Bubba Watson argues fire ants, burrowing animals with unimpressed PGA official


Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
Bubba Watson got into an animated discussion with a PGA Championship rules official during Sunday’s final round about whether his ball had come to rest in the hole of a burrowing animal or a tunneling insect.
Seriously. This really happened.
“It’s not fire ants or anything so there’s no relief from that. It’s just basically a loose impediment,” the official, after checking with HQ on his walkie-talkie, tried to explain to a skeptical Watson.
Bubba being Bubba, there was more to talk about it.
“Okay, but I have a question for you. Since it’s an animal. It is an animal, right? Do you agree with that? It’s burrowing, it’s digging a hole. It’s either an ant bed or it’s an animal digging a hole. It’s one or the other ... They’re tunnel-making is what we’re calling it this week.”
The chat ended up with Watson having to play from the spot and wondering what would happen if he had a life-threatening reaction to whatever the hell made the hole in the ground that was trying to bury his golf ball.
“So if some guy was allergic to ants and he got an ant on him, you could care less?” Watson wise cracked to the poor official.
Bubba finally accepted the ruling and signed off with a variation of his Twitter #Ur welcome hashtag.
”It’s all good, he said before knocking his second shot on the par-5 fifth hole into the fairway on his way to a no-harm, no-foul birdie.
Bubba Watson Yells "Ow, It Bit Me" Before Hitting Out of an Ant Hill at the PGA Championship https://t.co/1fciD5yE4b https://t.co/WAXuJ58Oh6
— Michael Shamburger (@mshamburger1) August 16, 2015 Of course the Internet was on it, delivering this just moments after the bizarre interaction on TNT.
@DanHauserGolf @Wrong_Fairway @Adam_Sarson @NoLayingUp I'm on it. Bubba in AntMan 2..... pic.twitter.com/8I7ichxaJ9
— NYCPunter (@NYCPunter) August 16, 2015 ★★★
SB Nation video archives: Urban golfing with a U.S. Open champion (2012)
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