Week in Review

Monday Qualifier

Bubba Watson has the talent and personality to be a star on the PGA Tour

Watson showcased his many skills in La Quinta.

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By John Strege

Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images

January 25, 2010

The Bob Hope Classic was largely devoid of star power, though there was a Watson on the leader board, and though it wasn't the right one, it was a welcome one.

Bubba Watson brings with him a wealth of talent and a refreshingly quirky personality that deserves greater exposure on the PGA Tour. He can raise his own profile, of course, by delivering better golf, more of the kind that he produced at the Hope, where he flirted with his first tour win before finishing a shot behind winner Bill Haas.

Watson, 31, a Twitter devotee, sent a Twitter post to Ellen DeGeneres, "because I'm not right in the head," he said laughing. "If you look at my Twitter, I called out Shaq (Shaquille O'Neal), I called out Larry Fitzgerald, and now I'm just trying to get on the (Ellen DeGeneres) show. I'm just trying to make her happy. I guess her birthday is next week, so I was just having fun with it."

When Thursday's round was postponed by rain, Watson stayed home and filmed videos for Twitter.

"Hit some shots from out of the house," he said. "Hope the person I rented it from doesn't know I hit balls from out of their house."

After a lackluster performance in the third round on Saturday, he declined to wallow in disappointment.

"Always satisfied," he said. "I'm playing golf for a living. I wouldn't want to switch with any of you all. So I'm satisfied every day I get to play. Do I want to win a golf tournament? Yes. I want to win this one, the next one, all of them."

Want more? There is that Dukes of Hazzard replica car, General Lee, that he intends to buy.

We all should want more of Watson.

BUTCH ON PHIL

A devoted family man for whom an off-season ostensibly was always too short, Phil Mickelson returns to work this week conceivably wishing this one hadn't been so long.

He was last seen on Nov. 8, when he won the WGC-HSBC Champions, his second straight victory and one that ratcheted up his enthusiasm to return to the PGA Tour. He even began re-booting his game earlier than usual, and not simply the result of having foregone his annual ski vacation.

"I think he has the possibility of having the best year he's ever had in his life," his teacher, Butch Harmon said, a heady forecast for a player closing in on his 40th birthday, with a Hall of Fame career already on his resume. "He's chomping at the bit to get out there."

Mickelson makes his 2010 debut this week at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines GC, a short distance from his home in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. He spent Jan. 15 and 16 working with Harmon at the Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe, where Mickelson is a member.

"This is our fourth year together and it's the best I've ever seen him going into a season," Harmon said. "He's hitting the ball beautifully. And it's the most confidence I've ever seen him have. He's really looking forward to the season."

What to expect this week? There is no discernible pattern to his performances in season openers. On four occasions (five, if you count the Northern Telecom Open he won as an amateur in 1991), Mickelson has won his PGA Tour season opener, most recently at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in 2004. But he also missed the cut in his '09 debut and finished out of the top 20 on five other occasions.

His expectations have been heightened by his late-season victories in '09 and his preparation in early 2010.

"He knows that that puts more pressure on him," Harmon said, "but great players respond to that. He's driving the ball so much better, the best he's ever driven it in his life, his putting is coming around from his work with Dave Stockton, but more importantly, mentally, he's as confident as I've ever seen him.

"He has a great understanding of his golf swing and what he's trying to do with it. He can correct it on the fly, too, on the course. His work with Dave Stockton has helped. He doesn't have to go flag-hunting on every shot. He was putting so bad, for him, for 18 months, he felt he had to take on every pin."

Mickelson's practice was interrupted only by inclement weather in the San Diego area last week. And speaking of inclement weather &

THE RINSE CYCLE

The PGA Tour has been taking on water, courtesy of the weather phenomenon known as El Nino. The Bob Hope Classic lost a pro-am round to heavy rains and wasn't able to finish the tournament on Sunday, while Torrey Pines, site of this week's Farmers Insurance Open, was submerged as well.

The rainfall for the week at PGA West, which had two of its courses used in the Hope, was 3.35 inches, nearly three times as much rain as fell there in all of 2009 (1.2 inches).

At least Torrey Pines will have had a few days to recover, though adequate is perhaps the best it can hope for by the start of play on Thursday.

"What's your definition of adequate?" Jon Maddern, San Diego's city golf manager, said, laughing. "We'll be playable, but we have a rough that's going to be lush. Getting the ball in the fairway will be a premium. As it should be.

"We're saturated and had quite a few trees blow over (Thursday)afternoon as well as Tuesday afternoon. We're in cleanup mode and have been in cleanup mode."

The weather forecast for La Jolla this week: Rain on Tuesday, morning showers on Wednesday, and a few showers on Saturday, according to weather.com.