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WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONAL

August 5, 2010

Bubba Watson

AKRON, OHIO

LAURA HILL: We'd like to welcome Bubba Watson, a really nice opening round of 64 today. Maybe just talk us through obviously four birdies in a row on the back nine there, but just talk us through your round today and getting off to such a good start this week.
BUBBA WATSON: We decided early this morning that I was hitting driver off 1, so we were hitting irons in the practice round, but I hit driver off 1, hit it down the fairway, hit a little wedge in there 20 feet, made it for birdie.
5, par-3, I hit 7-iron, hit a cut 7-iron in there to about 12 feet, made it for birdie.
11, I hit driver down the middle, hit a 56-degree in there about 12, 15 feet again, made it.
12, I hit 8-iron in there to about 15 feet again, made it.
13, hit a driver off the trees into the rough, tried to slice a pitching wedge, hit it to about four feet, made it.
And then I think that's four in a row.
And then bogeyed, hit 6-iron on 15, pin high in the rough and chipped it to about six, seven feet, missed it.
And then 18, sliced a driver off the tee, hit lob wedge up over the trees to about -- I guess the guy just told me 36 feet and made it for birdie to end the round, so that's 6-under.
LAURA HILL: You sound like you might be kind of surprised that's what the score ended up being.
BUBBA WATSON: I've never been here, so learned the golf course in a couple days, but at the same time, two weeks off, stayed on the lake, did some stuff, wasn't playing any golf, so I'm just free wheeling it, just having fun. My main goal this year on the PGA TOUR was to make the Ryder Cup, and I've got two good weeks to go to have a shot at it.
Like I'm 15th or 16th in the points, so that's my goal. If it's a win this week or whatever it takes to get into the Ryder Cup. That's my main goal. I wasn't looking at what I need to shoot today or tomorrow. I'm looking at the bigger picture in two weeks when they announce the team or if I can make the top 8 and so I'm just in. Like Tiger said yesterday, I want to make the team, play on the team. My expectations are I've got two great weeks to play golf, no matter what course it is, what day it is, I've just got to play great golf.

Q. What did you do with your time off?
BUBBA WATSON: I have a lake house in North Carolina. I got back from the British so after the British I had two weeks. I went straight home. I haven't see my familiar yet since I won so I went straight home and hung out with my dad. We had a party at the golf course group where I grew up. My dad got out of the house and came to the birdies with us. He's battling throat cancer. They said lung but it is throat cancer, in the lymph nodes. So got to see my family for the first time since I won, hung out with them as much as possible.
I had some good opportunities have come up since I won to do inside the PGA TOUR, do Shaq Vs., so I went back to North Carolina, the family from Canada came down, my wife's family, played on the lake as much as possible, but I flew to California, shot a TV show with Shack Vs. Flew back the very next day, took the redeye back, played on the lake some more, shot inside the PGA TOUR that just aired. So I played five holes of golf in those two weeks. I mean, that was it.

Q. Did that help you somehow?
BUBBA WATSON: I mean, I guess, you know. It's funny how when you get back on the golf course you finally can rest. When you're vacationing and hanging out with family one place and flying out and hanging out with other family, you know, and realizing that family is a blessing, and that's where your heart should be at and not about if you make a three-footer or not, maybe it did help me. Probably it did. I'll tell you in three more days if it really helped me.

Q. How was Shaq Vs.? Are you allowed to give us any previews?
BUBBA WATSON: He's tall. (Laughter.)
You know, I won't tell you the results, but it was an alternate shot, Charles Barkley and me against Anthony Kim and Shack. It was a good time, and Charles Barkley is not very good at golf. (Laughter.)
You know, I'm friends with him. We live not too far from each other in Scottsdale in the winter, and he's switching to left-handed, and he's still not very good at golf, but he doesn't have the paws left-handed so he's got that. He said he is going to keep putting right-handed but he's going to do everything else left-handed. Shack actually impressed me. Shack is an athlete, he just happens to be 7'2", 300 pounds of pure muscle, but he's an athlete. So he wasn't bad. He impressed me. The feel on the greens wasn't very good, but for the five holes we played and the five holes he's ever played, he impressed me.

Q. Are you saying that Shack, who's a ranked beginner is better than Barkley?
BUBBA WATSON: Yes, I would say yes. Barkley is basically starting over left-handed. He told me he's only been playing for ten days left-handed. So I said, can I have shack instead?
Yeah, Shack impressed me for not playing and as big as he is and as long as his clubs are, it's pretty fun.

