While every patch of grass at Augusta National could probably tell a different story about the greatest shots hit from them, some moments from The Masters just somehow stand out above the rest, going on to define a tournament – or even a career.
When golf fans think about a shot from the career of Bubba Watson, it is likely that their immediate thoughts will turn to that moment from the trees on the 10th hole at the 2012 Masters.
Watson found himself in a play-off with Louis Oosthuizen after finishing on 10 under par, and it appeared that he had landed himself in real bother on the second play-off hole as he put himself in the trees on the right of the 10th fairway.
While Oosthuizen managed to put his approach just short of the green after also going right, Watson almost appeared to be faced with only being able to hit his ball out sideways. Most would have surely chipped out and taken their chance that they could potentially get up and down for par, particularly with there being no guarantees that the South African would make a four.
Ted Scott recounts that Bubba Watson shot at the 2012 Masters
But Watson, if you had not realised already, is not like most golfers. The left-hander produced the most outrageous hook out of the trees, finding the green and ultimately giving himself the stage to two-putt and make the par which meant that he would be the one wearing the green jacket shortly after.
Watson previously noted how calm Ted Scott was before he hit the approach, and Scott has now explained to Subpar why he felt so confident about Watson rising to the occasion.
“I remember when I first started working for Bubba, my dad came, my dad lives near New Orleans, and Bubba played in a New Orleans tournament and Bubba said, ‘hey, have your dad come out on the fairway and walk with us’. And so, my dad just said to Bubba randomly, ‘Ted tells me you can hook the ball really far, like a big old hook’. And so, Bubba said, ‘yeah, you want to see?’. He said, ‘sure’. So he literally dropped a ball in the middle of the fairway with a pitching wedge and hit a 50 yard hook on command right into the middle of the green and my dad, his eyes were this big, he’s a big fan of the game, he’s like, ‘that was incredible, I’ve never seen anything like that’,” he said.
“So for Bubba, that’s just a normal way of playing golf. When the pin was on the right on 14 in the middle of the fairway, we would hit huge duck hooks into that green, land it into the middle of the green and then spin it down towards the pin, so it’s kind of the way that he plays golf.
“When we get over there, it’s not to discount the shot, but it wasn’t as impressive to me as it was to everybody else, because they’re not used to seeing that. I was so used to seeing that that the only question I had was what club is going to be the right club. That was it, that was the only decision we had to make. The ball was above his feet, the lie was good, there was a huge opening and you have a guy that loves to hook the ball from the middle of the fairway, so it’s like perfect. This is not a bad thing, so the only conversation was what club do I think, and he hits a pretty straight gap wedge 135, and the pin was 165, so we’re like, okay, let’s just take the club that would go to the front of the green and your hook should get us beyond that and probably not over, and it ended up working out really well.”
A compliment
For most golf fans, hitting a shot from the middle of the fairway midway through an average round is difficult enough. So it is truly remarkable that Scott was so confident in Watson producing that shot under that sort of pressure.
Watson probably was helped by the fact that he seemingly did not have many other options, particularly once he got to the ball and realised that there was a clear window for him.
It is certainly hard for anyone of us who were watching on television to grasp just how difficult the shot was, and just how far Watson did end up moving the ball. And the fact he managed to put himself in a spot where he had a genuinely good chance of making the birdie makes the shot even more incredible.
Watson will perhaps take it as a compliment that Scott was so blasé about what many fans will consider to be one of the greatest shots of all-time.
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