761 Bubba Watson: Golf Star and Humble Champion

This is episode number 761 with two time Masters champion Bubba Watson. Welcome to the School of Greatness.

My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur and each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness.

Thanks for spending some time with me today.

Now let the class begin. Melody Beatty said, gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates vision for tomorrow. And Doris Day said, gratitude is riches, complaint is poverty. Welcome to a very special interview with Bubba Watson, who is a top professional golfer on the PGA Tour, One of the few left handed golfers on the tour, taught himself golf, only had one lesson and taught himself the rest which is a fascinating feat. He's a multiple major champion with victories at the masters tournament in 2012 and 2014. He's an Olympian, he loves doing charity work and giving back to his community and he's an all around good old boy with a big heart. And in this interview we talk about the power of focusing on self improvement over comparing yourself to others. We talk about the power of gratitude and how it affects mental focus in peak performance, the impact that losing Bubba's father had on his golf game and winning perspective, Bubba's journey with adopting his children and how his perspective has changed as a father and the power of living a life of service and how he can make a difference, big or small, by giving love to others. This and so much more in this inspiring interview. Make sure to share this with your friends. Lewishouse.com 761 if this is your first time here, please subscribe on itunes, on Spotify or anywhere. Podcasts our at and and Leave us a review if you enjoyed this episode.

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Big thank you to our sponsors and I'm so excited about this interview. So without further ado, let's dive into this one with the one, the only champion, Bubba Watson.

Handball. Yeah.

Yeah.

Ranking yourself as an American. How many?

American.

Handball.

Yeah. How many people on the team, first of all?

Well, I mean, there's 16 that they take with us, but it's seven on seven. Yeah, so.

So you're saying I got a chance.

You got a chance.

Yeah, I'm about 17.

Yeah, exactly. But America as a. In the world, we're very low.

Yeah.

Probably, like, I mean, we can compete for a while, but these guys play since they're like 7 years old, you know, and they're just like the tick. The technicality of, like, how they move. It's just like if we played basketball against them, we would win because we're better athletes. But they just know how to move.

The ball and just don't word it that way just because anybody's watching this show.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah, Right.

But we'd probably be like, we can't compete at a world level. Let's just say that, like, at the World Championships, the Olympics, we would be, like, in the bottom. Like, I don't know.

But if they let you go to the Olympics, you're in.

Well, in 2020. What is it, 20, 28. It's automatic qualifier because it's in the U.S. so you just gotta.

But I'll be old.

You'll be.

I'm 35 right now, so I'll be. Yeah, 45. Then it'll be tough, but we'll see. Anything's possible, you know?

Exactly.

Just staying healthy. Just trying to. And we go to the Pan Am Games this year, so if we win the Pan Am Games, we qualify. But the South American countries are really good, right? Chile, Argentina, Brazil. They all play since they're, like, 70 years old, so.

Right.

I mean, I play, like, a few times a year.

I was going to say it's very.

Rare in the US there's no pro league. It's all amateur club, and they practice, like, once a week.

But I truly believe, though, if people saw it, it's incredible, man. It would blow up.

That's why I saw it in the Olympics in 2008 for the first time. I just got done playing pro football, and I watched this at, like, 3:00am and I was like, what is this sport? This is amazing. And I started Googling and researching. There was nothing. There was no teams in Ohio. So I moved to New York City to play with the club team, learned the sport, and got on the USA team. And then it's just been, like, traveling ever since, for the last eight years, just for fun, you know?

So who. I mean, is it on your own dime? Like, when y' all travel?

It's on my own dime, man.

Wow.

I pay to play with the USA team.

Well, does that mean I can make the team or how to.

But for me to wear USA on my chest and, oh, my gosh, sing the national anthem in Israel and Brazil and wherever, it's just, like. It's amazing for me. And I'm one of the older guys on the team, you know?

Right. It's fun. So, no, I'm with you. Anytime I can play a team event with a USA flag on the. On the sleeve. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. What a dream. Never believe it until it happens.

