2014 Masters: Bubba Watson shoots 69, claims the green jacket

Amid grins and buckets of tears, Watson gabbed for some 45 minutes about Augusta, his 20-year-old final-round playing partner Jordan Spieth, his disdain for the media, and his love of family and, of course, his lord and savior.

Here’s a sampling of what Watson had to say, post-Masters triumph No. 2:

Masters week has come and gone, and the season’s first major closed with little drama Sunday night as Bubba Watson rolled to a three-shot win. Now we’ll wait 51 more weeks for a return to Augusta and golf’s biggest event. Here are 10 things I took away from the 2014 Masters.

I went into this in greater detail Monday morning after his second win, but Bubba Watson is the perfect player to repeatedly take down the modern Augusta National. With the new golf ball, a left-handed player has an advantage and Bubba’s length accentuates that.

There were 51 players who made it through to the weekend at the Masters. Bubba Watson began Saturday with a three-shot lead, and finished Sunday night with a three-shot win. It was much different from his first win at Augusta in 2012, when he chased down the leaders on Sunday and then won in a playoff with that legendary recovery shot from the pine straw on No. 10.

This week, Bubba overwhelmed the field and the course. He was near-perfect in the first two rounds before hitting some bumps on Saturday to recede back to the rest of the field. On Sunday, however, he had slammed the door early on the back nine and cruised in on the 18th for another green jacket.

When Bubba Watson won his second green jacket in three years at Augusta on Sunday, he did so with neither Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson in the field -- the first time at least one member of the legendary duo has not played on the weekend of a Masters since 1997.

The way things seem to be going for the aging and injury-plagued superstars, it is likely that last week’s Tiger- and Phil-less finale will become more of the norm than an anomaly.

Up until about 4:30 p.m. on Sunday at the Masters, all we were talking about was how we were witnessing the future of golf. And we were, it’s just that we were focused on 20-year old Jordan Spieth and not soon-to-be two-time Masters champ Bubba Watson.

Bubba is 15 years older than Spieth, the phenom who’s likely to become a major champion. But with two green jackets, Bubba Watson is just getting started. Bubba’s game is singular and unique. We’re so used to seeing players try and get comfortable with their perfect swing, copy others, hire the same swing coaches, and work to achieve some perfect mechanical motion that’s verified by TrackMan numbers. Watson, who’s never taken a lesson, is an original. He makes different swings for different shots, sometimes when that kind of shot is not even needed. He throws his back wrist at the club. He finishes in all different places and different angles. He sometimes comes off the ground and out of his shoes, as he did this weekend when he hammered a drive at the the 13th with his front right leg opening up and coming off the ground on the follow-through.

(via Dan Wetzel)

In addition to a green jacket, a lifetime invitation, and all the glory that comes with winning the Masters, Bubba Watson can also walk away Sunday with a $1.62 million check. That’s almost $200,000 more than what Adam Scott took home last year, as purses all around golf, particularly at the majors, continue to balloon.

The increase in purse sizes at the major championships was first set by the PGA of America and PGA Tour, who made an announcement last year that they were pushing their purses from $8 million to $10 million. All four majors had previously had $8 million payouts, while the three WGC titles had $8.5 million totals. The largest purse in golf, for some time now, belongs to the “fifth major,” the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass. That tournament was already $9.5 million before the bump up to $10 million at the end of last year.

For the second time in three years, Bubba Watson is the Masters champion. Watson began the final round tied for the lead with Jordan Spieth, but outdueled the 20-year old, finishing at 8-under and winning by three strokes.

Like he did during the first two rounds, Watson played extremely well and seemed to hit the big shots and make the big putts when he needed to. He made his big charge on the front nine, carding four birdies on his final six holes before making the turn. A birdie at No. 13 just about sealed the tournament. Spieth had a golden opportunity to cut into the lead at the 15th, but missed his birdie try. Watson continued his steady play coming in and took the drama out with five straight pars to win the tournament.

There aren’t many opportunities to pick up strokes late at Augusta National and with Jordan Spieth missing two of the better opportunities left, Bubba Watson is in great position to win the 2014 Masters. Watson is 8-under through 15 holes, leading Spieth by three strokes with three holes to play.

The back nine layout fits Watson’s strengths well and he took advantage at No. 13, bombing a drive more than 360 yards leaving only a wedge into the par-5. Watson’s approach wasn’t his best, but still good enough for a two-putt birdie to move to 8-under. While Watson took advantage of the reachable par-5, Spieth’s drive found the pine straw on the right. He was forced to punch out and hit an approach to the green. His third shot was excellent and he had a good look at birdie, but his putt didn’t have enough pace and rolled off to the right.

