LIV GOLF UNITED KINGDOM

July 25, 2025

Bubba Watson

JCB Golf and Country Club

RangeGoats GC

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Let's welcome Bubba Watson, captain of RangeGoats GC. Bubba, well-played today, 5-under par score of 66 here at the opening round of LIV Golf UK by JCB. Talk us through your round today.

BUBBA WATSON: I don't know any stats. I literally just got off the golf course. My putting, I think my putting was good, saved me a few holes. Made birdies on a few holes.

It was a good start, birdieing the first hole, fourth hole but my first hole. So it was nice to roll a putt in right away.

No. 6, to make par there is a big step for me since I struggled on it last year. So it was good.

I started off pretty decent and then I just made birdies where you're supposed to make birdies.

Q. The fans were out in force today. Can you explain what the atmosphere was like out there?

BUBBA WATSON: Yeah, the atmosphere is great. This is perfect weather. You couldn't ask for better weather. Maybe less wind just for us golfers. But all the people out there, they were cheering for shots. They were in good spirits. It was very nice. You couldn't ask for more, especially since I was playing good. If I was playing bad, maybe it wouldn't have been in good spirits, but it lucked out for me today; I played good.

The crowd here is always good. They understand golf. They understand good shots and bad shots, especially when we come across the pond. They respected good shots when they know a 20-footer is a good shot sometimes.

Q. It seems like this year your putting has been sort of on another level, like this has been one of your best putting years. Your stats say you're pretty elite on LIV as far as putting goes. Is there anything you did in the off-season or anything you're focusing on to improve on it?

BUBBA WATSON: I talked to Peter Uihlein who's on my team. He's well-known for being a great putter. Probably top 5, top 10 in the world in putting. I'd say top 5.

So I asked him what he did, and he told me he works on his stroke, works on trying to get the stroke the same every time. He told me a couple things to do, a couple training aids, a couple different things to use.

Then I went back to the Ping engineers and asked them what kind of putter do I need. I need something that can hit it harder but also keep the ball on line if you mis-hit it. So we went to a mallet. I got a mallet, a Tyne putter, and it's working so far. I'm getting them to the hole.

In my career I usually leave them a little short so they're usually just missing because I like to die the putts, and now it's getting a little bit harder. Without changing my stroke, it's getting a little bit harder, so more are going in.

Q. I was curious if you felt like now that we're closing in on the regular season, do you feel like people have their game faces on, they're maybe a lot more serious because there's open zone, there's drop zone, relegation --

BUBBA WATSON: There's a lot more stress, 100 percent. There's a lot more stress. Not knowing the number -- I do know the number, but not knowing the number, how many guys are without a contract next year, so there's people that are stressed. They're trying to get top 24. They're trying to stay in the top 48. There's a lot of movement. There's a lot of having to step up and hit great golf shots because they know what's on the line to be in an elite league like this. They want a contract. They want to be able to play here next year, so there's a lot of stress out there for sure.