Bubba Watson booed at Phoenix Open’s 16th hole, birdies anyway
The rowdy fans at TPC Scottsdale’s par-3 16th gave Bubba Watson a piece of their collective mind on Thursday at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
A day after Watson disparaged changes to the host course debuted last year and said he was only playing in the tournament because several of his sponsors are located in the Phoenix area, he had to face a crowd well aware of what the two-time Masters winner said.
As Watson stood over his ball before his tee shot, fans rained down boos. Undeterred, Watson stuck his tee shot to a dozen feet. En route to the green, Watson handed out some Ping visors, helping out one of his three Arizona-based sponsors (the others are Oakley and Stance Socks).
Ultimately, he converted the birdie putt for a 2 on the hole and received applause from the greenside fans.
On Wednesday, Watson, who finished as runner-up in this event each of the last two years and earned over $1 million in that stretch, was asked why he likes TPC Scottsdale.
“I don’t like it,” Watson said in response. “I’m not going to PC it. I don’t like it at all. I just mentioned why I’m here. I’ve got three beautiful sponsors that love it here.”
He then explained he didn’t like changes original designer Tom Weiskopf made to lengthen and toughen the course.
Ahead of the round, Watson tried to dull some of the expected poor reaction to his comments with a tweet saying, “I love the @WMPhoenixOpen and fans are awesome… looking forward to today!”
Watson shot 2-under 69 on Thursday but did not speak with the media after the round.
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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