And exhale.. The best week of golf is over. And what a week it turned out to be! Masters week is always fun, there is so much nostalgia on the line, forget about the money, you want the green jacket and the opportunity to call yourself a Masters Champion. Now, Bubba Watson can. As a huge golf fan I have grown to really like Bubba. You have to respect a guy who not only plays on the PGA Tour but wins on tour and has NEVER had a swing coach, nothing but his raw talent and creativity. Some of the shots that he can carve are down right unthinkable for most players. Bubba is to shot shaping what Lefty is to wedge play.
In my opinion, what Bubba is as a golfer is nothing compared to the person that he his. Now, I don't know him personally but from all the interviews and articles I have seen and read about him I think I know enough about his character to make that statement. In the biggest moment of his professional career, he wasn't thinking about himself, but rather his family. His father who was undoubtedly watching from above, his wife and new son watching from home, he is able to keep perspective amidst an onslaught of emotions and keep his values, faith and family above all else. I truly appreciate that. You do not find that very often in professional athletes anymore. I think he represents the game of golf the way it is meant to be represented and did so at a place where the game of golf has a storied and documented history.
Now, lets change the subject from the high of the tournament to one of the lows. Tiger Woods. Not the play of Tiger Woods, who was expected by many to win the Masters, but the actions. Let it be known, I am a Tiger fan. What he has been able to accomplish to this point in his career is truly remarkable and he still has many years left to improve upon it. After his win at Bay Hill, everyone who was so quick to jump off the bandwagon when times got tough was just as quick to jump back on and claim Tiger's success' for their own. Now, I cannot begin to try to understand the psyche of a man who was raised to be a phenom, and full filled the prophesy, but his actions at the Masters (and previous other tournaments) is simply inexcusable. There is a tremendous amount of pressure on him as an athlete and even more sets of eyes waiting for his next failure. However, his 3-year-old-like temper tantrums do nothing but embarrass himself and the game. The one thing I do understand about Tiger Woods is his competitive nature, I don't care if I am playing a football game or go fish, I want to win and it bothers me if I don't but you have to be able to keep everything in perspective and understand that everything happens for a reason and you need to learn from it and grow from it and move on to the next one. That is something that Bubba displays perfectly, evident by the audio captured after an errant tee shot that landed in the trees when Bubba said "...I killed it though", finding that ever present silver lining.
This year's Masters was one of the more exciting tournaments that I can remember, everyone was so close together and unlikely leaders emerged. That is one of the things that makes golf such a great sport, it doesn't care what you have done in the past, what your name is or where you come from, it only cares about the shot you just hit and how you are going to make your next one... but then again, that may be just in my mind...
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