Bend It Like Bubba

If you think golf is a boring sport, go watch some of the magic that Bubba Watson created at the Augusta Masters.

If you think golf is a stuffy, boring sport, go watch some of the magic that the effervescent Bubba Watson created to win the Augusta Masters. In one practice shot, the 33-year-old left-hander made the ball skip on water. Later, with his dream looking in peril, he produced a miraculous wedge off mud and pine straws in which he made the ball curve almost 90º to the right and plop to safety near a flagstick.

Golf is a sport that lends itself to technical obsession. Nitpicking over technique is also a way of showing off, as you must have observed of your annoying weekend golfer friends. But Watson keeps it refreshingly simple. He is self-trained and claims to have never taken a lesson. He is not one for sports psychologists or heavy statistical analysis either. He simply shows up and clubs the ball. He calls his style “Bubba golf”. Keep bending it, Bubba.