Bubba Burst
“You gonna stop walking, man? Damn!” Watson was heard to say. “You did it all day yesterday. I’ll tell you what, veterans can kiss my ass!”
He was having a shocking day and working his butt off to make the cut and seemingly snaps at Steve Elkington for wandering about when he’s about to play his shot. And from what he said, maybe it wasn’t the first time.
Reading between some fairly wide lines it appears that a “veteran v rookie” rivalry exists on the tour and now that it is brought to light it’s not surprising to imagine as it happens in any workplace. Sometimes it’s the young guard trying to assert themselves in a new environment and sometimes it’s the the old guard trying to hang on to what they had. With the sort of money going around on the PGA Tour the battle lines are fierce between everyone and this battleline would be no different.
I thought two things were pretty amazing about the aftermath of all this. Firstly, the speed at which Bubba Watson came out to apologise. He was obviously wrong to say what he did and snap like that, there’s always better ways to go about it but fair play to him in taking the blame so sweetly. Secondly, the silence from The Elk was also interesting and something I’m not sure what to make of. Maybe he’s experienced enough not to comment when hot under the collar.
It’s easy for Aussie Golfer to jump aboard the Aussie train here but in truth it’s really hard to know who was in the right or wrong. It certainly seems that maybe, just maybe, Bubba Watson may have had a reason to say something like that.
Having caddied at the last 2 Australian PGA’s I have seen similar attitude from players. Its amazing as when the scoring is good you could be dancing on the fairway while they are playing their shots, however as soon as it gets a bit tougher and the pressure builds a little, any and every excuse gets wheeled out to try and cover for what in my eyes is a lack of concentration. If your concentration is where it should be the little things wont bother you as you will be focussed 100% on the job at hand and not whats happening elsewhere on the course.
Can’t argue with that.