Last year we found this Tiger Woods super fan sitting behind the 16th tee on Sunday, wearing an interesting t-shirt to show his support for the No. 1 player in the world. However, it wasn’t your standard Nike Tiger red:

Well, Tiger’s sadly not here this year. But this individual soldiers on without him, still manning the post at No. 16.

The most famous par-3 in the world has claimed another victim on Sunday at the Masters, as Jordan Spieth left his shot at No. 12 a bit short, his ball rolling back into the water. It’s a common mistake from players of every age and ability, although I’m sure some will be quick to say this was a rookie mistake.

With the hole in the usual right pin placement, Spieth took aim right at the flagstick but either he didn’t have enough club or had his ball knocked down a bit by the wind. We’ve seen it happen so many times over the years, with Fred Couples being the notable exception and somehow having his ball stick on the side of the bank.

The winner of the 2014 Masters will take home the green jacket, but they’ll also walk away with a large check. A very large one in fact. The Masters prize pool increased from $8 million to $9 million this year and the winner will take home a significant portion of the increased pot. The first-place check at the Masters is worth $1.62 million.

The 2014 winnings are nearly $200,000 more than the $1.44 million Adam Scott won with his green jacket last year. All of the top finishers will receive a boost in their winnings this year with the second place finisher receiving $972,000. While coming up just short of winning the green jacket can be a major disappointment, a check for slightly less than $1 million is a good way to ease the pain. The same can be said for a third place finish which is worth $612,000. Whoever finishes fourth will take home just less than a half million dollars at $432,000 (all totals barring no ties).

The final round of the 2014 Masters is nearly half over, but the opening nine has done little to add clarity to the top of the leaderboard. Bubba Watson and Jordan Spieth are in the same position they were when the round started, tied for the Masters lead.

Although they are still tied, it’s been an eventful opening nine for Watson and Spieth. Spieth carded four birdies in his first eight holes and was 8-under at one point, but a pair of bogeys dropped him back into a share of the lead. His shot of the day thus far came at No. 4, where he hit his tee shot into a bunker, but managed to hole out his second shot to make a nearly impossible birdie.

Hey Jordan Spieth, you’re currently leading the Masters and trying to become the youngest player to ever win a green jacket. Now is no time to be dancing.

Jordan Spieth got off to a good start at Augusta National, notching a birdie on the second hole. He appeared to be in trouble at the very difficult fourth hole, however, after his tee shot found the greenside bunker. The best players would be challenged to save par from that spot, but Spieth did one better, holing his shot for a birdie.

The shot brought back memories to The John Deere Classic where Spieth holed out from a bunker and went on to win for the first time as a pro. A few more shots like that on Sunday and Spieth may have a new addition to his closet in a few hours.

The leaders are just a few holes into Sunday’s final round at the Masters, and the early mover is 54-year-old Fred Couples. The 1992 winner birdied the first two holes at Augusta National to promptly jump to 3-under, just three shots off the pace.

Couples making the cut is automatic at Augusta. It’s a course where some of the older guys can still hang with the really long hitters, and Couples has perfected the way to play it at his age. In the past four years, he has finished 6th, 15th, 12th, and 13th. It’s an amazing run, but after getting to the first page of the leaderboard at the midpoint, he usually recedes on the weekend. His notoriously balky back catches up with his ability to make crisp swings four straight days on the hilly Augusta layout.

The Augusta National course setup isn’t quite to the difficulty level of a traditional U.S. Open track, but many players attack it with a similar mindset. A par is a very good score on a lot of holes and the key to posting a good number is correctly picking spots to attack. That judgement will be especially important for the contenders on Sunday. Get too aggressive in the wrong spot and your chances to win the green jacket could quickly erode.

Players will need to grind from No. 1 to No. 18, but the winner may ultimately be decided by how the field plays five key holes.

Not much changes at the Masters from year-to-year and that includes the pin placements on Sunday. Course officials rarely detour far from the traditional final round setup and that is once again the case this year. There are a couple of minor tweaks, but for the most part, players with experience will be very familiar with the setup on Sunday.

The focus, as always at Augusta, is on the back nine. Once again, the course is setup with classic pin locations at No. 12, 13 and 18. The most notable difference on the back nine come at No. 11, 15 and 17. The 11th pin is front-left on Sunday, slightly more forward than it usually is. The pin is traditionally tucked in the back-left, but the new location still isn’t a very good pin to attack. The 15th pin is usually back-right, but is back-middle this year. The hole won’t play much different as the pin is still on the top slope of the back of the green. No. 15 has been and still is one of the best holes to attack on Sunday. The change at No. 17 is a little more noticeable: the traditional back-right placement has been replaced by a front-right pin. The new pin location will be far from easy, but is likely more manageable than back-right would have been.

