Bubba Watson blames caddie for blowing Travelers Championship lead

Bubba Watson had his second Travelers Championship victory in sight on Sunday at TPC River Highlands until he knocked his tee shot in the water on 16th hole, carded a triple-bogey, and blamed his caddie for letting him hit the wrong club.

Watson took his shot on the 178-yard par-3 and after seeing roll into the water, he told his long-time looper Ted Scott, “Water. It’s in the water. That club.”

When he blew his subsequent shot over the green, he once again let Scott have it.

“So you’re telling me that’s the right yardage?” Watson asked.

Watson, who had the lead heading into the 16th, closed out his week two shots back of eventual winner Ken Duke, who bested Chris Stroud on the second playoff hole.

The 2012 Masters champion seemed to have overcome an issue with temper that plagued him earlier in his career. Sunday, however, Bubba of yore went ballistic on his bagman and, reportedly on a writer as well.

Kyle Porter reported that a Connecticut scribe said Watson “blew up at a PGATour.com reporter after a one-on-one and stormed off. ‘Don’t try to make me look bad!....You always do.’”

Scott, by the way, later took the fall for his golfer, telling PGATour.com’s Brian Wacker that it was his fault Watson switched from an 8-iron to a 9-iron.

“I convinced him to hit the wrong club,” Scott told Wacker. “I 100 percent take responsibility for it. It’s totally my fault. I got in the way of the painter on that one.”

Watson soft-pedaled the incident as well, with Wacker and later on Twitter.

“Did we do the yardage wrong, was it a gust of wind? We were just trying to figure out what was going on,” Watson said to Wacker. “We planned to do one thing and it didn’t do it. We mis-clubbed is all.”

Watson has not won since last year in Augusta. With his fourth-place finish Sunday, he has seven top-15 results and two missed cuts this season.