Bubba Watson is comparing winning a potential LIV Golf Team Championship ring to winning the fabled green jacket at the Masters Tournament with the PGA Tour.
Watson won the Masters, one of the most historic tournaments in the sport, in 2012 and 2014. Watson, however, was one of several golfers to abandon the PGA Tour and join LIV Golf, the newest golf venture backed by the Saudi Arabian government before the proposed merger.
Talor Gooch, Watson’s teammate, was crowned the individual champion of the season in Jeddah last week, according to The Mirror. Watson watched as LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman kneeled to place the championship ring on Gooch’s finger.
Watson wants a similar feeling in the team championship.
“After seeing that ring that Talor got we are all thinking ‘maybe there are rings for the team’ so there is even more pressure,” he told the LIV commentary team, according to The Mirror.
“It is like the green jacket. Forget all the other stuff, it is the green jacket, and it is the trophy, the rings we might get, all these things that is what we get excited about.”
That is a brutal message for the PGA Tour considering LIV Golf has been around for a couple of years, and the Masters has been played since 1934.
Still, Watson also spoke about his controversial move to LIV Golf.
“There is going to be so much [player] movement, that is the beauty of this league,” he said.
“In the off-season, the free agency, the moving parts. Who better fits your team motto, your team mold, and that is why we jumped ship and come over here. This is the fun stuff that we have all watched in other sports. Watson joined the LIV setup last summer having won 12 events in 16 years on the PGA Tour.”
