No, the reason why is because it's the beginning of the year; I want to play and keep my card. I want to keep my card on the PGA TOUR, and since I never won, I don't have a two-year exemption.

Q. Do you think, in other words, it hurts this tournament, Ogilvy wins the opening tournament of the year, and he's not here, and Anthony Kim who grew up here in this area is not here, and I just wonder, we have been asking everybody about Tiger and grooves, does anybody have any comments about guys, say, skipping this event and going there?
BUBBA WATSON: It's up to you, whatever you want to do. I don't know what if they're paying them, if they're paying them, your family comes first sometimes, if the money's right. But for me, I'm from the U.S., and I don't like to travel that much. I want to play here. And then my wife now wants to play here, too.
(Laughter.)
So we're going to be here.
But, no, you know, it's all in the people. For me, I want to play on the U. S. TOUR because this is where my hometown is. I've never won on the PGA TOUR, so I need to win here before I start traveling the world. But for my personality, for the way I am, this is where I want to be. So that's why I choose to be here.

Q. Do you think that Boo knows what Twitter is?
BUBBA WATSON: Boo has a Twitter account. He just hasn't used it in a while. But he has one. So he obviously, somebody knows what it is that is in his group.

Q. Do you think a win at the Bob Hope classic would help get you on the Ellen Degeneres show? And does that give you extra motivation?
BUBBA WATSON: I think no and no.
(Laughter.)
You know, it's just fun for me. If I don't get on it's no big deal, if I do get on it will be a fun time. But, no, it's just something fun for me to do and goof around. Next week I'll try to call out somebody else. Who knows. I just get these random ideas in my head and right now we're doing video so it's fun.

Q. Have you talked to Angela yet today and does Shaq know who you are?
BUBBA WATSON: Does Shaq know who I am? Probably. Because we have the same social media outlet person. We hired the same person. My season tickets are right next to the bench on the Suns game and last year he walked right past me and asked how tall my wife was one day. And I was at the Suns charity golf tournament when he was there and I met him. So obviously he probably forgot about me, but you know.

Q. Have you talked to Angela today?
BUBBA WATSON: No, I've not. She was finishing up as I was doing interviews outside. So I haven't seen her. She's probably hitting balls right now.
(Laughter.)

Q. Can you talk about if you feel you're more ready to win now than maybe this time last year? I know you had a tough final round in this particular tournament then and you were playing pretty well. Do you think in all ways you're more ready to win now?
BUBBA WATSON: I think my attitude I'm more ready to win. My golfing abilities haven't changed, it's just thinking better. Like on the last hole there, we took the 8 iron instead of the little 7 because there was no reason to go past that pin. Let's just make our par and get out of here. So I took an 8-iron and just hit it just below the hole and tried to 2-putt.
So it's just, it's not more ready, it's just hopefully it is my time. I can't set my plan for myself, I just, I'm just living the dream playing golf. And if it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't.

Q. You mentioned your you new attitude, when you knock it on in two on number 6 and 3-putt for par, is that a case where before you might have got down on yourself?
BUBBA WATSON: It was a good par. I didn't bogey. So you got to look at it that way. No, you know, I hit a putt that we talked about. And it got, when it got up the hill it just kept going and I guess because of the mountain behind it, who knows. I felt like I hit a good putt.
I hit a good putt on the next one, but right when I hit the putt it went straight left, because of me or because of the ground, who knows what, it just went that way and I missed it. It almost fell in still.
You can't get mad at -- I thought I hit good putts and so I hit two good shots to get there and I thought I hit good putts. And I made a great third putt though, I just tapped it right in there.
(Laughter.)

Q. You go to the Nicklaus Course tomorrow. Any thoughts on the golf course as opposed to the Palmer or SilverRock yesterday?
BUBBA WATSON: No. I really don't think about the golf courses. I just think about playing good. It's another course that you can shoot low. It's like the Palmer, it's a little bit I guess a little tougher than the Palmer. But I think it's good for me. The length of it. It's going to be good for me. A lot of wedges hopefully, if I hit my driver well.
The key is just making putts. In this golf tournament you know you got to make putts because everybody is going to hit good shots. You're not going to have tough shots out of the rough, you just have to make putts. And today I missed some putts, but yesterday I made a lot of putts. So if I can putt well tomorrow in between those two rounds we'll have another round in the 60s hopefully.
DOUG MILNE: Okay, Bubba, thanks for your time. Best of luck tomorrow.
BUBBA WATSON: You got it.

End of FastScripts

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