Better prepared mentally, Bubba Watson ready for bounce-back performance at Masters

Bubba Watson is a two-time Masters champion. He is also coming off of two consecutive Masters tournaments to forget.

He barely made the cut in 2016 and finished tied for 37th place. He missed the cut in 2017.

But something seems different entering this year's tournament.

Watson has played some great golf of late – the good side of “Bubba golf,” as he likes to call it. When he’s on, he’s deadly. When he’s off, it sometimes goes off the rails. He was off most of last year. Through the first quarter of 2018, Watson has been on.

He recorded PGA Tour wins at the Genesis Open and the WGC-Dell Match Play Championship. At No. 19 in the world, Watson has found himself in the mix as one of the favorites to watch at the 82nd Masters.

“Golf is really easy when you free it up,” Watson said. “It's very difficult when you're not thinking properly.”

And that has been a big focus for Watson. From a mental standpoint, it is almost the opposite of living in the moment and focusing on a specific tournament. His preparation is part of a process that begins as far out as six months.

What Watson has been doing is visualizing where he wants to be half-a-year ahead from the present day. And in doing so, it has led to the recent victories.

But it also helps if things don’t go well in the moment.

In his last two Masters appearances, Watson finished nine-over par through four rounds in 2016 and eight-over par through two before being cut in 2017. And dwelling on a bad tournament could cause the following tournament to go just as poorly.

“My process right now is looking six months ahead and where am I at,” Watson said. “So if I miss the cut this week, six months from now am I going to remember missing the cut here? And that's my process, and my goal is just to always move forward and try to get better at what I'm doing.”

Watson’s outings at the Masters have been boom or bust since his first in 2008. While he has won two green jackets, his average place of finish, outside of missing the cut a year ago, in non-championship years is 37.5.

Watson will certainly hope he’s feeling it at this year’s Masters. And part of his approach in the lead-up has been to prevent overexertion. He practiced nine holes each Monday and Tuesday, and competed in the par-3 challenge.

“Over the course of the years it's just changed that way of trying to just save some energy and mental preparation,” Watson said.

Having won at Augusta National twice before, Watson has an idea for what works on arguably the game’s greatest, and toughest, course.

“You got to be mentally prepared,” Watson said. “The mental part of it is what drains you around this place. So you got to be mentally prepared and focused on every shot and committed to what you see and what you want to do.”

This story was originally published April 4, 2018 at 3:35 PM with the headline "Better prepared mentally, Bubba Watson ready for bounce-back performance at Masters."