Golf

Bubba Watson caught in the middle of a popularity contest

Chances of the world number seven being on the US Ryder Cup team seem to be dwindling

Bubba Watson watches his tee shot on the second hole during the first round of the TOUR Championship By Coca-Cola at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia. Photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Ewan Murray at East Lake
Fri Sept 23 2016 - 07:39

Whatever else the United States' fresh approach to Ryder Cup wild-card picks has delivered, clarity cannot be included.

With Davis Love III to name his fourth and final selection on Sunday evening, five days before the meeting with Europe gets under way at Hazeltine, Bubba Watson has claimed his performance here at the Tour Championship is irrelevant to influencing the captain's thoughts.

“There’s nothing I can do now,” Watson said after an opening round of 72, two over par, at East Lake. “Davis said it’s all about strategies and different things. It’s not about my play. It’s not about anybody’s play. So I can’t worry about that. And the golf course is so tough, I’ve got to worry about this golf course.

“The only thing I know that Davis told me, and he’s told everybody, is that it’s about who matches up well. I don’t know what that means. I don’t know if it’s about partners. If a guy matches up better with two people or a guy matches up better with three people. I don’t know that.”

READ MORE

Watson’s sentiment leaves a question mark as to why the USA bothered extending the wild-card process in the first place. The prominence of form players, after all, was supposedly a key factor in the delay of announcing a 12th man.

It is easy to feel sympathy for Watson here. He appears in the midst of a popularity contest, during which there is a rising sense he may lose out to Justin Thomas. Watson is the seventh ranked player in the world, with Thomas 32nd. The latter at least started promisingly at East Lake, with a 68. "I've had so long to think about the Ryder Cup, and for people to say they don't think about it I think is absurd," Thomas said. "It enters my mind every round at some point."

Watson, Thomas and Daniel Berger – who signed for a 74 – visited Hazeltine at the start of this week for another chapter of this elongated picks process. Kevin Kisner, who shot 67, was not invited. He answered “probably, yes” when asked whether he was offended by that Love snub.

“We all want to be there,” Watson added. “We all want to be a part of the team. I sent Davis a text that said, ‘Can I be assistant captain if you don’t pick me?’ So I put it out there. I want to be a part of the team no matter what.

“It is a privilege and an honour to represent the United States. The only two things that were important this year were making the Olympics and making the Ryder Cup team.”

In the context of a tough course set-up Watson’s opening Tour Championship round was perfectly respectable. The 30-man field is headed after 18 holes by Hideki Matsuyama, Dustin Johnson and Kevin Chappell at four under par. Johnson’s hopes of claiming the $10m FedEx Cup therefore remain very much alive.

Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy both returned 68s, with the Northern Irishman’s especially notable on account of seven birdies. McIlroy also produced two double bogeys and only eight pars.

“I think you can shoot seven or eight under on this golf course,” McIlroy said. “I don’t think they’ve made it that hard that you can’t go out and shoot something like that. If you get it going, I think you can do that.

“When I get it going I can really run with it and then when it goes the other way I sort of struggle to get out of it a little. But I think that’s just the nature of the way my game is right now and sort of the way it has been for most of the year. I’m seeing more good in it, which is great, and I’m holing some putts, I’m making birdies. As long as I can continue to do that, trying to just cut out some of the other stuff, I should be OK.”

(Guardian service)