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ALSTOM OPEN DE FRANCE

June 29, 2011

Bubba Watson

PARIS, FRANCE

STEVE TODD: Warm welcome from The European Tour. First time we've had you in a regular European Tour event. We've seen a few of your compatriots, I think Dustin Johnson played last week, and Steve Stricker earlier in the year. If you can start by talking a little bit about your decision to come across here and your experience in Europe so far.
BUBBA WATSON: The reason to come over here was just to experience it, to play a great tour. I've played on the U.S. Tour the whole time and just wanted to come over here, and just to experience different culture, different life, different golf, different atmosphere. And so just wanted to come over here and be a part of this and try it out. And why to the come to Paris and check it out and sightsee and play a great golf course that just got awarded The Ryder Cup in a few years.
So just felt like this was a good golf course, a tough golf course that all of the guys talk about. So I wanted to come over here and play the challenge.
STEVE TODD: What have you heard about the course? Obviously it's the venue for The Ryder Cup in 2018. I suspect you have ambitions -- I know it's seven away, but a chance to check it out a little bit in advance.
BUBBA WATSON: Yeah, seven years away, hopefully I'll still be on Tour by then. I heard it was tough. Martin Kaymer, me and him are good friends, he has a house in Scottsdale where I do, so he just told me about how tough it is; the last few holes has a lot of water. I haven't seen the course yet, but he said it's very tough, and you get some high rough here and you have to hit the fairways. That's what we want, a tough golf course that challenges us and makes us pay attention and have to play good golf.

Q. Have you played it yet?
BUBBA WATSON: In a couple hours will be the first time.

Q. I heard you went to Paris yesterday?
BUBBA WATSON: Yeah, yesterday.

Q. Did you like -- what did you see?
BUBBA WATSON: I don't know the names of all the things, the big tower, Eiffel Tower, an arch, whatever that -- I rode around in a circle. And then what's that -- it starts with an L, Louvre, something like that. One of those. And then we just went around to different shops, just kind of walked down the streets and went to different shops and just to see if there was anything we wanted to buy. Just kind of looked around and kind of road around and really that's it, just to see stuff that we don't get to see normal.

Q. Did you get recognised?
BUBBA WATSON: No, nobody knows who I am. You guys don't know who I am.

Q. The music video -- to girls were waiting for you?
BUBBA WATSON: They saw my chest. And my wife makes me wear a tee-shirt everywhere.

Q. What does she think of the video?
BUBBA WATSON: She loved it. It was fun. I love just having fun and goofing around. We are so serious on the golf course, so it's just a different side of us. So it's just me and three others wanted to golf around and have fun with it.

Q. Did you have to be convinced to take part?
BUBBA WATSON: No. We were at dinner one night. It was me, Rickie and Ben at dinner and our families, and so we just decided to do it. There was no convincing. We wanted to do it. We are all nuts I guess.

Q. Did you know girls from the Ladies European Tour, did exactly the same thing?
BUBBA WATSON: I've seen that.

Q. What did you think?
BUBBA WATSON: I thought it was funny. I thought it was very good. It was really done pretty good. I thought it was funny, yeah.

Q. How do you say, 'Bubba'? Is it a nickname or is it your birth name?
BUBBA WATSON: It's a nickname. It was my first -- it was given to me right after I was born, ten seconds after I was born. I was chubby in the face. So my dad said I looked like a football player -- well, our football, not soccer; football, something. What do we throw? Our football. Yeah.
So I looked like a football player and my dad said Bubba, looked like a Bubba. My first name is Gary.

Q. What about the fact that you never practised, do you really never practise? Are you going to practise a little bit to experience this course?
BUBBA WATSON: No, I practise. I practise, but at the tournament site, I hit balls, putt and chip and try to get ready and get used to the course.
Today I'll see the course for first time in the Pro-Am. When I get home I just play golf, I don't practise. I don't hit range balls or anything. I just play 18 hose of golf each day or every other day, something like that. I practise but not as hard as some of the other guys -- I'm on vacation.
STEVE TODD: Obviously you're playing quite well at the moment, you're happy with the form coming into this week?
BUBBA WATSON: Yeah, I'm hitting the ball really well. I've only missed one cut this year. I've had two wins. So, yeah, I'm hitting the ball really well. I'm looking forward to it.
At the U.S. Open, and then at Travelers last week, I hit the ball really. Just didn't make the key putts. Didn't keep the momentum going. So as long as I putt well and keep the momentum going, I'll play good, and that's what I've been doing so far this year.

Q. With the Scottish Open next week and The Open Championship, what are your plans with regard to staying around?
BUBBA WATSON: I'm going to fly home, hopefully Sunday night, I'll fly home, and then stay home for about five days, then fly back over here for The Open, and then go to the Scandinavian Masters, and then hang out in Denmark for a week for vacation, and then go to Germany for two days, and then fly straight to Akron.

Q. So would it not make sense to stay over and acclimatise better and bring the family over?
BUBBA WATSON: I want to -- how do I put this nicely? I want to have my own food for a few days and then come over.

Q. Last year you played with Victor Dubuisson at The Open. What do you think of Victor as a player?
BUBBA WATSON: We didn't talk about the course. Thought he was good. He was an amateur when I played with him, and then the next week he turned pro at the Scandinavian Masters I think. He was good; young; a lot to learn -- we all do.
But I thought he was a good player, hits it pretty far, and he putted pretty good. He didn't play as good as he wanted to. We always want to win, but no, I thought he was a very good player, very young player but very talented. Very nice guy.

Q. Doesn't hit it as far as you?
BUBBA WATSON: Well, sometimes he did.

Q. How was your meeting with President Obama?
BUBBA WATSON: It was nice. It was very nice for him to ask me to come to the White House and meet him. It was something I had never done before, never been in that part of the White House so, it was very neat.

Q. What's the biggest thing you've learned about yourself, your game, whatever, that has allowed to you start winning a lot more?
BUBBA WATSON: The mind, the mental part of it. I've learned a little bit how to deal with bad shots, not perfectly, but when I hit bad shots I've got to remember that everybody is going to hit bad shots.
I have to remember that we are all going to make mistakes and I just have to keep my head down and keep going and just make my next one better, prior to overcome it, and realising that I can do it; that I have the ability to play good golf, have the ability to win. And so it's just with my dad going through his sickness last year, it just showed that golf is not as important as I thought it was.
So I just learned from that, and slowly I've gotten better each time and so somehow it's worked out to three wins in the last year.

Q. I love the way you play the game and your insistence on doing it your way, I guess that's still very much in the forefront? Of course you're adjusting because you want to win a lot?
BUBBA WATSON: It's all me. I don't have a mental coach. I don't have a swing coach. I don't have anybody that I call coach. So it's all me.
I learned to play the game myself, and I want to have fun with it myself, and so far me, it's a learning -- I mean, we can all do it ourselves. It's just it's harder that way. Takes longer to get to where you want to go. But it makes it not a job. It makes it a fun game of golf and I play great, it's because of me and if I play bad it's because of me, it's not because of anybody else. It's just something my dad taught me to learn on my own and it's worked so far.
STEVE TODD: Appreciate you joining us. Have a good week.

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