CROMWELL, Conn. — Bubba Watson has lived all his life in Pensacola, Fla., owns a piece of its minor league baseball team and has talked about pulling a Bobby Valentine and someday running for mayor of his hometown. Watson has won the Masters twice, so there are ties that bind to Augusta, Ga., too. But through the serendipity of sport, Connecticut has stolen a chunk of Bubba Watson’s heart. And if we’re smart, we won’t give it back.
“So many things that happened with my family at this place, this community,” Watson said Friday after shooting his second consecutive round of 4-under at the Travelers Championship. “It just means so much to us, and so when I get here, I just feel energized. I feel like the people are behind me and they’re pulling for me.”
With a two-day total of 132, Watson is 8-under and tied for second with Kramer Hickok, a shot behind leader Jason Day.
The Travelers Championship has already made a 2021 return on Watson’s emotional investment. On his second tee shot Friday, his driver exploded. The clubhead flew off to the right as he struck the ball, which still ended up in the middle of the fairway. The man can do no wrong here, except for last year when he missed the cut. He had a break coming.
“Yeah, it was a perfect tee shot right down the middle,” he said. “Chipped it in there and made the putt for birdie.”
There are compelling reasons to pull for Watson when he comes to town each summer. He has shared the prime of his career with us and opened up at a moment of intense personal pain. But the best reason is this: His support for the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, in good times and bad, goes far beyond writing checks.
“Finding my way through life, you do different things in your life that are so impactful, meaningful,” Watson said. “And going to the different places around here, Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, seeing that, feeling that, the energy of these kids, listening to their songs that they sang for me and my wife at lunch, was amazing.”
Watson was talking about a visit he and his wife, Angie, made to Ashford in October 2011, before he was Masters champion. He has been a friend to Hole in the Wall ever since. When the camp, which helps children and families coping with serious illness, was all but destroyed by fire last February, Watson, with a $25,000 donation, and Travelers, with a $1 million matching grant, stepped up to help rebuild it. The job should be complete by next summer.
“I’ve been there, kids have sang for me,” Watson said. “Then you think about it burning down. That’s one that really touches home with me when it comes to kids.”
That’s only a fraction of what Watson, who has won $4.7 million in Cromwell, has given back, but it wasn’t love at first swing. Watson debuted at the TPC River Highlands in 2006, before the Travelers took over, and he remembered shooting a 73, missing the cut and thinking, “Man, I’m never coming back here.”
The Travelers drew him back two years later, and on June 27, 2010, he got his first PGA Tour win, beating Corey Pavin and Scott Verplank in a playoff. He tearfully accepted the trophy and dedicated it to his parents as his father was fighting throat cancer. Gerry Watson Sr. died four months later.
“The crowd got behind [the tournament] and the community,” he said. “And then my first win here with my Dad watching.”
Watson has returned faithfully to Cromwell, winning in 2015 and 2018.
The warmth trails Watson around the TPC River Highlands. On Thursday, he walked he course with Phil Mickelson and shot a 4-under 66. On Friday, Watson caught fire on the front nine with four birdies, three in a row. He gave a stroke back when he three-putted on his 18th hole but finished the round 8-under and positioned for a weekend run for the title.
And what a thing that would be.
“It looks like no one will ever catch up with Billy Casper,” Owen Canfield wrote for The Courant in 1973, the day Casper won the GHO for the fourth time and accepted the trophy from Sammy Davis Jr. Watson never met Casper, who died in 2015, but he can join him as four-time winner in Connecticut if things break right one more time. Maybe things are aligned. Watson is 42, the same age Casper was in 1973.
“It would be with great company,” Watson said. “… Just winning here or winning anywhere four times, or four times ever on tour. I was asking Phil [Mickelson] some questions out there the last couple of days, and I told him one of my most exciting things in golf was getting my PGA Tour card. It was one of those things where I never dreamed I could win that many times. And now at one place having a chance to get four times and tie one of the greats of all time, yeah, it would be a thrill of a lifetime.”
