Ted Scott has arguably become the most famous caddie in the world right now, having been alongside Scottie Scheffler while the world number one continues on his journey to becoming an all-time great – but it was not on Scheffler’s bag that Scott won his first major.
Ted Scott worked with the likes of Paul Azinger and Grant Waite before linking up with Bubba Watson. And of course, the high points for the pair came at Augusta National, with Watson winning The Masters in 2012 and 2014.
While his triumph a decade ago was relatively comfortable – with Watson winning by three – many will remember the drama of his victory in 2012, when he went to a play-off with Louis Oosthuizen. On the second extra hole, Watson found himself in the trees on the right of the 10th hole.
Watson was already well-known for being someone who could shape the ball outrageously when it was required. But even by his standards, few would have imagined that there was any chance at all of the 45-year-old finding the middle of the green.
Bubba Watson recounts that play-off shot at 2012 Masters
Somehow however, Watson managed to hook the ball from the pine needles and find the green – with the ball even spinning to put the icing on the cake. There is absolutely no question that that moment gained immediate immortality on a course where every blade of grass – or every pine needle – has some history attached to it.
For anyone watching on television that day, it is hard to get a full perspective on what Watson was facing. But speaking on Fairway to Heaven, he has explained how he decided to hit the shot, as well as what Scott was saying to him at that moment.
“When I get to my ball, the crowd makes the hallway already. Basically, the marshals move them out of the way, they don’t move them away from the trees because I’m not going to aim at the trees, so they make a path for me, so then I saw that. So then, the wind’s slightly coming from left to right, so the ball’s going to hook, it’s going to help it hook, and then once it hooks, it’s downwind. It’s only five miles an hour, it’s not much, but it’s enough to give you that positive energy,” he said.
“So him coming up short, the hallway, the wind going in my direction, the lie was good, once the number was around 134 to the front, pin was about 30 on so that gave us 164. So I had a 52 degree gap wedge that we hit around 135, and so, hooking it, 140. Under the pressure, we were thinking 150, the adrenaline, all this stuff. We didn’t say it, but we knew, we basically said it’s not going past the pin, and it’s probably at best, going to be in the middle of the green.
“I was like I can hook it as much as I want, that’s what I said. Ted Scott has always said, ‘I’m just carrying the paintbrushes, you’re the artist’, and so he basically said, ‘here, you grab what club you think’, so I grabbed the 52 and I said I’m just going to aim at the scoreboard and rope hook it. He’s like, ‘yeah it’s easy’. So that’s what I did.”
Place in Augusta National folklore secured
It is easy to forget just how influential Watson appeared to be around that time. Certainly, golf fans took to Watson because of how genuine he seemed to be. He had little issue getting emotional on the golf course, and he had a game that many amateurs would have dreamed of having, with his ability to hit huge distances and shape the ball either way with ease.
He has not won an event since 2018, while The Masters has been the only major he has played for the last two years. Unfortunately, he has missed the cut on both occasions.
Perhaps the last few years have taken a little of the shine off of his career, but there is no question at all that Watson will always have his spot in Augusta National folklore.
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