29 September 2010
An Interview With:
BUBBA WATSON
GORDON SIMPSON: Okay, we'll just get
started. Bubba, welcome to your first Ryder Cup.
You've had a couple of days now to get used to the
team room environment. How much have you
enjoyed it so far?
BUBBA WATSON: Oh, man, well, thanks
for letting me come over here and play.
You know, it's been fun. It's been a thrill.
You know, this is different for us to have a team
atmosphere, and having the captains, basically like
college golf again. You have a coach that tells us
what we need to do and what to wear. You know,
so it's been fun. The guys are great. Everybody is
pumped up about this. Everybody wants to do
this. The team atmosphere is unbelievable. And
I'll tell you on Monday how much fun we really had.
GORDON SIMPSON: Quite a few people
have remarked this week on what you see at the
first tee; you don't normally get such a huge
grandstand, do you? Have you noticed these
things going around the course; how it's different?
BUBBA WATSON: No. I'm trying to avoid
the rough, so I haven't really got to see anything
else.
You know, it's golf. The grandstands are
going to be there, there's going to be a lot of
people out there.
It's going to be different,
obviously, on Friday, when hopefully I'm playing
Friday and I show up and people are screaming.
It's going to be fun, but yeah, it's going to be
nerve-wracking, but no, I haven't really noticed the
grandstands and everything like that.
Q. Corey was saying earlier that you
guys had Major Dan Rooney in last night, can
you just talk about what he said last night and
what you took away from it?
BUBBA WATSON:
He said that he
wanted to play golf in The Ryder Cup and we all
said we wanted to fly planes. (Laughter).
We had a common goal there; it was
perfect. No, you know, he just talked to us -again, like my dad was in the military and about the
Stars and Stripes and what a big honour that is.
We all want to win, but at the same time, we are
representing our country. We are representing
golf, all of golf, both teams are representing golf
and trying to got young people into this game.
So he was just talking about the Stars and
Stripes and about how he represents our country
and gives us freedom, all of the military gives us
freedom and that's what he was talking about. He
just talked about how he just -- you know, the Stars
and Stripes and what a big honour it is to put that
on and how we should be thankful for what we do.
But all of us were emotional for what he does that
let's us play golf and play in The Ryder Cup.
Q.
The U.S. has not won on
international soil in 17 years in a Ryder Cup?
BUBBA WATSON: Is Rickie that old?
(Laughter).
Q. What do you think are going to be
the specific challenges that this team faces on
international soil?
BUBBA WATSON: What's that going to
take? It's going to take more points than the
Europe team and we'll take the Cup back home.
Some days, I'm going to beat you at golf,
some days you're going to beat me at golf, that's
how it is. The only history I look at, I've got one
win and a lot of people have a lot more wins. I just
see it as a competition and hopefully by the end of
the week, we have won more matches than the
other team. I don't look at the history of it, no big
deal to me.
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Q. I know you don't look at the history
as part of that. The last time they won two
years ago, Tiger didn't play. Perhaps a lot of
people -BUBBA WATSON: He was hurt, right?
Knee surgery.
Q. Yes. Perhaps a lot of people had
made something of the fact that he did not play
particularly well in Ryder Cups before that, the
ones he did play in; do you think there's
anything to the team thinking, well, if Tiger is
out there, he's worth five points or four points
or whatever, and when he didn't come through
with that, that you're in the -- is the whole team
concept pushed through as much as it was?
BUBBA WATSON: You said a lot of stuff
there. (Laughter) Tiger Woods is No. 1 in the
world. Who cares? That's one person. We have
11 other guys that have a chance to win points, so
no that's not how we look at it. We want Tiger
Woods to play the best he can play. We want
Bubba Watson to play the best he can play, Rickie
Fowler, if that means if you play the best you could
that week, and that day, and you lost, you lost.
You say, we'll pat him on the back and get him
next time.
If we win this Ryder Cup because Tiger
Woods makes the last putt or he doesn't, or
whatever, you just pat people on the back and say
"great job" or in two years we're going to get them.
You don't worry about how many points I'm going
to make or how many points I'm not going to make.
Doesn't matter if it's Tiger Woods, Bubba Watson,
Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson, Jeff Overton,
doesn't matter who it is.
Q. You run a pretty high rev falling out
of bed in the morning -BUBBA WATSON: I've never fell out of
bed.
Q. When you get to the first tee box,
which looks like a Minor League baseball
stadium out there, what have they told you
about getting the job done, how are you going
to keep your head from exploding from all of
the excitement?
BUBBA WATSON:
Nobody has said
anything to me so far. Because again -- Zach
Johnson has told me one thing, put his arm around
me and said, "It's just golf, Bubba." Because that's
all it is.
I had a chance to win a major
championship a couple weeks ago, a month ago,
however long ago, and I lost. That was a lot of
pressure. Because who doesn't want to lift a big,
heavy trophy like that? So that was a lot of
pressure.
So the first tee is going to be a lot easier
than the 18th hole, you know what I'm saying. So
the first hole, I'm only 1-down after one if I choke or
slice a tee shot, you know. 1-down after 18 is
going to hurt worse than 1-down after No. 1.
