Bubba Watson became a household name when he came out of nowhere to win the Masters in 2012. The 36-year-old has played some great golf since then, but he hasn’t made many friends.
Watson’s caddie, Ted Scott, tried to explain some of the misconceptions about Bubba in a recent interview with Golf Digest. According to Scott, a lot of Watson’s issues with rubbing people the wrong way stem from his battle with social anxiety.
“When we started together in 2006, Bubba had already rubbed a lot of people the wrong way,” Scott explained. “I had friends who called me and said, ‘Man, that guy you’re going to work for is a jerk.’ And my impression the first week was, I don’t know about this guy.
“What I quickly found out was that Bubba was very uncomfortable in social situations. It’s difficult for him to make eye contact with people he doesn’t know. He told me he has a fear of crowds. And when we’re fearful, we do things we shouldn’t do. All the ignoring of people, the abrasiveness, the overreacting, the aggressive joking, were all defense mechanisms from being afraid of letting people know who you are.”
Watson has been known to blow up on Scott on television in the middle of rounds, and that’s one of the reasons people dislike the two-time major champion. Bubba didn’t do himself any favors last year when he threw a hissy fit over having to participate in a long drive competition at the PGA Championship. He later apologized and admitted he should have handled things differently.
Does Watson’s social anxiety have something to do with him taking home this (dis)honor in a recent poll? Only he knows the real answer to that.
