Bubba Watson has apologized for the way he acted at the PGA Championship earlier this month, both during play and when protesting the long drive competition.
For those of you who missed it, Watson was furious that the PGA chose to hold a long drive competition at a time when he felt players should be practicing and learning the course at Valhalla. In order to express his frustration with the event, Watson used a 3-iron during the competition instead of a driver. Bubba has the longest drive on the tour this season at 424 yards.
“I’m there to play golf, not to hit it far,” Watson said at the time. “I’ve got to practice. I’ve never been to the course. I don’t need to worry about a long drive on the 10th hole.”
On Tuesday, Watson acknowledged that he should have just participated in the contest and kept quiet.
“If you look at the bigger picture, not competing in the Long Drive Contest was the first mistake,” he said, according to Steve DiMeglio of USA Today Sports. “When you look at just me as an individual, that was the selfish part, because I didn’t agree with it but there’s a lot of things that I don’t agree with that I do.”
Then there was the way Watson interacted with his caddie, Ted Scott. During his second round at the PGA Championship, Bubba swore at his caddie after hitting a poor shot and complained when he was handed a club with a wet face. He also made Scott tee a ball up for him at one point so he wouldn’t get wet.
“Because I want something so bad, that’s not the reason to do that,” Watson admitted. “You still just bite your tongue and compete at a high level, don’t show emotion, and I take it overboard because I want something so bad. I want to be considered a great player. I want to win golf tournaments and I’ve got to learn on that.
” … And then my language was not good. That’s a different topic, and childish again. It’s all childish stuff and I’m trying to mature and become a better man. I take it on the chin. It was my fault. Everything’s my fault and I should be bigger and stronger and better than that.”
Bubba has done some great things off the course that make him a fan favorite, but he has a tendency to let his emotions get the best of him. I’m sure Scott is used to it, as this is not the first time Watson has blown up on him in the middle of a round. Bubba can apologize as much as he wants, but it’s not going to matter until he stops doing stuff like that.
