Bubba Watson has the attention span of a middle-schooler on the day before summer vacation. He never stops moving. He fidgets. He hitches his pants. He talks to himself, constantly.
As a child, he considered it torturous to sit still in a classroom for an hour. Even in golf, he gets bored on the driving range, and his caddie has to remind him at Torrey Pines not to gaze too long at the passing hang gliders.
Watson has never been tested for attention deficit or hyperactivity because the results probably would confirm what he already knows.
“We’re just guessing, I probably do,” he said Sunday with a chuckle.
Watson can also experience brief moments of focus and clarity, and those skills were on full display in the last 30 minutes of his triumph in the Farmers Insurance Open on Sunday.
Faced with two critical short-game shots and two weighty putts on the 17th and 18th holes, the sixth-year tour player with only one previous win pulled off four impressive strokes.
Watson chipped onto the 17th green from deep rough and made a 9-foot putt for par, and after he badly missed the green on the par-5 18th, he escaped from a tough spot in the bunker and rolled in a 12-foot birdie. The last putt gave him a one-stroke victory over San Diegan Phil Mickelson, whose eagle attempt from the fairway came within inches of dunking in the cup.
A final round of 5-under-par 67 by Watson denied Mickelson (69) his fourth victory at Torrey Pines and his first win here in 10 years. Watson won $1,044,000 for his 16-under 272 total.
“I just got outplayed by Bubba, who shot a really wonderful round of golf,” Mickelson said. “A lot of pressure being in the second-to-last group, and tough conditions. He played an incredible round to shoot 67.”
This was not the gorgeous first three days at Torrey Pines. It was cool, windy and a short squall surprised everyone on the back nine. (In a comical scene, rookie Jhonattan Vegas had to use a Torrey Pines pro shop bag to cover his clubs.)
Watson didn’t need any more distractions to make him skittish. This is a guy who says he gets jittery for a pro-am.
“No matter how many rounds of golf you’ve played, how many times you’ve been in the lead, and how many times you’ve won, you still get nervous,” Watson said. “I was scared to death out there.”
Watson, 32, who notched his first tour victory in last June’s Travelers Championship and lost the PGA Championship in a playoff against Martin Kaymer, managed his nerves incredibly well. He made only one bogey, with a three-putt on the par-4 seventh, and hit 16 of the 18 greens in regulation.
For the week, he led the tournament in two key categories: greens hit (82 percent) and driving distance (308.5 yards). That’s a fairly safe formula for success.
The value of Watson’s booming drives could not be underestimated. He scored 13-under on the par-5s for the week, and on Sunday he birdied the four longest holes when the PGA Tour setup crew made them extremely vulnerable.
No hole was more impressive than Watson’s 13th. He crushed his drive 362 yards down the middle and had 161 yards to the flag. Using a wedge, Watson hit his approach to 32 feet, chipped up and tapped in a birdie to take a two-shot lead over Mickelson, whose ensuing eagle putt at 13 lipped out.
That one stroke would prove to be enormous after Mickelson bogeyed the 14th but birdied the 17th to stay one shot back. Even when Watson missed the 18th green with a 7-iron after a 334-yard drive, he didn’t fret about a lie that was dangerously close to the back lip of the bunker.
“I never got down, because I was thinking I had a one-shot lead,” Watson said. “So just make a par at worst. If it comes out great, we still have a chance for birdie.”
That’s exactly what happened, with Watson hitting a deft shot that caught the ridge of the green and rolled back toward the pin. Watson thought it might settle closer, but he believed the moisture from the rain storm slowed it down.
With Mickelson already having laid up in the fairway, Watson knew if he made the putt his pursuer would have to make a miracle shot. Watson looked as calm over his final stroke as he had all day.
“I loved everything about it,” a grinning Watson said of his 72nd hole.