Q. Did help loosen you up maybe?
BUBBA WATSON: Yeah, it showed how good I am compared to them. (Laughter.)
It was a different atmosphere, so it was alternate shot, and we didn't get to hit many shots. The course we played at didn't have a driving range so we didn't play any shots this is the first time Anthony hit balls since his surgery, and he didn't get to warm up. It was kind of scary in that aspect for Anthony. He said he felt all right, so now he's here this week. Yeah, it's different, and it shows how good athletes, doesn't mean you're going to be a good golfer. It's crazy. It's wild.

Q. When you did get to see your family for the first time since you've won, was there a lot more emotion coming out, or is that all spent now?
BUBBA WATSON: No, my dad is a Vietnam vet, Special Forces Green Beret, but he's a teddy bear now as he gets older. He talks more about family now. Growing up it was like -- he was like a soldier. We don't hug, we don't -- Watson family doesn't hug. We don't say I love you. So now it's a lot different. He's changed a lot because he's battling something that's not good. But he's changed a lot, and as a whole family we've changed a lot.

Q. How much do you think your life has changed since you made your TOUR breakthrough on and off the course?
BUBBA WATSON: On the course I just haven't changed because I've always expected to win. Winning is a whole different story, but expecting to win in your mind is easy. Anybody can expect to win. But doing it was a little harder. I haven't changed that way. I still want to win. My goal is to make the Ryder Cup and next year will be to play for The Presidents Cup. Any time you can play for your country it's an honor.
But off the course it's been hectic. Wanted to go see the family, wanted to get my dad in the right place, wanted to help me dad as much as possible, wanted to help me mom who doesn't know how to handle it obviously. It's been tough. But at the same time there's more things to do. You're turning down things. You're excited about doing certain things. So on the golf course you're finally back doing what you love to do and not worried about the other stuff. You're inside the ropes, and it's when I can finally rest.
You know, hopefully this winter I can take some time off and just relax like I did for the last two weeks, try to relax as much as possible and get ready for next year. So it's been hectic, but at the same time it's great. It's great when people want to talk to you for certain reasons. If they want to talk to you for a bad reason, then it's not good.
So in that aspect it's been good because everybody has wanted to talk to me and see what I'm thinking and what I'm doing.

Q. I'm sure your desire to make the Ryder Cup is not just for you but for the family?
BUBBA WATSON: No, that's for me. My family is going to be pumped up about it and excited to watch it but at the same time we are always excited to watch it because no matter if your country wins or loses, it's a thrill. It's an honor. I got to play with the USA team in I was in college in South Africa, and it was a thrilled. We won that pretty easily, the four guys that went. So to have a chance to get back there and play for your country, no matter if you win or lose.
There's a lot of words that are said back and forth to different teams, but at the same time we all have the thrill to play for our country and wear or team colors and play. I said it before, I'd give up my win to play with the Ryder Cup. That's how much it means to me and how much of an honor it would be to play.

Q. Is it good to be talking about something that's not just about hitting the ball a long way?
BUBBA WATSON: Well, if you noticed I haven't won the long drive last year or -- I'm not winning it this year. It doesn't hurt my feelings not to talk about the long ball because I don't try to hit it long. That's just something I do. If I putted really good, everybody would want to talk about how good I putt. That's the way I see it. That's the way I play golf.
I like to hit driver and I hit it far. I wish everybody talked about how short I hit it and how many wins I've got. But right now we hit it long and we've got one win, so I've got to step up on the Ws.

Q. You mentioned that your first time here, what were your impressions of the golf course?
BUBBA WATSON: I showed up -- took a peek at it Sunday afternoon, just drove up and looked at it real quick when I got here. Came in a day earlier than normal to get some practice in. So Monday morning when I stepped up here and took the bag out and hit some balls, I saw it was a tough golf course. Then I was impressed about Tiger Woods having seven wins here, a tight golf course, tricky greens, but with Tiger's wedge game and his putter is phenomenal, so I can see where he could win.
It's tough to make shots around this golf course. It's a shot-maker's golf course. But it's in beautiful shape. It's probably one of the best shaped golf courses all year. I knew it was going to be tough, but today I just putted really well, hit good iron shots and made it look a little bit easy, but we're not done yet. We've still got three tough days of golf to go.
LAURA HILL: Thanks, Bubba. Good luck the rest of the week.

End of FastScripts

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