Bubba Thrives On A Tighter, Shorter Course!

He's the most talented, creative and fearsome player on the planet when he wants to be. So it never surprises when Bubba Watson plays well, it only surprises when he decides this is the week to put his mind to it.

Plainfield has a lot of rough and is not thought to be a course you'd overpower, but Bubba used his driver a whole bunch to open with a 65 in The Barclays.

Rex Hoggard on Watson's unlikely low round from the Spieth-Day-Watson grouping Thursday morning.

Although it’s taken the better part of 36 years, the player one national magazine recently featured under the headline “Bubba: Why we love him and why we don’t” has learned to embrace the rub of the green.

In the age of the “we” generation it is conversely refreshing that Bubba is still an old-school “me” kind of guy.

When Spieth talks about a golf shot or a decision it’s always a group, “We've gone about our business the way we wanted to,” the 22-year-old said earlier this week.

Conversely, Watson often appears alone on an island of his own making. One outlook isn’t better than the other, just different.

“I had some issues growing up where I was very angry at the world and at the golf, and so I've tried to get better at that,” Watson said. “Over the past few years, I've grown up, I guess you'd say, and my thinking, my processes, either I'm getting better as a person or I'm just tired of hitting bad shots on the golf course. So I'm thinking better.”

Embracing Plainfield and all its quirkiness may not exactly have the look and feel of a hard self-examination, but for Bubba it’s an indication that he’s at least interested in improvement and that’s a start.

At least on Thursday. He can always change his mind, sadly.

Though as Helen Ross noted, it was love at first site for Bubba at Plainfield so the man-boy genius might stick around. Works for me!