The vanishing of Bubba Watson – how golf's forgotten icon and double Masters champ is fighting back
Bullish Bubba Watson reckons he's emerging from the anguish of serious injury and a major career slump.
The American star was once a huge name in the game having claimed two-time Masters wins at Augusta and peaking at World No.2 in the rankings.
Watson was a Ryder Cup regular and won 15 times on the circuit in total before a move to join LIV Golf.
The 46-year-old was out for eight months after a serious knee injury required surgery and he returned to the game at the beginning of 2023.
Watson has been a pale shadow of his former self in the time period since, but there have been real shards of light in recent weeks and again at this week's LIV event in England.
The colourful star managed a tied-14th at the Masters this year having missed the cut in the previous two years, has had two LIV Top 10s this term and now sits second with a round to go at JCB Golf and Country Club.
It's been slow progress, but Watson can finally feel good things happening and explained: 'The last couple years, it's been a struggle. Been a struggle mentally, physically and golf-wise. You want to play better, right?
'You don't think about it until it happens, where my knee, my forward knee is where I like to put all my weight on chipping and putting, and then when you go through surgery and go through muscle changes, you kind of create bad habits, and so my bad habits, getting back on my heels, maybe even on my other side, so I'm not the same technique that I've always used, if that makes sense.
'So in all my years of practicing and playing, my technique has now changed over these last couple years, so we really dug in and tried to figure out what it is. So we've tried to figure out that, and I think we made a big step forward in finding out what it is.
'As my leg gets stronger, it takes two years for your leg to get stronger in that position, so here we are. Now we're talking about some of my best finishes. Hopefully we can keep it going.'
Watson is second with 18 holes to go in Staffordshire behind runaway leader Joaquin Niemann, but said: 'A high finish puts me, I think I'm like 30th or 31st in points, so it'll probably put me back close to top 24.
'I want to have a strong finish to the year and I see that I can do it. Now, will I do it is the question. But I would love to finish in the Top 20 if not better and have a chance to win and then challenge the Team Championship in match play.
'All of this is a positive step forward going forward in my career. Obviously the better finish I can do, the better it is for me, better for the team, better for everything. Yeah, I'm going to get out there and battle.
'Second place right now looks like it's a good place to finish, so it's going to be a battle for the second place, if nothing else.'
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