Interview with Bubba Watson

JULIUS MASON:  Bubba Watson, ladies and gentlemen, congratulations on earning a berth to the PGA Grand Slam of Golf.  How did it look out there today?

BUBBA WATSON:  It was good.  It's a great course.  You know what I liked is that we're on a small island.  It's amazing, the atmosphere around here, there's a lot of people, a lot of local support and a lot of the vocals and volunteers and stuff are excited for us to be here so it was nice to get that warm welcome in this beautiful area, and the weather was perfect today.

JULIUS MASON:  Sounds like you might have a future as a golf instructor, sounds like you were giving some pretty valuable tips to Robin Meade?

BUBBA WATSON:  Yes, my first lesson under the gun with a camera and fans watching.  She almost made a hole in one.  She knocked it to two feet, three feet.  I think I did pretty good.  If they were all like, that I would make tons of money.

Q.  Can you talk about the golf course and any holes specifically that you like a lot or you see where your length is going to give you a really good advantage?

BUBBA WATSON:  I thought the golf course    it's a short golf course but they have it in a way where it plays longer.  You can lay up off the tees or you can try to go for some things with the right wind.  The par 5s, 17, is a really short hole downwind.  I don't know if it's downwind all the time but it was today.  Hit a little gap wedge, 52 degree in there but it's still tight.  If you try to be a hero and hit the long drive, there's water and then gets tight on the right over there.

First hole, I didn't know what to do, I hit driver over the trees into the water, so have to lay back off of that.  It's a short course but they make it play longer than it really does.

Q.  Back to Robin Meade, she's taken six lessons with Suzy Whaley.  I watched her swing a couple times and looks like her fundamentals are good and she's been bitten hard by the bug.  Could you tell that?

BUBBA WATSON:  It was funny, she started Tweeting, her and Suzy started Tweeting the last week, week and a half about me and I was like, what is she talking about.  She said we were playing the Pro Am together.  I didn't know    she sings    I didn't know anything about her, so started following her on Twitter because she was following me, and so we just communicated on Twitter.  That's how I knew I was playing with her in the Pro Am.   It's nice to see someone of her stature come over here and love to play the game of golf and learn it late in life.  She was walking down the fairways telling me how much she loves it and how much she enjoys learning something new.  It's nice to see.

But obviously her swing, she played a lot better than her third time out on the course, and especially when I instructed her really good.  (Laughter).

Q.  At the University of Georgia, I assume you took some art classes, judging by your handiwork?

BUBBA WATSON:  At university of Georgia, we learned to draw inside the lines.  I think it is St. John's where Keegan went, they need to work on their art program, because he has to scrub and paint that wall again since his is not coming off.

Q.  Is it true that Justin Bieber is your favorite music artist?

BUBBA WATSON:  No, it's Robin Meade, obviously.  I'm her favorite instructor, so    no, I'm really good friends with    well, I guess I'm really good friends with Justin Bieber.  I've hung out with him a bunch at his house.  He was the only person I took a phone call after I won Augusta; him and his girlfriend called me on the phone and I talked to them a little bit.  I have a lot of respect for him.

JULIUS MASON:  And your favorite country artist is Robin Meade?

BUBBA WATSON:  Robin, for sure, is my favorite.

Q.  Georgia question:  What do you think about next Saturday, Florida looks awfully good?

BUBBA WATSON:  They do and the Dogs didn't look that good.  A win's a win I guess but they haven't really looked complete yet.

So I'm looking forward to it obviously.  I'm hoping they pull it off and I'm home for one day, I get back on Friday, home for Saturday to hang out    just home in Arizona, so I'm home for one day before I go to China, just enough time to see my son and watch the game hopefully.  It's going to be a big one though.

Q.  What do you have planned rest of the year and early next year?

BUBBA WATSON:  I've got China next week.  Go home for a day, go to China, going to play HSBC World Golf Championships, and then I come home for about three weeks and in that three weeks we're shooting the golf video that nobody knows about, so don't tell anybody.  Then I'm going to Tiger's event in California.  Not sure what it's called now, World Challenge or something like that, and then we are going to Thailand.

Q.  When do you get back?

BUBBA WATSON:  Second week of December, I guess Tiger's event ends December 4.  And we leave straight for Thailand, then I'll be done.  Have three weeks off before Maui.

Q.  Everybody talks about when you win your first major what a life changing event it is and it's such a whirlwind, especially the first couple months after, immediately after.  Could you talk about, you've had some time now to reflect on it and what that was really like, right after you won that Masters?  And also, to be here is kind of a crown on your year and what it means to be part of this event.

BUBBA WATSON:  Start with the last part first.  Being here is special.  That means you've done something great to get here.  It's an honor to be here.  Something we have always thought about playing in one day, but only way you can do that is you've got to win a big one.

So on the way over here is where it hit me what I've done, the last    it's like a baseball player, this is my contract year, I had a lot of contracts up this year so winning a big one helped me out a lot.

So coming over here, it really hit me.  The same time I won my Masters, we adopted a son, so being a dad has been the best part.  I would give up the green jacket any day of the week for my son.  The last six months, playing golf and also learning how to be a great dad and a husband, that was the difficult part and now with all of these contract talks, doing a lot of things behind the scenes is where it's really hitting me that I actually did good this year.

So coming over here is where it really hit home that I won a major.  I get to play in this, and there's only four guys; it's pretty special to be here and be a part of this and hopefully can do it again one day so I can come back.

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