Bubba Watson’s Back Nine Birdie Blitz

by Jeff Skinner

Bubba Watson has set the mark and thrown down the gauntlet at The 78^th Masters.  Will Bill Haas and the rest of the contenders pick it up? 

Watson, playing his best golf in a long time, had a sizzling back nine of 32 to pull away from the field at Augusta National with a three stroke lead after he finished his second round.

Bubba strung together five birdies from 12-16 to go to eight under for the tournament.  His only slip up on the back nine was a closing bogey at eighteen that left him with a 4 under 68 and alone in the lead.

Watson has an affinity for the back nine at Augusta.  We all remember his amazing hooked wedge from the woods in his ’12 playoff victory but it was his play through Amen Corner and the rest of the back nine that got him at the top of the leaderboard. 

In the final round of 2012 he strung together four straight birdies from 13 to 16 to earn his spot in the playoff.  In fact in rounds two and three of that year he had three birdies each on the closing nine. 

So if it is as they say, “The Masters begins on the back nine on Sunday” Bubba is in fine shape and a very real threat to earn his second Masters title.

Bubba appears more relaxed this week than his normally hyper self.  He has the same outlook as defending champions Adam Scott who is playing pressure free golf as he has adopted the attitude,”no matter what happens this week I still have a green jacket.”  Bubba must be thinking the same thing.

Click here for the Masters website, click leaderboard, click Bubba’s name, click scorecard and then click on the birdies and you can see the video of each one.