And I never take it for granted. Every time it happens, I'm always like.

This could be the last for sure.

It's such a physical game. He knows. It's like, guys get injured all the time. It's just like every time a tournament is done and I have everything intact, I'm like, thank goodness. You know, I get bruises everywhere, but it's like, as long as I didn't break something, I'm good.

Right? So. So my thing is, in 2010 was my first Ryder cup, and my dad was about to pass away of cancer, and so he got to. He watched me. Nine days later, he passed away. And so this year in France. Well, last year, whatever, the last Ryder cup, my mom was There. And so I hugged her when I got beat on the final day, and I said, you know, and I was crying because. Not because I got beat. I got beat many times in golf.

Right.

So that I'm used to that. But it was the emotion of, this could be my last time, and my mom, because that was the last time my dad watched me play, last time my family got to bond before he passed away. And so for me and my mom being there, it was the emotion, the crying. Everything about it was about my dad and my family because that could literally be my last one ever, really. Because you never know, Right. Because I'm getting older, you know.

How long do you expect to play for?

I mean, I expect to play for a while, but at a level to make a Ryder cup team. I mean, you're talking about the top 12.

They take 12.

They take 12 guys. There's four picks. But, you know, if I'm. If you're not in the top 30 or so in the world, you don't have a chance. Well, I mean, Tiger woods always got a chance.

Yeah.

Yeah. But I'm not. My name is Bubba Watson, so I don't have a chance. So that's what I'm saying. Just at some point, old age catches up, and you just. You're not going to these young guns nowadays, Right.

They're freaks, Right?

Right.

Because you're 40 now, right?

I'm 40 now, yeah.

And these guys are 20, 22 are coming in, and they're just like. They're training at a different level. They had coaches and trainers, sports psychologists. At 10 years old, they don't have.

Wife and kids yet. Yeah, they don't have, you know, nothing's wrong with wife and kid. It's just. It takes away from being the best.

100% energy at the game.

Right. Focused all on the game.

And most people don't know this if they're not golf fans, but you essentially taught yourself golf, right?

Yeah.

You taught yourself. You didn't have. You had like one or two coaching sessions when you were younger.

And then my dad was the only one. Let's make sure we put that out there. Right. There was no coaches ever.

No coaches. It was your dad.

Yeah. And I don't consider my dad a coach.

He was my coach.

He barely broke 100. He probably shot in the 80s a few times. So he just taught me the basics. And he said, the golf swing, if the ball is in the middle of your stance, the golf swing is about a foot and a half and a foot and a Half. So three foot is where your golf swing is because it's all about knowing where your club face is at impact. If your club face is open, the ball goes that way. Club face is closed, goes that way. So it's all knowing where your club face is.

And that simple, right? Just hit it straight down.

Just hit it straight and hit as hard as you can. That's it. And then make a putt.

That's it.

Yeah.

No big deal.

When did you realize that you had talent? How old were you? Because you were teaching yourself. You were just kind of hacking the ball around, trying to figure it out.

That's a great question. I don't really think, you know, as a kid, I think you just focus on what you're doing. And I've set in plastic balls around my house. My dad and my mom always said, like, you have stepping stones, you have a ladder. So if you can see yourself still improving every year. Won my first term at age 8. I happened to shoot 62 at age 12, I think, in a tournament. So it's one of those things where I developed. But I wasn't ever focused on, I'm better than you. I was focused on, how do I get better? So I just kept trying to get better, make more birdies. And then Payne Stewart, about age 12 is where I started realizing golf was on TV. This was before Golf Channel and stuff. And so I watched Payne Stewart, wanted to be like Payne Stewart. He stood out to me. I don't know if he won tournaments, if he lost tournaments, but I knew him because of the knickers. I always knew who that was on tv. I was like, hey, there's Payne Stewart. And so for me, that's what it was. It was. I loved the. I fell in love with the game because I saw this guy play. He stood out to me. And then obviously, I was in high school. I graduated in 97. Tiger won the Masters in 97. So he stood out to me. That baggy red sweater that he was wearing, pumping his fist on 18. Then that changed. Getting a free education in college. But then seeing these guys, guys that I played in the same junior tournaments with, winning and performing in Tiger woods, that's when I was like, okay, maybe we can do this for a living. Really, that's where basically the high school is, where I really thought living could be a chance.

