Larry Brown Sports

During Bubba Watson’s Masters run a few weeks back, one of the story lines often brought up was how Watson was a new father. Watson’s wife Angie watched from home with their newly adopted son Caleb as Watson came from behind in the final round to claim the green jacket. Now Caleb has his own adorable replica green jacket, complete with replicas of the shirt and pants his dad wore when he won the tournament. The Masters champ tweeted out the above photo along with the message, “Caleb has matching Sunday outfit! #awesome.” So, does this mean miniature pink golf clubs are the next order of business?

Since Tiger Woods’ old swing coach has made a living off of revealing secrets about Tiger and trying to further destroy his life, it only makes sense that his current swing coach would do the opposite. As we all know, Tiger’s struggles on the golf course over the past two years have been about much more than just golf. His public image has been destroyed — which is an issue he completely brought on himself. However, his swing coach Sean Foley feels as though the criticism of Tiger has gone too far and that people should be supporting him rather than kicking him while he’s down.

“Tiger Woods is an extremely important part of the game, and I think everyone understands that,” Foley told Sirius/XM’s PGA Tour Network’s Fairways of Life according to the Golf Channel. “It has just gotten to the point where the tearing down of Tiger as a person and a golfer has become just too much. I think it is just out of hand.

“I realize it is 2012, and we have dotcoms, and you have to write five articles a day, and you run out of things to write about, but we should be in a position where we are trying to help and lift up and support a player like Tiger Woods, instead of tearing him down, because everyone in the golf industry is better off because of his existence. … Tiger is a wonderful person, and he is a good dude, and he lives a complex life. I think things have got to slow down, it has got to stop, the daily referendums and the criticism.”

There’s no denying Tiger has taken golf to a new level of popularity, but some people’s definition of a “wonderful person” is clearly a lot different from Foley’s. Tiger has taken his fair share of abuse from the public and the media, but it’s tough to feel sorry for a guy who cheated on his wife with handfuls of women while his children were home with her. If Woods can’t overcome the criticism enough to get his golf game back it’s his own problem.

Photo credit: Allan Henry-US PRESSWIRE

Since winning the Masters back on April 8, Bubba Watson has been a popular man. In between appearances on David Letterman and interviews with sports writers and gossip reporters, he has undoubtedly been flooded with congratulatory calls from friends and family. At some point, you just have to shut off your phone and deal with it later — especially when you have a wife and a one-month old son at home. Before he did that, however, Bubba says he fielded one important phone call.

As you can see around the 1:05 mark of the video above that Geoff Shackleford passed along, Watson claims the only phone call he answered the night he won the green jacket was from Justin Bieber. Based on the conversation, it sounds like Bubba and Biebs are tight. Be jealous, Cam Newton. Be very jealous.

H/T Eye on Golf

Whatever caddie Kip Henley earns, golfer Brian Gay should double it. Gay’s ball on the par-5 15th hole was near the water at the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head, S.C., Thursday, and he had a tough time hitting his shot because of a slight nuisance in the way. Yup, an alligator was on the bank and Henley had to push it away using a rake.

Gay finished the round at five over par and tied for 105th. It’s no surprise he bogeyed 15 after his encounter with the reptile.

When Tiger Woods kicked his club on the 16th hole during the second round of The Masters last week, a lot of people were outraged. With the way he had been playing, you can understand why Tiger was so frustrated. However, the Masters is one of the most prestigious golf tournaments in the world, and Augusta is one of the most highly-regarded courses. When pressed about the incident, Woods offered an apology. Former U.S. Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger doesn’t sound like a guy who is ready to accept that apology.

“Tiger’s antics this week were an embarrassment to the game, to the membership at Augusta,” Zinger told Sirus XM’s Mad Dog radio channel Monday according to the NY Daily News. “I was really disappointed to see him carry on that way. He’s not trying to endear himself to anybody. And after he won Bay Hill I thought, ‘here we go again, this is going to be Tiger just kicking butt and taking names.’ I don’t know. I thought he acted like the south end of a northbound mule.”

As far as Tiger’s game is concerned, Azinger said he was never as lost during his 28 years of playing golf for a living as Tiger looks right now. The club kicking reflects that.

Tiger is thinking too much, and the downfall of his public image has made it so he can no longer be himself. The old Tiger was a jerk who spoke to no one and did his own thing during tournaments, and that was fine because he was the face of golf. Now that he has to juggle repairing his image and getting his swing back, it has been impossible for the former world No. 1 to find any consistency.

The demand for Bubba Watson’s G20 pink driver is so high now that he’s won the Masters, Ping is responding by making 5,000 limited-edition versions of the club available for purchase.

The drivers sell for $430 and will be available in golf shops nationwide beginning June 1. Ping says it will donate 5 percent to a fundraising campaign called “Bubba Long in Pink. Driven by Ping.”

As we told you on Monday, Watson uses the pink driver to help raise money for his “Drive to a Million” charity project, so this will double the efforts.