Q. What kind of conversations, if any,
have you had with Tiger since he got here?
BUBBA WATSON: "Are you any good at
ping-pong?" We've been playing ping-pong a lot;
"Are you any good at that?"
And if he says he's good at it, I'm not going
to play him, I'm going to play someone else.
Q. Have you had a sit down with Tiger?
BUBBA WATSON: What are we going to
sit down and talk about, what are we eating at
night?
I mean, it's just golf.
What kind of
questions are you trying to -- like what? I'm asking
you.
Q. I'm asking if you spoke about The
Ryder Cup?
BUBBA WATSON: I never asked him
about The Ryder Cup. It's just golf. It's a big
honour and it's just golf. Tiger's game is different
than mine. Jim Furyk's is different than mine, Phil
Mickelson's -- well, his is pretty close to mine, we
both miss fairways a lot of time. Maybe I should
talk to Phil.
No, I'm not asking any questions about
The Ryder Cup. All I'm asking is what team outfit
we are wearing that day. So, no, I haven't sat
down and talked to him about The Ryder Cup. But
yes I talked to everybody on the team, we rode on
the plane together and we are in the team room
together, but when we are in the team room we are
talking about who is better at playing ping-pong.
Q. Does Tiger say much?
BUBBA WATSON: When he's losing at
ping-pong, he says a lot of stuff. Sorry, Tiger, but
you do.
Q. Any suggestion of the team room of
you being paired with Dustin?
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BUBBA WATSON: I have no idea who I'm
playing with.
Q. Would that be a possibility as far as
you're concerned?
BUBBA WATSON: Well, there's 11 guys
that could be a possibility.
Q.
You guys might be the
longest-hitting Ryder Cup Team in history.
How is the course setup allowing you to hit
drivers?
BUBBA WATSON: It doesn't. You know,
the sad thing is, the golf course is, what I believe,
wrong or right, nobody has asked my opinion but
I'm going to tell it. Golf courses are going longer,
but they are not letting you hit longer tee shots.
They are still putting bunkers, rough, something in
the way where you have to lay back.
In this golf course, you have to lay back a
lot. You can try to bomb it in the ten-yard wide
fairway, but for the most part it's just about hitting
fairways and we are going to hit mid- to long-irons
into the par 3s and the par 4s.
Q. How many drivers do you think
you're hitting out there?
BUBBA WATSON: Well my partner is
probably going to tell me to hit less. I'd say, I don't
know, four to five maybe. It can always vary
because of weather, because weather is going to
make you hit driver; it's not going to go as far.
Q. How does the course set up for
match play? What do you think about it from a
match-play point of view? And how much
match play have you played?
BUBBA WATSON: As a pro I have not
played any match play. As an amateur we played
a lot of match play. The golf course, it all comes
down to putting and chipping, most golf courses
are that way but it will come down to putting and
chipping. There's a lot of long irons so if you can
putt and chip well on that day that you're playing,
whoever you're playing, you're going to stand a
great chance of winning that match.
So it's all coming down to putting and
chipping because there's going to be a lot of -there's high rough, so if you miss the fairways you
are not going to be able to get to the greens and
it's going to rely on wedge shots and making the
putt.
Q. When is the last time that the
National Anthem was played for you at a golf
tournament?
BUBBA WATSON:
I don't know, but
whenever it was, I cried I bet, probably a lot.
Q. Shocker.
BUBBA WATSON:
Yeah, shocker,
exactly. I was on the USA team for -- when I was
in junior college, I made the USA team to go to
South Africa. I was in South Africa and I got to
carry the flag out to our ceremonies, and we won
by 32 shots. So we got to listen to the National
Anthem.
Q. Just given your fondness for team
play and all it embodies, is there part of you
that will have to calm yourself down to not
want to go at it too hard or get too wrapped up
in it to get your best golf out?
BUBBA WATSON: No, because I try hard
every time I play golf. It's the same thing. You're
going to get pumped up, but one thing I've noticed
is that when I have to do something, I can usually
hold it together and play all right. I could easily, I
guess, have thrown the tournament away at the
PGA Championship under pressure with like five
holes to go, six holes to go, played at 1-under, and
I hit a bad shot on the playoff but to get in the
playoff, I played solid under pressure, a lot of
people cheered. I held it together good.
But you never know, I could come out here
with nobody cheering for me and play bad golf, or I
could come out and play good golf. So when
people cheer, I can play bad or good. I can tell
you hopefully on Friday or Sunday afternoon how
good I played or how good I handled it.
Q. You say that you cried a lot; did
Major Rooney say anything that moved you to
tears?
BUBBA WATSON: Well, sure, I cried -probably cry again if I'm not careful. So -- I love
you guys. (Laughter).
No, my dad was a military man. He was in
Vietnam. He gave us a special present last night.
It meant a lot. My dad is dying of cancer, he has
the doctor says three months to live. I'm playing
this for him and representing the United States and
I more than likely am never going to be in the
military unless they ask for our help, so more than
likely I am never going to be in the military so this
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is the chance to be like my dad.
GORDON SIMPSON: Thank you.
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