Elementary mistakes cost enigmatic Bubba Watson dearly

Maybe the timing of the “60 Minutes” episode on Bubba Watson wasn’t the best. Shown last Sunday night on CBS, a lead-in to the annual Masters Week, the segment was up-close and personal, with Watson talking about the demons that plague him. An assortment of fears, he said, most alarmingly his constant thoughts that a building might fall on him.

Which leads you to wonder if there are imaginary buildings on Augusta National that only Watson can see, because the man continues to be an enigma at this cosiest of all major championships.

Crazy, given how Watson professes such a love of the Masters and how the stage at this tournament seemingly offers the one thing he covets — wide-open spaces. With enormous fairways and galleries kept at comfortable distances, Watson has room to breathe, to bend his boomerang tee balls, to not feel claustrophobic.

Now, if he could only try and figure out how to play with a sense of consistency, because frankly, this is becoming bothersome. Marquee names with such lofty status in the Official World Golf Ranking — Watson is No. 4 — should not be so random in their quality performances in the biggest championships.

When Watson shot his second straight 3-over 75 yesterday to get halfway home in 6-over, he was outside the cut line at the 80th Masters and in need of the afternoon wave to help him out.

It would be his first missed-cut at the season’s first major championship, but it would hardly be his first lacklustre performance. That’s the crazy thing, too, for he’s built for Augusta National, a massively-long hitter who can turn it around the par 5 second and par 5 13th to turn them into short par 4s.

Oh, forever he’ll have two green jackets in his locker and where some notable names finished their career with just one major so the left-hander is already twice as proficient as many. But it remains a massive curiosity with Watson how he hasn’t factored in five others, and this may make a sixth.

His cumulative scoring for the green jackets won in 2012 and 2014? It’s 18-under for eight rounds.

His cumulative scoring for his other five starts? A pedestrian 14-over for 20 rounds, and there hasn’t been a finish better than joint 20th.

What always made the best Masters players — Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, Tiger Woods — so effective was their ability to ignore the elements that can change instantly at Augusta National and focus on being in the hunt year after year.

But it’s infuriating to watch Watson get so distracted, so uncomfortable. When he missed a short putt for par on Thursday, he was exasperated; his hands spread wide, he tossed his head back and looked to the heavens, as if the gods were against him.

It’s not how Watson thinks, per se, but his body language was painful to watch.

Sitting firmly on the cut watch, the two-time Masters winner tried his best to sort out his emotions and explain the ups and down of this Augusta National career.

“Very disappointing. I’ve got to wait a year to attack it again,” he said. “The golf course beat me this year and so I’ve just got to improve, try to get better around this place.”

Twice he has slipped on the green jacket and twice it has to fit him perfectly. Just like the course, yet while a kid like Jordan Spieth has played so consistently here — first nine rounds played, eight were sub-par efforts — the big, strong, and powerful Watson has failed to utilise his advantages.

Needing a big round Friday, he birdied just one of the par 5s and again looked like he was walking on hot coals, not the game’s most revered stretch of green grass.

Why?

“I don’t know how to answer some of these questions. I was fourth in the world, I’m still fourth in the world, so, yeah, I feel good,” Watson said. “I don’t know if you’ve ever been fourth in the world, but you have pretty good confidence, there’s only three guys better than you in the world.”

Somewhere, that answer makes sense, but likely it’s only in Bubba’s world.

“This week, the golf course just beat me. I’ve got to trust more things and hopefully I’ll learn from that and if I do, I’ll be a little bit better,” Watson said, seemingly convinced he would be going home Friday night. But conditions were getting tougher, wind was kicking up, and it was still possible the left-hander would sneak into the weekend.

But even if he does, it remains a mystery as to what sort of attitude he’ll bring with him.