Bubba Watson wasn’t ready for all the emotion that came after his first Masters win in 2012.
Watson never touched his green jacket after almost immediately putting it in his closet because he was “embarrassed” by it, he revealed in a candid . For most of the time, Watson said, he kept the jacket in the carrying case it came with.
“I hid the jacket, I was embarrassed of it,” he said. “I put it in my closet, never let anyone see it, touch it, take a picture of it, anything. … It was one of those things … am I good enough to represent the game of golf? A good enough person to be a Masters champion?
“I grew up just playing golf because I love it, am I really going to be the champion they deserve.”
He took it back the next year and handed it over to club officials withou🎃t the usual fanfare, he added. Masters winners keep their green jackets for a year before giving them back to be kept in the locker roo🗹ms of Augusta National.
Watson, who famously never took golf lessons, fought off Louis Oosthuizen in 2012 with a remarkable shot in the second p🅠layoff💝 hole from the woods.
The two-time winner at Augusta National added in the interview that he wꦇas spooked after a fan slapped him across the back after the shot landed on the green.
“The crowd rushed in and … this guy slapped me across the back,” Watson said. “First of all, I have a phobia. I don’t like people touching me, especially people I don’t know. … Luckily for me, [CBS] cut away but I had no idea where the ball was. I said, ‘what’re you doing.'”
He won a second Masters in 2014, three♓𒁏 strokes ahead of a 20-year-old Jordan Spieth and Jonas Blixt.
The big-hitting lefty missed the 🌌cut at the Sony Open in Hawaii earlier this month, but is expected to🙈 play at the Waste Management Open.