Bubba Watson, say hello to Larry David.
Larry, say hello to Bubba.
You’re two of a kind.
Larry David makes a living doing comedy skits in which everyone he comes into contact with gets totally pissed off at him.
Bubba Watson does it in real life, unfortunately, and he did it in a big way last week in Phoenix.
It started with an innocent question and Bubba, in turn, stuck his foot directly into his mouth.
You see, Bubba has earned $1.1 million at the Phoenix Open in 2014 and 2015. He played well, so it inspired this harmless question at a Wednesday presser:
“Bubba, what do you like about the course?”
Then Bubba went off as only Bubba can:
“I don’t like it. I’m not going to PC it. I don’t like it at all. I just mentioned why I’m here. I’ve got three beautiful sponsors that love it here.”
Oops.
Let’s see Bubba, the Phoenix Open drew better than 618,000 folks last week and you basically pissed-off all of ’em.
That doesn’t count PING, the company that pays him millions. These companies are not “sponsors” as Bubba calls them, they are companies that hire these professional golfers to be brand ambassadors. And Bubba just insulted the tournament and city where PING is headquartered.
After Bubba’s proclamation, you can imagine the calls to Bubba’s agent, Jens Beck:
The calls probably started something like this:
“Hey Jens, WTF?”
Yes, really Bubba. WTF? What was that all about?
Nobody, but nobody wants to listen to a pissy, whiny millionaire.
And that’s what Bubba was last Wednesday and it is what he is on too many occasions.
Bubba was so dense, he didn’t even apologize until Friday — two days after the fact:
“I used the wrong words,” Bubba said as he started his back-track routine. “I have nothing against the fans and the tournament. The fans have been great. I love coming here. I’ve lived every winter here for eight years. This is a beautiful place. I used words that I shouldn’t have used. I didn’t explain myself well. My wife says that too, when I go home — I don’t communicate well.”
Bubba also failed to point out that his second round of words came a couple of days late. Where were they the day after?
Cue the boos at No. 16.
Loud they were, as Jedi Master Yoda might say.
Bubba understands boos.
Normally, a smart guy might just carry on. Apology given, let it run its course and die out like most of Bubba’s bumblings seem to do eventually.
But noooooooooooo.
Bubba fired back after his round on Sunday, trying to play the “how about some sympathy for the poor golfing millionaire card?”
Here’s what he came up with:
“It really hurt me yesterday. It really hurt me a lot, hurt my family a lot to see that and know how much we have supported this city, been behind this city.”
For crying out loud Bubba, why didn’t you just go ahead and cry while you were saying that.
There’s simply no end it.
Bubba simply doesn’t “get it” and that will make it easier and easier for young, savvy guys like Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler to make even more money off the course.
Think about it.
You’re the Money-Bags Company and you’re looking around for a brand ambassador.
Is the talk-before-you-think Bubba Watson your guy?
Don’t take too long to answer that.
If you do, Bubba just might come up with yet another “I used the wrong words” insult.
The positive in this fiasco is that Jens Beck (Watson’s agent) should immediately get on the horn with the Saturday Night Live televison show producers and make this pitch:
“Hey guys, how about Bubba Watson and Larry David hosting SNL together?”
Perfect!
