Bubba Watson says he’ll retire if he gets to No. 1 in the world rankings

Bubba Watson makes the most of his last-minute decision to play in the tourney hosted by Tiger Woods, who spent the week of his Hero World Challenge in a golf cart and behind the mike.

Bubba Watson, who clinched a three-shot victory at Tiger Woods’ Hero World Challenge on Sunday, claimed he would chuck it all if he were to reach the top spot in golf.

“If I ever become No. 1 in the world, ever, somehow, I’m walking away,” the sport’s fourth-ranked player said after earning world ranking points in the unofficial PGA Tour event at which the injured Woods cruised around in a golf cart with his kids.

“I’m going to walk away on top,” said Watson, who, with the Travelers Championship in his 2015 win column, is now technically one win shy of the 10 he has said in the past would trigger his retirement from golf.

The Thailand Golf Championship is on Watson’s schedule so he could attain No. 10 next week -- but not the way Bubba sees it.

“Ten U.S. victories,” he reasoned. “I don’t count this as a PGA Tour victory. It counts as a victory. It’s very big for my career personally, but I don’t see it as 10 ... I still need two more.”

Tiger needs a few more than two major titles to surpass Jack Nicklaus’ all-time record of 18 and seemed earlier in the week to throw in the towel on his quest to win 19. Despite Woods, 40 on Dec. 30, conceding on Wednesday that his playing career could be over and saying on NBC’s Sunday telecast that he “can’t do anything at all” yet to recover from his third back surgery, the Golden Bear’s not buying it.

“He has always been a very focused young man with a great work ethic, and is tremendously talented,” Nicklaus told CNN on Wednesday. “To count him out of that [the majors record] would be foolish, he certainly has a very good chance of doing that.”

Nicklaus, who won three majors after the age of 40, acknowledged that “no one wants to see their records broken,” but has stated often that he expected Woods to overtake him if the winner of 14 Grand Slam events remained fit.

“I fully expect Tiger to return to come back to play well and be a good competitive force in the game, but it does make me sad to see Tiger or any of our athletes struggle with health,” said Nicklaus. “I think Tiger has struggled a lot with his health of late and nobody likes that.”

If this golf thing doesn’t work out for Jordan Spieth, the current world No. 1 sounds like a natural for a spot beside Roger Maltbie and the Golf Channel/NBC crew. Following his 6-under 66, Spieth went live with his commentary as Watson hit a terrific shot from a waste area.

The two-time major winner, who is at no loss for words inside or outside the ropes, could have been talking about his chances of going back to back at Tiger’s event when he overcooked the spin on this shot to the sixth green in Sunday’s finale.

SB Nation video archives: Urban golfing with a U.S. Open champ (2012)