After Friday's 6-and-4 win over former Match Play champion Geoff Ogilvy, Bubba Watson settled into a chair in the media room and was content to stay there for hours just to chat.
Meet the new Bubba. The friendlier Bubba. The happier Bubba.
Watson, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour, is coming off a win at the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego in late January and has carried that momentum to Southern Arizona.
The Bagdad, Fla., native has yet to trail through three rounds of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. He said he knows exactly why he's playing better.
"I realized that my life - it revolves around golf, but it's not my life," Watson said. "Outside the ropes, as soon as I sign the scorecard, I'm the same Bubba from Bagdad. I love to have fun, love to goof around. I don't worry about what I shot. Now, I just had to bring (that attitude) to the golf course."
Watson, 32, said he started to shift his focus after his father, Gerry, died of throat cancer in October. He said he realized "life is too short" and wanted to start having some of the fun he was having outside the ropes. So now he is having fun inside as well.
But that wasn't his first wake-up call.
After his first tour win at The Travelers Championship in 2010, Watson's caddie and good friend, Ted Scott, told him he wanted off Watson's bag.
"After I won Travelers, (Scott) told me earlier in the year he was going to leave me, because he's a good friend of mine and he didn't want to see me beat myself inside the ropes," Watson said.
"He said, 'I'm going to have to leave you. We'll still be friends, I'll still help you, but I can't watch you do this on the golf course.'
"It was a slap in the face."
Watson will try to keep the good times rolling today with a quarterfinal match against fellow American J.B. Holmes.
Both are considered among the PGA Tour's longest hitters, though the high winds that are expected today could play havoc with their shots.
"I consider myself a pretty good wind player," Holmes said. "Usually I don't like playing in crummy conditions, but over the years, it seems like the tournaments where the weather has not been very good, I tend to play very good."
Remember when?
After Matt Kuchar's win over reigning PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Rickie Fowler, the 11-year tour veteran was asked if his win at the 1997 U.S. Amateur Championship, a match-play format, has helped him on the course this week.
"I don't really know what you'd take from winning the Amateur in 1997," Kuchar said with a smile. "But, whatever works."
Of course, that wasn't the only match-play experience for the former Georgia Tech star. He was on the 2010 Ryder Cup team and went 1-1-2 in the event.
Even though Kuchar said he approaches a match-play event the same way he does for a stroke-play tournament, he concedes it definitely has a different feel.
"The format is fun," Kuchar said. "I think it's good for golf just to change up from a four-day, four rounds of stroke-play event. And it's fun. It feels like other sports.
"It feels like a proper playoff."
Bouncing back
After losing the first two holes, what goes through the mind of the No. 2 player in the world?
"I thought, 'not good,' " Martin Kaymer said.
The German quickly fell behind Hunter Mahan after the first two holes - but didn't panic. The only No. 1 seed left, Kaymer recovered quickly to win the third and sixth holes to pull even.
Mahan took the lead again after winning the eighth, but Kaymer won the 14th, 16th and 17th holes to win 2 and 1.
"I didn't change anything," said Kaymer of falling behind early. "I just said I would wait for (Mahan) to make mistakes. He didn't make mistakes, but my shots got better as the round went on."
Major winner
Y.E. Yang, the winner of the 2009 PGA Championship, beat Graeme McDowell on Friday in the only matchup featuring two winners of major tournaments. McDowell won the 2010 U.S. Open.
All squared after 13 holes, Yang won the next three to win the match 3 and 2.
"Right now, it feels great to win over Graeme," Yang said. "I think my overall condition is good and just because I won it, my condition feels better."
Yang will face Kuchar today at 7:22 a.m. Yang said he's played a "couple of rounds" with Kuchar before, but isn't overly familiar with his game.
