Bubba Watson, the twotime Masters champion who has a flair for the dramatic on the course and a tendency to be overdramatic off it, showed his ugly side Friday at Augusta National Golf Club.
His golf was unsightly, for sure.
Watson missed the cut at the Masters for the first time in nine starts, and he wasn’t in any mood to talk about it after rounds of 74 and 78 over the windswept course.
“Golf is tough,” Watson told Gene Sapakoff, columnist for the Charleston Post and Courier, who tweeted out Watson’s statement. “I don’t know if you’ve ever played it. But writing articles is easy.”
Watson isn’t the first athlete, coach, owner, fan or celebrity to get mad at a media member, but when you insult an entire industry you’d better be prepared for a backlash, especially from people who are pretty good at getting in the last word.
It didn’t take long for author, tweeter and TV personality Robert Lusetich to set Bubba straight.
“Sportswriters don’t get weekends off though, Bubba.”
Slam.
Late Sunday afternoon, Dan Jenkins, a noted author who is now a popular Twitter follow for Golf Digest at the four majors, mixed in this barb at Watson while chronicling Sunday’s duel between Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose.
“I can’t wait to read Bubba’s article on this one,” Jenkins said.
Wham.
Earlier in the week, a gauntlooking Watson got one other comment from Jenkins.
“Bubba Watson, going with the skinny look, went 74-78. Somebody give him a sandwich.”
Bam.
To be fair, Watson posted a video apology Friday on Twitter, before Jenkins’ aced him, explaining about how he was just joshing with the writers.
Watson said he was trying to tell sports writers that if they had to play golf in these conditions they wouldn’t do so good, just like he wouldn’t do so well if he were trying to write about it.
Essentially, Watson admitted his attempt at stand-up comedy went over like an out-of-bounds tee shot.
“Apologies for my bad attempt at a joke today … my jokes as bad as my golf this week!”
No kidding.
Bubba and Bobby
Kevin Kaduk, the blogs editor at Yahoo Sports, noted that Bubba Watson’s slap at sports writers reminded him of a certain college basketball coach who loved yelling at the media almost as much as his players.
Said Kaduk: “The whole episode actually reminds of the time that former Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight took a shot at the press by saying, ‘Most of us learn to write by the second grade, then move onto bigger things.’ “
Kaduk noted that Sports Illustrated writer Steve Rushin landed quite a counterpunch:
“Most of us stop calling ourselves Bobby by the second grade, too,” Rushin wrote.
Kaduk’s takeaway?
“Never take on anyone who buys ink by the barrel and lives on Twitter.”
Quote of the day
“People saying this was a season-ending change, no, it’s not. This is not the end of the Hogs.”
Arkansas second baseman Carson Shaddy, discussing the Razorbacks’ first losing streak of the season