Bubba Watson duffs putt, collapse ensues during Olympics

Hey, remember how the Americans weren’t faring so well over the course of the first two rounds of the Olympic golf tournament in Rio? Well, that’s changed!

Rickie Fowler vaulted up the leaderboard early on Saturday with the second-best round of the tournament — a 64 — to move him back into medal contention. Bubba Watson, who started the day in much better shape than Fowler, followed his countryman’s lead, too. A 5-under-par start to the third round through 10 holes had Watson within just a couple shots of the lead, setting himself up in prime position to contend for a gold medal for the US tomorrow.

Until this happened.

That’s a putter balk.

He had this 25-footer to get him to 8-under for the tournament on the 14th. But for whatever reason, Watson tried to stop his putting stroke, not on the way back — but on the way to the ball. It, uh, didn’t work. That led to a bogey on the 14th, which led to a bogey on the 15th, because Bubba Watson.

He’s now seven shots off Justin Rose’s lead with two holes to play in the third round. Bubba’s regular caddy Ted Scott stayed home in the states this week. Pray for him anyway.