Bubba doesn’t want ‘poster child’ role

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May 18, 2011

Bubba Watson is fast becoming a real force in American golf, but he doesn’t seem too keen on raising his profile.

The big-hitting lefty is currently leading the FedEx Cup standings, and has already picked up three victories on the PGA Tour in the past year, but that doesn’t mean he’s ready to become the new face of American golf.

Watson, speaking at the TPC River Highlands, the course where he took the first of those three victories last June at the Travelers Championship, said he feels his game is “steamrolling in the right direction”, but that he’s not looking to follow in the footsteps of Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods as the next great American golfer.

“I do have a pretty face,” he joked. “But I hope the Tour is not going to bank on me being their poster child. I think it’s going to be harder to dominate, like we used to see, like Tiger has dominated for so many years. I think it’s going to be harder to have one guy stand out like that, because the talent is so much deeper in each tournament that it’s harder to dominate the whole world like that.”

Watson recently fell fowl of the Tiger Woods camp when he was quoted as saying that Woods was “going the wrong way”, but he said Tuesday that those remarks were taken out of context, and that Woods will bounce back from injury.

“I’ve never dogged a man that’s better than me, that is the world’s best golfer,” he said.

“I would never say I was better than that guy. He’s the best ever. Bubba Watson is never going to be considered the best ever, unless a miracle happens in a short period of time.”

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