Bubba Watson ticked off with the pace of play at U.S. Open
UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — Bubba Watson had enough – enough waiting, enough of Chambers Bay, enough testy U.S. Open golf.
After a lengthy wait to hit a shot, which became a common problem on the back nine of his Thursday round, Watson pushed his fairway-wood approach to the par-5 18th hole. It hit the green, but that wasn’t the point.
“Waiting 30 minutes,” he said. “This is pathetic professional golf.”
It was more like five to seven minutes, but whatever.
Watson made his way to the green and, in what might have been misconstrued as a tribute to the occasional woe-is-me antics of Sergio Garcia, hit three disinterested putts to wrap up an even-par 70.
The score isn’t bad and is well within reach of the bar set early by both Dustin Johnson and Henrik Stenson. Getting there was a bit messy, making a double bogey to open each side of the round. However, he closed well, with pinpoint approaches to the par-4 14th and par-3 17th that led to short birdie makes.
But by the time his work was done for the day, Watson didn’t want to talk about it. He declined a pooled request for a post-round interview, though later told the Associated Press: “We’ve been waiting all day. I just hit a bad shot. I’m not going to pout. We’ve all seen articles written about me that I’m a pouter. It’s nothing new.”
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