It’s Sunday at the Masters, and we have as good a set of leaders and storylines as we could have hoped for on a weekend with no Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson. There are nine players at 2-under or better, and two sitting on top at 5-under. The final round of the Masters is typically so dramatic because the course can yield those low rounds, creating lots of movement and shuffling on the leaderboard. Unlike the other majors in a typical year, Augusta presents a player with multiple birdie and even eagle chances to make a comeback.

Sitting at the top, however, are three world-class American players who have separated themselves as the clear favorites with the oddsmakers. Here’s my attempt at ranking the first page of the leaderboard at the start of the final round, and sorting their chances of winning the 2014 Masters.

For the first time in his career, Bubba Watson will come to Augusta National on Sunday morning of the Masters as the favorite, but barely. Sitting on a share of the lead, Bubba is currently a 10/3 favorite to win another green jacket, holding off co-leader Jordan Spieth, who’s 7/2 about six hours before he tees off in the biggest round of his life.

Spieth has exceeded expectations, which were already high as one of American golf’s top prospects, at every stop over the last 15 months of his nascent PGA Tour career. And even with that record of success and contention, I’m amazed that he’s already played his way into the Sunday final pairing at the game’s biggest event. He’s not been particularly flashy this week, grinding out three rounds just under-par with no major charge or big birdie streak. Now he’s on the verge of becoming the youngest ever to win the Masters.

The good news is that it’s Sunday at the Masters, the best day in golf. The bad news is that’s there is just one more round of the Masters, and we’re just hours away from having to wait 12 months until a return to Augusta National.

This is the first Sunday since 1996 that Tiger Woods won’t play the Masters, and it’s the first Sunday since 1997 that Phil Mickelson won’t play at the season’s first major. But even without the two biggest stars of this generation, the tournament has produced a loaded leaderboard full of storylines to heighten the anticipation to the usual Sunday final round levels.

At one point on Saturday, it appeared the Masters was headed for a rather tame final round. Bubba Watson was pulling away from the field, leading by five strokes. He had yet to three-putt and had carded just three bogeys all week. He was seemingly on his way to double-digit red figures and a sizable lead heading into Sunday. But four bogeys in his final 13 holes and surges from Jordan Spieth and others changed things, and now the Masters is set for a classic final round.

Watson is still in the mix, tied with Spieth for the lead at 5-under. The leaders are two of 15 players who will begin the final 18 at even par or better. That group includes Matt Kuchar at 4-under, Rickie Fowler at 3-under. Jim Furyk at 2-under and Justin Rose at 1-under. Fred Couples is also hanging around at 1-under. With such a crowded leaderboard, it could be anyone’s tournament at this point. Watson could rebound from his 74 on Saturday and claim his second green jacket in three years. The 20-year-old Spieth could make history and become the youngest player to ever win the Masters. There are too many possible scenarios to detail, but fortunately for viewers, there will be an extra hour of live television coverage to watch it all unfold.

It’s Sunday at the Masters, and the leaders going out in the afternoon make up about as deep a group as we could have hoped for with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson absent this weekend. The final pairing of the day, Bubba Watson and Jordan Spieth, will be hailed as the future of golf, symbolizing the transitional day at Augusta without Tiger and Phil.

Spieth spent Saturday grinding through Augusta to stay under par for the third straight day. He made no major charge, and didn’t go on some raucous birdie run, but mitigated the bumps and posted a few red numbers. By the time it was over, he held a share of the lead with Bubba. Now he’ll play in the final group on Sunday at the Masters, trying to become the youngest player ever to win the green jacket. At 20, he’d break the age record set by Tiger Woods, who had that historic rout in 1997 at the age of 21. Spieth is also trying to end a rookie drought, the last first-time invitee winner was Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979.

With just 18 holes to go in the 2014 Masters, Bubba Watson clings to favorite status at Augusta. Just 24 hours ago, Bubba was a 2/1 favorite ahead of Adam Scott, but now he’s just holding off Jordan Spieth, who’ll come to the course tomorrow sharing the lead at 5-under.

Spieth is right behind Bubba at 7/2, obviously the farthest he’s crept up on the board now that he’s locked up his spot in the Sunday final pairing at the biggest event in the game. It’s a remarkable week for the 20-year-old, who would be the youngest player ever to win the green jacket. If we’re going off Saturday’s play, Spieth’s the better choice than Bubba, who was leaking oil all day and is lucky to be sharing the lead still at 5-under. Spieth has his shaky moments, to be sure, but so far he’s been able to mitigate the bumps.