Like every golfer, Bubba has his doubts

‘I get nervous just like anybody else and I just try to find a way to get the ball in play. I have played in about 270 golf tournaments worldwide and only won nine times, so I haven’t figured it out too good’

Ever wonder, as you line up even the most innocuous of shots, whether you have the right club in hand Or whether the distance your caddie gave you (and you guesstimated) is correct Or whether the ball will actually go straight for once, instead of flying left or right, as it normally does

If you are plagued by doubt till a micro-second before club connects with ball, welcome to a club that also includes the world’s fourth ranked golfer and recent winner of the Hero World Challenge at the tropical tourist paradise of Nassau, where mention of the Bahamas set off thoughts about sun, sea and sand.

Beaches and bikinis are all very well, but when there is the more serious business of a golf ball to be hit — hopefully towards the intended green, and not the adjoining fairway or into the nearest hazard — there is no better role model of concentration than your regular professional golfer. She or he has been around the world, seen it all, and still kept focus on that tiny while sphere that is so improbably launched towards an equally small target that is sometimes 500 yards or more away.

So when Bubba Watson completed a 25-under par performance at the par-72 Albany Golf Club on New Providence Island, home to the capital of the Bahamas, it would have been natural to hear a confident and strong response to questions on his performance over the four days where he had never been more than two shots off the lead.

Instead, there was this.

“I’m just trying to look for a score, I’m not looking for perfection. I’m looking to shoot a number. So there’s a lot of things that scare me, I’m pretty much the wimpiest guy on Tour.”

Really From someone who had just missed equalling the tournament record of 26-under par — set by Jordan Spieth at Isleworth in Orlando (Florida) in 2014 — only because he bogeyed his 72nd and final hole of the tournament

“I’m just being real. I get nervous just like anybody else and I just try to find a way to get the ball in play. I have played in about 270 golf tournaments worldwide and only won — counting this one — nine times, so I haven’t figured it out too good. I don’t have a mental coach, I’ve never had a swing coach, so I don’t know right from wrong. I just know, I’m just telling you the truth. I have fears, I have issues, and I’m not afraid to admit it and I’m going to have good days and bad days.”

With narrow fairways and strong winds expected on the Albany course, which is just yards from the shoreline, there was plenty of early talk, and doubt.

“It (the course) looked narrow to me with the way the wind was coming and as hard as it was coming, but when the tournament started, the wind died down, (the course) got wider. So I hit driver every day of the tournament, hit it perfect every day.”

“But, in my head, by the time I took it back, hit the ball and swung into it, I had fears of toe hook, I had fears of hitting it in the bunker, I had fears of not cutting, I had fears of overcutting it. Is this the right decision, is this the wrong decision Should I hit it straight or should I cut it more This is all as I’m swinging the club.”

“A lot of people don’t want to talk about it because they try to act like they’re tougher than they are, but we all have the same doubts, we all have the same fears.”

So if you have ever wondered how masterful pros turn on those eye-popping shots, chips and putts day in and day out, here is the other side. Hackers around the world would have warmed to Bubba and his frankness for, in some small way, he is like us.

And of course, there were words on tournament host Tiger Woods, pace-setter of a generation that forever changed the way golf is perceived, and played.

“Watching him, watching his swing, watching his dedication and drive to be better, watching him dominate the Masters, ... and then when I made it to the Tour years later bugging him enough where he wanted to play practice rounds. I begged him to let me play practice rounds with him and I wanted to watch him.”

“I learn by watching and listening, so I just watched. When we played practice rounds, I just watched how he did everything, how he went about it, so that’s where I learned. And, yeah, how would you not want to learn from the best player of our generation He could be the best player of all time. So yeah, I learned a lot from him just by watching him and watching how he did his job on the course.”

And on the new Tiger, the one who seems to have hit a wall of late

“Well, I think, again this is my own thoughts and opinions, but I think even when Tiger watches his kids grow up, I think golf is still No. 1 in his heart, in his mind, but at the same time there’s more valuable things out there. And I think that the dad he wants to be, the person he wants to be, I think that’s coming more to the forefront than being Tiger Woods, the golfer.”

“He wants to be called something else now, right He wants to be called Tiger Woods, the dad or he wants to be called daddy. He wants the kids to look up to him and I think it’s just his mindset’s changed. And I think if he gets healthy, that probably will help him when he comes back to the golf course. Obviously we’ve seen greatness from him every year he’s ever played golf, so I think his kids will help him. And finally, a few words on the Bubba Watson School of Golf.

“What I’m striving to do is have more fun out there, joke around, enjoy the game, enjoy the scenery, and enjoy the good moments. A good moment is not have a YouTube clip of me screaming about a mud ball and stuff like that. I’m enjoying the game, I’m creating shots and trying to play the game for a score, not for beauty swing or a beauty putting stroke or things like that. I’m just trying to make a score.”