Bubba Emerges From Crowded Leader Board to Win at Riviera
- Dan Hauser
- 22 Feb, 2016
At one point Sunday, on the back nine at Riviera, there were at least nine golfers who had a realistic chance of winning the Northern Trust Open. Bubba Watson, who entered the day as the 54-hole leader ended up emerging from the pack to win his second Northern Trust Open title.
”For me to come back … and pull one out in a tough way means a lot,” Watson said.
It was a very eventful week for Watson, both on and off the course. He visited the sets of both “2 Broke Girls” and “Girl Meets World”, the latter featuring the golfer with a cameo role in a future episode. He spent time with Justin Bieber, who gave his son Caleb a drumming lesson. Oh, and he spent Monday passing a kidney stone.
“Sunday morning [at Pebble Beach], playing with the kids, I had to go take a bathroom break, and red liquid came out,” Watson said. “I said, ‘This ain’t right.’”
With the way Bubba’s life went the days leading up to the event, it only seems fitting that he had to claw his way through a leader board that was jam packed all the way to the end (insert joke about the 405 at rush hour here).
Through 11 holes on Sunday, Watson, KJ Choi, Adam Scott, and Jason Kokrak were all in a tie for the lead. Kokrak took the lead outright at the 12th after Choi bogeyed. He extended the lead to two with a big birdie at the 13th. After Scott missed par putts at 14 and 15 and Bubba made bogey at 13, it seemed like Kokrak was securely in the drivers seat. Everything changed though once he and Watson got to the 15th.
From the middle of the fairway, Kokrak went long on his approach shot and failed to get up and down. His lead shrank back to one, and suddenly everyone who seemed to be out of it was right back in it, including Bubba. Bubba hit his tee shot to within five feet on 16 to tie Kokrak and took the lead back on the next hole after he hit the green in two on the par 5 17th and two putted for birdie.
While he was storming back, Kokrak continued to make the job very difficult. When Bubba drained his birdie putt on 16, Kokrak made a huge par save to hold onto a share of the lead. At 17, he successfully got up and down from the bunker to stay just one back. On 18, he barely missed the birdie putt that likely would have sent the tournament to a playoff. In the end, the mental mistakes late ultimately cost Kokrak the tournament.
”You’ve got to eliminate the mental mistakes,” Kokrak said. ”Hitting it in the middle of the green on 15 is just … I had a two-shot lead at the time.”
The win for Bubba was his ninth on the PGA Tour and could ultimately foreshadow how the next few months might go. The last time Watson won the Northern Trust Open in 2014, he went on to win his second Green Jacket at Augusta two months later. Like Augusta, Riviera is now a course that Watson is now a multiple winner at.
“I love coming here,” Bubba said. “The history of this place. You know, the history that you’ve seen, the great champions … and a couple times in the last few years, my head’s in the right spot and it’s worked out.”
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About Dan Hauser
As an avid golfer and sports enthusiast, Dan has had a passion for sports starting at a very young age. Dan’s other passion has always been writing. Since the time he could write, he has always enjoyed sharing information with people and telling stories through writing. In middle school he combined his two loves by joining the school newspaper in the sports department.