The demand for his pink driver was so high Ping’s website was unavailable most of the last two days. Clearly it took no time for Watson, who already had some devoted fans, to become even more popular.

Photo credit: Allan Henry-US PRESSWIRE

Another golf major in the books and another golf major Sergio Garcia didn’t win. Garcia is now 0-for-his-career in majors, a disappointing outcome for the promising young golfer who came on the scene a little over a decade ago. And now, even Garcia himself doesn’t think it’s going to get any better.

Speaking to the Spanish media after the Masters third round — a round in which he shot a 75 — Garcia made the stunning admission that he feels he’s not “good enough” to ever win a major tournament. Garcia, who finished tied for 12th at 2-under, backed up those remarks on Sunday.

“Do you think I lie when I talk?” Garcia told reporters. “Everything I say, I say it because I feel it. If I didn’t mean it, I couldn’t stand here and lie like a lot of the guys do. If I felt like I could win, I would do it. Unfortunately at the moment, unless I get really lucky in one of the weeks, I can’t really play much better than I played this week and I’m going to finish 13th or 15th.”

Garcia just turned 32 in January, and, just for reference, Phil Mickelson, Fred Couples, Padraig Harrington, Jim Furyk and Payne Stewart all won their first major at 32 or older. A lot of fantastic golfers had to wait before accomplishing the big one.

Garcia definitely has the talent to win a major, if not more, otherwise this wouldn’t be a story. Since 2008, however, Garcia has finished in the top 10 of a major only three times. But don’t expect him to finally win a one if he continues to have this attitude. Forget a golf coach, maybe Sergio should just get a life coach. Does anybody have Tony Robbins’ number?

Photo credit: Rafael Suanes-US PRESSWIRE

What exactly is it that makes Bubba Watson one of the most likeable golfers on the PGA tour? For starters, he just won the Masters. Bubba defeated Louis Oosthuizen on Sunday on the second hole of a playoff thanks in large part to one of the best golf shots you will ever see. Aside from that, he’s just different. The 33-year-olf Watson is a lefty, often wears white from head to toe, and buttons his golf shirts all the way up. He’s the longest hitter on the tour with an average of 313.1 yards per drive and can draw and fade shots better than anyone, yet he has never taken a golf lesson or watched film of his swing in his life. And then there’s the pink driver.

Watson uses a pink Ping driver as part of a fundraising effort he has in place for the 2012 season. According to his personal website, Bubba has started the Drive to a Million project in hopes of raising $1 million for charity this season. By using the pink driver, Bubba has gotten Ping to agree to make a donation of $300 to Phoenix charities for the first 300 drives that he hits longer than 300 yards in 2012. With the way he’s playing, that $90,000 should take no time to raise.

If unique is your thing, Bubba is your guy. Not only does he march to the beat of his own drum, but Watson seems to be one of the genuine good guys in professional sports today. This guy with his crazy tattoo may have been ahead of the curve, but Sunday gave us all a great opportunity to meet one of the strangest golfers the game has ever seen. And I mean that in the best way possible.

Photo credit: Allan Henry-US PRESSWIRE

Louis Oosthuizen made Masters history when he sank the Par-5 second hole’s first-ever double eagle during Sunday’s final round. When the South African went to collect his Titleist ball from the cup, he surprisingly lobbed it into the gallery of fans around the green. Wayne Mitchell, a 59-year-old from Pennsylvania who was sitting in the front row, ended up with it.

After the final grouping played through the hole, Augusta National members approached Mitchell, exchanging a few pleasantries before escorting Mitchell to the clubhouse, where negotiations for the ball took place.

“I came here anonymous today and I don’t feel as though I’m anonymous anymore,” he said, per ESPN’s Gene Wojciechowski.

In the end, Mitchell decided to donate the ball to the club, where it will remain in its archives. Naturally, Augusta is remaining mum on the arrangements. Would a membership be too much to ask for?

The ball would have been even more valuable had Ooshuizen won the tournament, with Devil Ball Golf citing one estimate at $20,000. The albatross was the tournament’s fourth ever and helped catapult Ooshuizen to the top of the leaderboard, where he remained for most of the round. But Bubba Watson ended up claiming this year’s green jacket after forcing a sudden-death playoff with Oosthuizen that lasted two holes.

Here’s the video of Ooshuizen’s historic shot:

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It was a rough second round for Tiger Woods at the Masters. After entering the day at even par, he’s now 3-over for the tournament. His struggles Friday were highlighted by his constant fits of cussing and poor body language — typical of Tiger in a bad round. But what he did on the Par 3 16th after his tee shot has to be a Tiger first. Using his 9 iron, Tiger hit his first shot into the bunker preceding the green. That’s when he dropped his club in disgust and kicked it a solid 10 yards. He eventually wound up with a bogey. Tiger was slicing shots all day, and, go figure, his club didn’t go straight, either.

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