How often were you training or practicing? Was it daily? For hours?

Daily, yeah. In high school, yeah. So my mom would. She'd pick me up. She took her lunch break around 2:30 to pick me up from school, she dropped me off, and then my dad would be there around 5:36 at the golf course. So I'd get nine holes in, I'd chip around, putt and chip around the practice green. And then I'd. I'd just play golf. And then they'd rotate. One would drop me off, one would pick me up. Wow. Yeah.

And how old were you with your first pro tournament?

Oh, man.

First pro tournament, gosh, I was out of school, so I had to be 24ish.

What was that feeling? Because that was the dream for many years. What was the feeling the first time?

The feeling was, were you terrified? No, actually I wasn't. Because I've never focused on money. So most of the time on mini tour golf, the minor leagues, right, it's about money. I mean, it's 15. Back then, it was about 1,500 to $2,000 just to play.

Wow.

And so when you're doing that, basically the winning check was anywhere from 10 to 20,000. So I wasn't. I was never focused on paying bills. I was never focused on anything except the next level. The PGA Tour is my level. So it wasn't about money. It wasn't about anything except getting better. So if I got better, I can make it. So there was not one time I ever had a putt or a shot where I was focused on income. I was always focused on getting better. And so money has never been. I've never hit a shot going, gosh, look at the money we could have made.

Oh, man.

So when I had a five footer to win a small event, I never focused on what this means to me. What it means to me is I'm getting better going to the next level.

Even in the Masters, you're not thinking of like, okay, if I miss this putt, I'm going to lose an extra million dollars or make an extra million.

If I make it.

No, because, I mean, at the end of the day, at the end of the day, you play your sport, right? You played football now handball. Yeah, yeah, but you played football. You're focused on super bowl, you're focused on getting a contract, right? So when I focused on the PGA Tour, I focused on getting there. I wanted that little card that said bubba Watson, PGA Tour player. That's all I cared about. And then after you get that card, then you think about a trophy. So if you poll anybody that's playing today, if you said there was no money but you have a Tiger woods, you have a chance to still win 80 events. And be one of the greatest or the greatest of all time. He's gonna say, yeah, I'm in. The money's a byproduct. So you're not really focused on that. You're focused on the trophies. And if you are focused on the money, you're probably not gonna go this way. You're gonna kind of level or the.

Pressure'S gonna be too high, probably if you're thinking about the money. So when you got the pro card, what was that like, that feeling?

I mean, it was like your driver's license, you know what I'm saying? It's exactly the same size as your driver's license. When you got that driver's license, you thought you were the man, right? And so when I got that tour card, like they literally hand you a card and it says, bubba Watson, PJ Tour player. And I remember doing my interview, the lady right next to me, Golf Channel, and she asked me, I was the last person to get it. I barely got. I was the last person to get my card that year. And she asked me, and I didn't get a word out. I cried the whole time. So she talked to me. I didn't get one word out. I nodded my head a couple times, but I cried the whole time, the whole interview. Because that was my life. My whole life leading up to that was that card. And so. And then now I have to change my goals. Right? Right. So I had to change my goals. I had a wife at that time. I still have a wife. But I mean, at that time, it was. She played professional basketball, so she was all about golf as well. So that was our dream. That was our dream together to get that card.

And so once you achieve one dream, you said you have to create new goals. Was the goal, I want to win the Masters or the goal is.

