Sep 27, 2016: The two-time Masters winner Bubba Watson has played in the past three tournaments but was overlooked for Ryan Moore when Davis Love III selected his fourth and final captain’s pick on Sunday.
But Watson will still be involved at Hazeltine after Love invited him to join a team of vice-captains also featuring Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker, Tom Lehman and Tiger Woods.
The left-hander admitted last week he was desperate to play any part, saying “I want to be a part of the team. I sent a text that said, ‘Can I be assistant captain if you don’t pick me?’ So I put it out there. I want to be a part of the team no matter what.”
At the first captain’s press conference of the week, Love confirmed that Watson had accepted the invite to join his backroom staff and revealed the left-hander had asked directly to be involved.
“Bubba was obviously disappointed not to be on the team. But as our team has really bonded together over the last couple months, Bubba has offered a couple times to come and be one of our assistant captains, and I told him we had an extra red cart and we’d love to have him.
“So he’s back at the hotel trying to get his clothes fit and get ready for assistant captain duties, much like Jim Furyk. Jim didn’t really know until maybe a week ago that he was officially an assistant captain and not a player. Our team has rounded out both on the captains’ side and the players’ side, and we’re ready to go and excited to get to playing.
“The first time I told Bubba, ‘we’ve overlooked you with these first three, but hang in there, we have another pick coming’, he offered to be an assistant captain before he even played The Tour Championship. Then he went out and played a great week of golf, seven under par I think.
“But then I called him and told him that I was going in a different direction again, and he immediately said, ‘I still want to be a part of this team, if you’ll have me.’ Incredible gesture, and when I told the team members and assistant captains that were there last night, we’re still in disbelief.
“We’re excited to have him. He adds a guy to drive our sixth red golf cart and be supportive, he adds a lot of fun, he adds a different personality. We’re just thrilled to have him. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Explaining his decision to pick Moore along with his previous wildcard selections of Rickie Fowler, JB Holmes and Matt Kuchar, Love added “We had a lot of guys that were really close. I had 11 guys and then I had probably another 11 that were possible picks for a long time. And it was a tough decision.
“We waited until the last minute to catch a hot player and Ryan, week after week after week, was the hottest player since the PGA Championship, and even before. He’s been the most consistent in all of the statistics, obviously a win as well, and he’s just been right there at the forefront for us.
“It was obviously a very, very difficult decision between the last four guys we watched, and frankly, I didn’t think it was going to come down to the last day of The Tour Championship. I was, of course, completely wrong, just because we had so many guys playing well.
“Darren and I talked earlier; it was a tough situation for us to wait, to watch, and then to have a playoff to drag it out even longer. It was tough on our players, but you know, in the end, we got the hottest player and that’s what the whole system was set up for.”
