Tiger Woods is the favorite to win the Masters, but the most inspiring story so far is that of defending champion Bubba Watson, who was very emotional in his press conference while talking about the green jacket he won last year at Augusta National after making an amazing shot on the final hole.
Watson is ready to take on Woods as well as Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy, but nothing yet can compare to what he did last year at the tournament, which he was able to share later with his wife and son, who were at home when he made his amazing shot. The 34-year-old has to fight history to repeat, but it has been done before, including by Woods, who has won the tournament four times.
Choking up and taking a couple of minutes to compose himself at his Masters news conference on Tuesday, Watson spoke about the moment an Augusta National member said he could keep the famed winner's jacket for a year.
"I told him that I was going to go home and wrap Caleb up in it," he said about the baby boy he and his wife had adopted a week before last year's Masters.
"That's the only thing I did with it. Out of respect, out of honor," he added before having to take another long pause.
Watson won his maiden major at Augusta in fitting fashion, with a miraculous recovery shot from out of the pine straw inside the tree line on the right that enabled him to win his playoff against Louis Oosthuizen by making a par on No. 10.
"As defending champ, I got to bring a guest so my wife played eighteen holes with me on Sunday. What a dream, what an honor," said Watson.
Some golfers are making a point of checking out the position from which Watson dramatically hooked a 160-yard shot that ran up onto the 10th green and settled just 10 feet from the cup. Watson tied for fourth in the season-opening Tournament of Champions but has not made much noise since, but does not discount his chances to join Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods as players to win back-to-back Masters.
(Reuters)