We've heard interview after interview after interview is win a tournament, get a W. So win a tournament. So after I got my card, I was like, can I win a tournament? But what I did instead of win a tournament every year, I said, 10 wins. If a person this day and age can get 10 wins, double digit wins with the talent across the world. Tiger Wood has pushed it across the world. So you're talking about young guys from every continent because of Tiger woods now. So to get 10 wins is unheard of. I thought it would be. That'd be leaps and bounds better than I could ever do. So, I mean, it took me five years to finally get my first win.

Really?

Yeah. So I started in 06. So 2010, I got my first win. And so I never thought it was going to happen. I was making. I mean, obviously we're making a living paying bills but never winning. And so I just wanted to keep winning. I wanted to. I kept going to try to win. And so to finally win was. I was like, oh, my gosh. I did it. Did I ever think I'd get to 10 wins? No. But I put it out there in my head, right? Not for the public, but for me in general. And to get that first one, I was like, oh, my gosh, I've won on the PGA Tour.

That's crazy.

I mean, a guy named Bubba from Baghdad, Florida, no lessons. I mean, you're talking about lefty, right? That you. It can't be done. And then now, sitting with you two. Two Masters, 12 wins. It's crazy.

So you've achieved.

And an Olympian, by the way. Sorry, I forgot that. Pretty good. That's pretty good.

So you've achieved the 10 win goal. Now you have to create new goals.

Right.

What's the new goal for you you've been wanting?

Well, I mean, the Progression would be 20, but as I get older, maybe 15. So 15 would be the. Would be the new goal. You know, as I get older, it kind of falls back a little bit. Yeah. But three more wins would be. Would be. I mean, gosh, I would be. Be set for life. I mean, I would be. It's already done something I never thought I could do. I mean, I want to do it. I dreamed it. But to actually go home and see 12 trophies. Wow. Is something that you could never even. And then an Olympic ring, too.

Yeah, you got the ring. Is a ring.

Oh, they give you a ring for making the Olympics.

Oh, my gosh.

That's the dream, right, Exactly. So, I mean, did you ever even.

Think you'd be an Olympian?

Because golf wasn't even in it? Because golf was never in it. Funny story. For some of us, but not for all of us. But my wife is from Canada playing basketball. 6, 3 Professional basketball. The women's Olympic team. Women's basketball team there finally made the Olympics. But my wife was hurt. She hurt her knee. So she could never be an Olympian. The one chance she had, she was on the team, had to get a new player in, so she never got to be an Olympian. And now I'm an Olympian. So it doesn't sit well in the house sometimes because she's like, you play golf like you're an Olympian. So maybe every once in a while I bring it up not in a kind way.

Now, these young guys are just so talented, Right. All these new guys are 20, 23, whatever. They train, they think a different way. Where do you think you'd be if you were 20 years younger and gone through the same training as them? Do you think you'd be better off now, or do you think you had a mentality that they never had because you didn't have the coaching, because you didn't have the trainers, because you didn't have the gym technology?

You know, it's a tough one. I would have to say I would be better off because I would look at it different. Probably wouldn't eat chocolate cake every night, you know.

Right, right, right.

And so I would probably go in the gym. I mean, I didn't go to the gym till I was 30 something, right? Wow. So I'd probably go to the gym. I'd probably look at it differently. You know, now we're looking at stats, we're looking at performance. We've got slow motion cameras, we got all this stuff that you can use. It would definitely. I'd get there quicker. You know, if I am going to be a champion, I'd probably get there a little bit faster. But the way I did it, you know, I don't have to worry about a swing thought. You know, when I'm on at&t, we all going to have nerves. But if you're trying to get into, like one of these young kids with coaches, they're trying to get to a certain position, you know, under pressure, that might be tough. But for me, I always just think, hit it there and end up over there. I don't think about my swing. I think about where I want the ball to go. And so for me, I think that's how my progression was, was just mentally understanding me as a person and understanding me as a golfer helped me. But I think getting to the gym faster, helping me under the gun, deal with nerves, breathing right and doing all those certain things that people talk about, probably would have helped me a little bit. But I don't know how much I've said it can't hurt. It wouldn't hurt me, put it that way.

