A mentally strong Bubba Watson wins the Masters 2014

Let me first confess that I didn´t give two cents for Bubba Watson winning the Masters this year.

But I was clearly wrong, and for a number of reasons, since he won convincingly and in splendid fashion.

His final round 69 was excellent and his short game and 25 putts, simply impressive

But the truth is that there were plenty of reasons for considering Bubba from the start:

The first, is that Watson´s game, as explained by his good friend, Rickie Fowler, is especially well siuted to Augusta National.

The fact is that this magnificent course gives a premium to the long hitters as it has relatively open landing áreas almost no rough, and to creative players with a great short game. And Bubba is one of them. And as Fowler says in a Sunday interview: "Bubba is so strong and creative that he can hit shots that almost nobody else can pull off. That´s why his second Green jacket is no surprise to me".

The second reason, is that he has had a brilliant 2013/2014 season. His results (he has now played 10 tournaments) show that he has won twice, he has been second twice and has seven top tens. Then, from the point of view of his current form, his Masters win is not a surprise. His excellent results have taken him to N° 4 in the world ranking and he is the N° 1 money winner on the PGA Tour.

Third, I believe, now, that I was wrong about his Mental fortitude.

As he hadn´t won or done much for two years (since his Masters win in 2012), I thought that this "lone ranger" who does not have a Swing or a Mental Coach, simply had been lucky to win a Major and probably would never win another.

Furthermore Watson´s anger management problems on the golf course are well documented. Whinning and blaming his caddie when things go wrong are not the stuff of mentally strong golfers.

So I investigated a Little on the Monday after the Masters and came across a couple of things that indicate that Bubba has changed and, if so, he well could be around the top of golf for a long time.

The first one comes from his team:

It so happened that two years ago Watson adopted a son and he had a very hard time coping with his post Masters 2012 celebrity and his obsessive desire to lead a simple family life.

According to Ted Scott, his long time caddie, Bubba, frequently, would become an angry and impatient person on the course who was too hard on himself and others around him. He tells that everything changed last year when Watson, who is a devoted Christian, spent some time with his longtime friend, Pastor Judah Smith, from Seattle. Smith asked Bubba to change, to appreciate and to rejoice.

The second is an interesting observation I read from a leading Mental Golf Coach, that I follow:

He said that Bubba´s secret, aside from intensive practice, is his use of positive Self Talk and a strong Mental Game on the golf course.

This is backed up by an interesting comment by Bubba in his post victory interviews:

"I kept talking to myself a lot out there", Bubba said, "I suppose it´s kind of weird but that´s what I did. Also I first see every shot in my mind".

I agree with my friend the Mental Coach.

It seems to me that Watson has been able, this year, to master two key techniques that come directly from the Method of Conscious Autosuggestion, that together with improving his well known anger management and frustration issues, could perhaps take him along way at the summit of world golf.

 In effect, we are talking about on course shot visualization and positive self talk. These techniques are very recommended in the quest of "staying" in the Present Moment, in the Unconscious Mind and "In the Zone" for superior shot making.

And how did my favorite candidates fare in the Masters?

In my opinión a top 20 result is very good at any Major, so therefore some of my picks did just fine.

Kuchar, whom led after the third hole on Sunday, was fifth. Westwood was seventh, McIlroy with a very good weekend was eighth.

And Justin Rose and Jason Day whom had been hurt coming into the tournament were fourteenth and twentieth.

Disappointing performances came fom Phil Mickelson and Sergio García. Both missed the cut by a shot. In both cases, in my opinión, they failed at something essential at Augusta. The greens are so fast and difficult that it is key to plan short shots and putts with the utmost posible conservative rigour.

Phil was three under for 33 holes, and his triples on hole 7 of the first round, and hole 12 on Friday were simply beginer like.

 Garcia was three over going into hole 35, but his three putt from three yards at 17, and a bad bogey at 18, left him just outside of the cut. The three putt was  especially bad, because everybody knows that a downhill putt at the back left of the 17 th is just lightning fast and it was essential to make par.

My other favorite that missed the cut was Zach Johnson, whom had a catastrophic first round, that, in the end, killed his chances of making the cut, by two strokes. It´s possible that Augusta National´s increased length of recent years, has become a problem for the relatuvely short hitting Johnson.

In summary, I must say that I quite enjoyed watching this year´s Masters, but having said this, I also missed the famous Sunday afternoon second nine charges that were inexistent this time.

The Patrons had little to roar  about last Sunday afternoon at mythical Augusta National.