Bubba Watson: Genesis Open brings positive vibes, potential history

Bubba Watson is prepared for another big week at the Genesis Open. A win here last year sparked a three-win season. If he does it again, he would break a record that’s more than 60 years old.

Bubba Watson was considering hanging up the spikes just a little over a year ago. Hard to believe today, isn’t it? After struggling through a 2017 season that saw him earn just six top-25 finishes – his lowest total since his rookie season in 2006 – and dealing with a variety of health issues, the happy-go-lucky Watson almost walked away from golf entirely.

It’s a good thing he gave it another go, and it all came to a head one year ago this week, at the 2018 Genesis Open. Watson put together a magnificent weekend at Riviera last year, going 65-69 and holding off Kevin Na and Tony Finau down the stretch for his third title in Los Angeles. That weekend was emotional, but it was also the spark he needed to truly find the love in his golf game again.

Watson enjoyed, results-wise, one of the best years of his career in 2018. He carried his momentum from Riviera on to finish in the top ten at the WGC Mexico Championship, then returning to the winner’s circle a few weeks later following a 7&6 dismantling of Kevin Kisner in the WGC Match Play. He got off to a slow start at Augusta, but turned it around to finish inside the top five in the Masters, with one more win coming in June’s Travelers Championship.

Watson has clearly found his passion for golf once again, and he’s playing better than people probably think right now. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past several years, it’s that there isn’t much more dangerous than Bubba, in a good mood, on a course that he truly loves. Enter this week at the Genesis.

You might not think of Watson, a good Southern boy out of Bagdad, Florida, as the Hollywood type, but something about the Tinseltown track at Riviera brings out the best in Bubba. It wasn’t always that way, but it’s certainly been the case for the last five years.

Riviera has been on Watson’s calendar every year since 2007, his second season on TOUR. This gives us a great look at how he’s built his game over time to adapt to a tighter track. Between 2007 and 2013, Watson played 19 rounds here, averaging 71.32 strokes per round. He missed three cuts and withdrew once. However, when he was on he showed some flashes of potential, with three top-20 finishes sprinkled in.

In 2014, though, something in Bubba’s game took off at Riviera. In the last five years, Watson has played 17 rounds with an average score of 68.59, nearly three full strokes per round better than he was in his first seven years. I’m no Bill Felber (we’ve already got one of those!), but given that improvement, the three wins he’s racked up here almost feel like the obvious result. That’s a 12-stroke-per-week swing, which pretty much guarantees huge jumps up the leaderboard.

Watson didn’t have a great run of things in Hawaii to start 2019, but he got back on track in Phoenix after a few weeks off, finishing tied for fourth place despite a closing 71 (E) at TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course. After taking last week off, he’ll be ready to rock and roll again in Hollywood.

I have to believe that Bubba Watson is the man to beat this week, and if he pulls it off, there’ll be a bit of history waiting for him. Last year, he tied Ben Hogan and Lloyd Mangrum, each of whom won three times at Riviera. With a victory this weekend, Watson would become the first person to win here four times (Mangrum won his final LA Open at Rancho Park), and doing it in a span of just six years would be nothing short of Hogan-esque.

I wrote last year that I don’t think they’ll be dubbing Riviera “Watson’s Alley” anytime soon, but nobody said that the course can’t have two nicknames, did they? Keep your eye on Bubba Watson this weekend. Not that that should be particularly hard to do.