Yeah. But the swing, like mechanics, is what messes a lot of people up when they're thinking too much. Sounds like you're just gripping and ripping it and you're like, I'm gonna just.

Hit it there, right? And hopefully I win. I mean, that's really what I'm doing. And I can picture here at Riviera, I can picture the trees on 18 as we sit. So I aim at those trees and just. We call, bleed it off of there, cut it off of there. And that's all I think about. I go aim at those trees and just bleed it off of there. So I'm not thinking anything else. I don't my takeaway anything. All I'm thinking about is those trees and bleed it off, cut it off of there.

That's it.

And so that's all I think about on that tee shot.

What's the routine like when they call your name or you're going up to the. To set the tee down and drive?

What.

What's the routine and the rhythm like for you? Do you have a specific pattern? Do you have a specific mindset technique? Do you breathe a certain way? Do you approach it the same way every time?

Truly, what I've changed over the last, I would say five, six years maybe, is my thought processes and focus on. I've done this many times. This is what I love doing. The Lord's put me in this position. I've been blessed to be here. So no matter if this goes out of bounds or not, what a great career I've had. Wow. Every time I'm still a golfer. I mean, yeah, you try to, you try to tell yourself that. And then as that happens, you know, we're talking about the first shot. So you're just focused on that getting in the round. And when you get in the round, your thought process changes. When I'm going down the fairway, I'm going, okay, my ball's over here on the left side, the pins on the right. Okay, is this going to be a draw on here? So I start thinking about the shot before I even get there. And then these courses that I've played year after year, okay, you can't miss it here. You. You gotta miss it over here. You gotta do this. So then your process changes in your head. But that first tee shot, you're just, you're trying to just relax yourself and hit it good, because you wanna hit a great shot, but we're all gonna mess up. You just hope your mess ups are less than all the other people's mess ups.

Not in the woods.

Yeah, right, exactly.

So you really focus on gratitude and focus on like, I'm just grateful to be here. I'm blessed to be here. Like, I'm still here. I'm playing with the best in the world. You focus on that first.

Yeah.

Do you focus on also, like, I'm here to win, you know, I'm going all out.

Truthfully, I've never focused on winning. Now the last six holes, maybe the last nine holes, yes, of the, of the 72 hole tournament. But I've never went to the tournament going, I have to win this one, I should win this one or I'm going to win this one because I can play my best golf or I can have the best attitude. I can do everything. But what if it's, what if it's a rookie, right? What if you're a rookie and you have your best rounds ever? So you beat me. I did nothing wrong, but you just had your best tournament ever. So I'm happy. So I need to be happy with what I did. And I can't focus on what you did, you know, shake your hand and say, man, you beat me. Next week we're going to do it again. And so that's where, you know, the first five years or so my childish upbringing, you know, focused on the wrong things. And so that's where my mental side changed of thinking about me as a kid again, going, this card was the most, the greatest thing that's ever happened to me in golf. And so sometimes we lose that right as an athlete, we focus on why not me, why didn't I make that putt, why didn't I win that trophy, why did I hit it in the water here instead of going, you know what, I'm just blessed to be here, looking at that PGA Tour card again.

That's cool.

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A lot it sounds like.

Yeah, it shifted a lot especially with a wife and then with kids and everything.

You adopted two kids, right?

Adopted two kids.

Y what did that do for your career when you started adopting kids and having, you know, more of a complete family as opposed to just you and your wife? Do you feel like that served you in a bigger way in your performance, or was the time and energy and thought process something that was, you know, a struggle or a challenge at times.

We've talked about because we knew from first started dating we're going to have to adopt to have a family. And so my childish ways when I first turned pro, thinking, I need this. I got to have this, and I want this. I'm practicing. Why am I not winning? And. And, you know, the mindset of, why not me? Why is everybody else winning? And I'm not hit the first five years.

Right.

