Reformed Watson still has faith in his special talent

It's all about the W, as the absent Tiger Woods puts it of getting wins on board.

But, if Bubba Watson were to finish second in the WGC-Cadillac Championship here at Trump National Doral, something could be afoot. Clairvoyants will have been given a big nudge in any predictions on who will wear the green jacket as Masters champion, for Watson has twice followed up runner-up finishes in this tournament – in 2012 and 2014 – by going on to win in Augusta.

Once upon a time, and not so long ago, Watson was construed as one of the bad boys on tour. He ripped at his caddie over perceived bad yardages. He had a meltdown in the rain at last year’s PGA in Valhalla: “It doesn’t matter what I do man, it doesn’t matter. It’s f*cking horseshit,” he moaned, his thoughts picked on up television. Let’s just say, he’s had his moments. Lots of them.

Yet, these days, Watson would appear to have seen the error of his ways. Indeed, it was to Watson that Patrick Reed, after using homophobic language to criticise himself, turned for advice. It seemed to work too. Reed apologised for his words and actions and vowed to be a better person.

When the singer Justin Bieber needed a listening ear, it was Watson he turned to.

Bad boy

For Watson, the transformation from bad boy to advisor has to do – he believes – with how his two young adopted children perceive him.

“Golf is golf, it’s a sport. If I’m defined just as a golfer, that means, off the golf course, I am not a very fun person to be around. I want my kids to see me as their role model . . . . if you’ve noticed, over the past six months my attitude has changed. I needed to change as a person, how I act, how I appear on TV.”

How has he done that?

“By calming down, by changing my focus. By taking my focus away from golf, putting my focus on my family, my wife, my kids, what the most important things are in my life. My golf has gotten better . . . . maybe I don’t let the bad shots bother me as much, because I realise it is just golf.”

If all that seems as if Watson has turned a new leaf, maybe it is because he has. Yet, on one point, some things never change: the self-taught big-hitting left-hander still has absolute belief in his own ability with a golf club in his grip.

As he’s shown, Watson – ranked number two in the official world rankings – has an amazing ability to produce extraordinary shots.

He did it at the Masters in 2012 in the play-off hole when curling a wedge shot off pine straw around trees. He did it again last year en route to a second Masters title in three years when playing a seemingly impossible recovery from the trees on the 13th in his final round.

Yet, when asked to nominate the greatest shot he has ever played, he doesn’t opt for any that brought Masters glory.

Instead, he takes us back to the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in 2011 where he hit a six-iron recovery from thick rough under trees. “I had a tree in front of me, roughly 202 (yards) to carry, 210 to the hole over that little creek, the water . . . . that was probably the best shot (hitting it in to 20 feet), just because of the lie and trying to keep it ten feet off the ground the whole way.”

His confidence in his own ability is summed up by his response to a question put to him here at Doral. “Are you ever amazed?” he was asked of any shots he has performed. “I don’t know how to answer it the right way, but no,” responded Watson, expanding; “I’m not going to win all the time but there are certain shots when creativity is involved, the right situation, the right wind directions, the right feel; I feel like there’s no shot I can’t pull off.”

Toughest courses

So it is that he will attempt to conquer the Blue Monster, one of the toughest courses on the PGA Tour. And, perhaps, to prove that he can win here and go on to also win at Augusta.

Of his past two runners-up finishes here which then coincided with wins a month later in the Masters, Watson said: “It’s just one of those weird things, it just happened . . . . two different golf courses, two different styles. You can’t even compare them.” One of those things.