Baby Basher Watson finding touch, too  PGATOUR.com Correspondent SCOTTSDALE -- He's the leader -- for the moment -- of the Baby Bashers. You know. The young guns who can flat out whop their golf balls a country mile. The kids who make 340 off the tee look easy. Not like they're coming out of their golf shoes. They make you shake your heads at their power, while they often shake their heads at why everything else doesn't come as easy. But this week, at least, Bubba Watson has it going. Even if that driver is heading a bit sideways.  Bubba Watson is the leader of the Baby Bashers. (Feldman/WireImage)
Watson, who leads the TOUR in driving distance, backed up an opening 66 with a 67 Friday to find himself sitting oh so nicely going into the weekend at the FBR Open -- a venue, we might add, where fellow BB J.B. Holmes won last year. And he's done it despite hitting just 14 of 28 fairways. "It's been a struggle with the driver,'' said Watson, whose 9-under 133 left him four shots behind mid-day leader Jeff Quinney. "... just hit my irons really well, and I'm staying focused. When I hit a bad shot, I'm still positive, or trying to be, just looking forward to the next one and trying to do it better. '' It worked last week when he finished tied for fourth at the Buick Invitational, four shots behind winner Tiger Woods. It was just one more step in the right direction for the 28-year-old former Georgia star who played on the same high school team with Heath Slocum and Boo Weekley. A rookie a year ago, he finds himself a rookie at the raucous FBR Open where when the fans at the 16th hole erupt, you hear it all around the TPC Scottsdale. ''The atmosphere is really good,'' he said. "I mean, there's so many people, so many people cheering. You can hear holes over that people are cheering. It's just a fun place to be. This is the only time we get like a football game to us.'' And Saturday will be a big test. Crowds were down earlier in the week because of rainy, cold weather, but a warm weekend is on the way and, well, as Watson said, it'll be a big test. He knows putting is the key to every event -- "the best putter is usually Top 10, Top 5, probably going to win, and Tiger is pretty good at putting, so he usually does pretty good '' -- and he's been hard at work on that. Yet mental focus is what he really wants to be known for. "I've talked to some veteran players out here and try to see how they focus and what they work on and what they try to think about,'' Watson said. "My physical game, I don't believe there's anything I need to really work on. You're going to have bad days, you're going to have good days. But if your mind and your mental game is in the right spot, then a bad shot is not going to affect you as much as it would if you're not thinking properly. "So far this week and last week I stayed focused, and it's really paid off in the end, playing great last weekend.'' The FBR Open is a bomber's paradise because long hitters can get it past the trouble. But being a lefthander Watson knows he has some challenges in front of him. Particularly the 11th and 15th holes. "...Hitting it long, you run out of room real quick because that water pokes its head in every once in a while,'' he said. "So 15 and 11 are real tough tee shots for me. "Today I got lucky on 15 and I hit it so bad that it just didn't go in the water. But 11, I'm aiming down the rough just trying to keep it in the fairway, and today I did. There's a lot of good holes out there that we can fly a lot of the trouble, but some of the key holes coming down the stretch are hard for me.'' Even the 322-yard 17th where he hits driver. Why? He doesn't carry a 3-wood. "I try to aim it at the far right and just cut it off the bunkers,'' he said. "I just kind of dink it.'' Friday, he missed his target by 10 feet, but still got up and down for birdie. He knows there's a long way to go this weekend and a long season ahead of him, but he has his eye on making a Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup sooner rather than later. "I'd love to do it,'' he said. "I'd love to be there. You know, all the media, you guys, they say that at one point everybody was a rookie playing in the Ryder Cup. "There had to be a first time. So if new guys come in there, they're eager to do it. They want to be there because it's their first time. '' And, he sees absolutely nothing wrong with a lot of young guns on one of those teams. A mass transfusion, if you will. And he wouldn't mind being in the 2007 class. But for the moment, he's focused on the FBR Open and that misbehaving driver. Which means he was heading for the range after lunch to find out why his draws were turning into cuts and his cuts were just flat not cutting. "I'll probably hit five shots, just try to see if I can get it going,'' he said. "If I'm swinging at it bad, I don't want to keep swinging bad. If I start swinging good, I want to stop quick so I can save them.'' Even if we can't hit them out there with the Baby Bashers, we understand. Copyright 2007 PGATOUR.com. All rights reserved. |
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