Two-time Masters winner Bubba Watson joins LIV Golf

BEDMINSTER, N.J. — Two-time Masters winner Bubba Watson has signed with LIV Golf.

Watson, 43, was announced as the latest player to join the Saudi-backed circuit during Friday’s LIV broadcast from Trump National Golf Club Bedminster. He is not expected to play however until 2023 as he continues to recover from a knee injury.

Like many who have defected to the fledgling tour, Watson has been linked to LIV Golf for some time and played earlier this year in the Saudi International. Watson initially balked at rumors that he was going to LIV Golf by posting on Twitter his summer schedule filled with a number of PGA Tour stop.. However, it was a summer schedule that never came to fruition, as Watson hasn’t played since a T-30 at the PGA Championship in May because of the injury.

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Watson is in his 17th season on the PGA Tour, racking up 12 wins and more than $48 million in earnings. The highlights of his career have come at Augusta National, where Watson captured the 2012 and 2014 Masters tournaments. He has played in four Ryder Cups and two Presidents Cups for the United States. Though he has been one of the sport’s longest hitters, Watson’s ability to shot-shape in an era where the skill has mostly disappeared has made him one of the more entertaining watches in golf.

Fans have not seen much of Watson in 2022, playing in just nine official events this year due to a knee issue, and in those starts he posted one top-10 finish. Despite his waning success inside the ropes—Watson has a lone top-three finish, a T-3 at the 2020 Waste Management Open, over the past four seasons—and a number of controversies throughout his career, Watson has endured as one of the game’s more popular figures, finishing 10th in the tour’s inaugural Player Impact Program last year.