{"id":467,"date":"2014-11-14T23:11:06","date_gmt":"2014-11-14T23:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.golfballs.com\/?p=467"},"modified":"2024-02-19T15:16:27","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T21:16:27","slug":"bubba-watson-wins-first-world-golf-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/blog\/bubba-watson-wins-first-world-golf-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Bubba Watson Wins First World Golf Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bubba<\/a>

Bubba Watson Wins WGC-HSBC Champions<\/p><\/div>\n

If you\u2019re the kind of person that thinks watching golf is boring, then you’ve obviously never seen Bubba Watson in action.<\/p>\n

The two-time Masters champion kept fans on the edge of their seats out in the Far East during the final three holes of the WGC-HSBC Champions held at Sheshan International Golf Club in Shanghai, China last weekend.<\/p>\n

Watson supplied the crowd with nail-biting moments of angst and suspense toward the end of the tournament, just before delivering an incredible bunker shot with on the 18th<\/sup> hole that put him right back in contention for the title.\u00a0 The victory that followed also catapulted Watson into the No. 3 position in the world, according to Official World Golf Ranking\u2019s website.<\/a><\/p>\n

So, what led to the 36-year-old pro\u2019s first World Golf Championship win?\u00a0 Let\u2019s recap all of the excitement that encompassed the last leg of the HSBC Champions.<\/p>\n

Forgetting Can Be A Good Thing<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not uncommon for golfers \u2013 professionals and amateurs alike \u2013 to have a difficult time coming off of a bad hole.\u00a0 Sometimes all it takes is a poor performance on a single hole to initiate a chain of unfortunate events that can follow a golfer throughout the rest of his or her round.<\/p>\n

Not the case with Bubba Watson.\u00a0 Proving that he can take a beating on the course, brush his shoulders off and start anew on the next hole has been one of the hallmarks of Watson\u2019s career, and last weekend\u2019s final round in Shanghai was no exception.<\/p>\n

Watson got off to a rough start of the HSBC Champions\u2019 final round, shooting bogey on the 1st<\/sup> hole, a 459-yard par 4.\u00a0 Not letting the leading hole get the best of him, he bounced back with a birdie on the 2nd<\/sup>.\u00a0 Watson went on to repeat this pattern throughout the final round, bogeying on the 5th<\/sup> hole, then following it up with a birdie on the 6th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Wash, rinse, repeat; so goes Watson\u2019s modus operandi.<\/p>\n

The back nine was no different for the left-handed sensation, as Watson kept the crowd holding their breath by posting another bogey on the 13th<\/sup>, just before allowing them to breathe a synchronous sigh of relief by shooting birdie on the 14th<\/sup>.\u00a0 By the 16th<\/sup> hole, Bubba Watson was in possession of a two-shot lead with only three holes left in the game.\u00a0 Apparently a comfortable finish like that would have been unbecoming.<\/p>\n

Watson bogeyed yet another hole, and then posted a double bogey on the 17th<\/sup> before walking onto the last hole of the tournament a single shot behind five other players:\u00a0 Tim Clark, Rickie Fowler, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell and Hiroshi Iwata.<\/p>\n

As the 18th<\/sup> played out, things were looking good for Tim Clark, who sank a 4-foot putt for birdie, and not so good for the other four players that started the hole in contention:\u00a0 Both Rickie Fowler and Martin Kaymer lost out to the water hazard on the 18th<\/sup>, while McDowell and Iwata both shot par for the hole.<\/p>\n

Even though Watson appeared to be struggling toward the end of his round, he wasn\u2019t about to let his mistakes on the last two holes carry over into the final stretch.\u00a0 On his third shot of the 18th<\/sup> hole, with his Titlist golf ball<\/a> resting comfortably in the sand and posing no clear threat to Clark\u2019s potential victory, Watson sank an incredible greenside bunker shot to eagle the hole<\/a>, sending both players into a playoff hole that Watson ultimately won.<\/p>\n

Watson\u2019s first World Golf Championship win proves that, when the pressure is on, he can perform.\u00a0 His ability to forget about previous blunders and questionable decisions while tackling every subsequent hole as if it were a fresh start is an ability that is the envy of golfers around the world.<\/p>\n

Congratulations, Bubba Watson, on your first World Golf Championship win.\u00a0 You certainly took fans around the world on one suspenseful ride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re the kind of person that thinks watching golf is boring, then you’ve obviously never seen Bubba Watson in action. The two-time Masters champion kept fans on the edge of their seats out...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,4],"tags":[120,122,121],"class_list":["post-467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-news","tag-bubba-watson","tag-wgc-hsbc-champions","tag-world-golf-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":469,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions\/469"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}