Bubba’s Back After Winning WGC Match Play

Bubba Watson, the two-time Masters champion, is back to his old self.

Watson came out the winner in the 64-player field at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship where he smashed Kevin Kisner 7 and 6 in the final. 

For Watson, the final was a coming out party at Austin Country Club. He won the first five holes in the final against Kisner after beating Justin Thomas, who needed a win to move to the World No. 1, in the semifinals earlier on Sunday morning.

The margin of victory in the final was the largest at the tournament since 2008, according to the PGA Tour. 

Watson, who ended a two-year winless drought last month at the Genisis Open, picked up his 11th PGA Tour title only a few weeks after busting his slump. As he is custom to do, Bubba broke into tears after the victory. The crying part after wins has become a Watson staple. Watson now has two major championship victories and two WGC titles on his resume. 

“You know, you don’t think about lists or anything, you just think about trophies and trying to win. And having two majors, and now having two World Golf Championships are the closest things to majors. You’re talking about the top in the world were here this week,” Watson said.

For Watson, it was a redeeming victory after calling last year the toughest of his career. He is a two-time major winner who fell off the golf radar in 2017.  A mystery illness last year caused him to lose 20 pounds and it was so difficult to recover, he actually considered walking away from the game. 

“Last year was the lowest point, I would have to say, gosh, one of my lowest points in my life,” Watson said. “It just mentally — being an athlete is not easy. Being an athlete, everybody wants to take time. You can’t get time back. You can’t get — I mean, time is really the key, right? You can’t get it back. It’s done with. If anybody wants a piece of your time, you run out of time for yourself, run out of time for your wife, for your kids, your friends, your family, your extended family.

“So it was a very low point in my golf career. My family life has been beautiful because I realized what time means. And so it was a low point in my golf, low point in my physical abilities, low point in my health. It was a scary time. And if I was going to sit back and look at it, do you want to be a family man? Do you want to be a great dad? Or do you want to be battling trying to make the cuts on the PGA Tour? So that was the argument, what do you want to do? And realizing some of these things and getting better physically and mentally, here we are two trophies this year and a lot more weight.”

That’s what made winning on Sunday all the more special. It was a raucous atmosphere at Austin Country Club. Watson was in such a groove early on in the final against Kisner that he even had time for a “bro hug” with actor Matthew McConaughey. 

McConaughey has been at Austin Country Club all week with his wife Camila Alves and Lance Armstrong. They saw the best of Watson, who has started 2018 as a tour de force.

The two-time Masters winner who recently considered retirement now is one of the favorites to wear that Green Jacket for the third time.