Right. And I hit it further than everybody. I can do this. I can move the ball. I can do stuff that people can't do. So why am I not winning? And so it's the childish, young, and dumb, I guess you would say, you know, and then, you know, the wife standing beside me the whole time, cheering me on and trying to help me in a loving way. And then my dad getting sick in 09. We had a scare with my wife, too. Thought she was having some issues, too. So we had some scans on her head all at the same time. And so that nine months that he lived after we found out, we found out in November, throat cancer.

Is that what he did? Throat cancer?

And so that year, we were going to different doctors for her and with my dad. And then for some reason, my whole thing was about perspective. And in my head, I'm arguing that I'm not winning, but my wife's going through something. Luckily, it turned out to be nothing. My dad's going through something. My whole family's going through something. And the one bright spot for us was watching me play golf. Wow. So when I got inside the ropes, everything went away because I went back to focusing on me and the golf ball. And my family got to throw everything away and focus on watching me at a golf tournament. And so in 2010, somehow I win the Travelers, and now I'm 18th on points, trying to make the Ryder cup team. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, If I top 10 here with double points at the PGA Championship, I can make the Ryder cup team or get picked. I just won and then have another good finish, and I lose in a playoff. And so first question, they interviewed me after losing in a playoff. They said whatever they asked. Didn't matter what they asked because I could care less. I said, I'm not answering the question until, did I make the Ryder cup team? That was my comment to them. And they said, you went from 18th to third because the points doubled. So by coming in second, it doubled the points. So I went from 18 to third. So obviously I made the team. And so. Yeah, exactly. So now I get to call my dad. So now I do the interview. Who knows what the interview is about? I was like, yeah, man, I lost. I made the Ryder cup team. Who cares? And so it wasn't about money. It wasn't about career. It was about, I made the Ryder cup team. My dad gets to see me. My dad was drafted in Vietnam, so he was in the war, had some shrapnel on his back still. So there was a lot of things history there, and me getting to put the United States flag on my shoulder and represent our country. Win or lose, who cares? It was about representing our country and my dad getting to watch this. And so, I mean, there's so many things that changed my attitude around that time period. And then him passing and then winning twice the next year, and then winning in 12. I mean, so it just. I think all that freed me up and made me realize what life was about. And about. It was about that card again. It was about, this is what I wanted to do as a kid. It's not about the money. It's not about bills. It's not about this. It's not about the trophies. It was about, I made it to this one place. And so I think with the sicknesses and all the stuff going on in our family, it made me realize, man, you're going out this the wrong way. You winning. Who cares if you win? You've go. Don't have to worry about bills. You don't have to worry about anything. Your mom is taken care of now because your dad's not there. 42 years they were together and not having a man there anymore. So just all this stuff. And then in 12. So we started the adoption process in nine as well, but then we put it on hold because of my dad. So then in 12, we get this call and, do you want this. This boy? So we were like, yeah, but I'm at a golf tournament. So, like, this is. This is Wednesday morning of a golf tournament. I had to make the decision. It was Bay Hill, so I had to make the decision. But then we realized in that short time that can't leave the state of Florida because our adoption process with our lawyers wasn't all the way complete. So we had to lease a house. We had to do all these things. And so Monday, this was a Wednesday. Monday is when we picked them up. So we had to find a house. We had to find. Find furniture. We had. I mean, we had to do all this stuff. And I finished fourth. Tiger woods won, by the way. But I finished fourth. But again, why did I finish fourth? I was playing great, don't get me wrong. But I was so focused on inside the ropes, it was all about golf. And then outside the ropes, it was chaos. Wow. And so then a week and a half later, we win the masters in 12. So that's what I'm saying. Like, it just a week and a.

Half after you adopted.

After I adopted. So I was only with him. I was only with him three nights because I had to fly back to Arizona to. To do some adoption with lawyers and my home study and all this junk. Not junk, but all this stuff with it. And then I flew back to Florida. Grandparents are there now. My mom's there. Her parents came from Canada. And then I said, hey. And she looks at me and she goes, look, you're playing really good at golf right now. Go to the Masters early. So I said, okay. And my father in law from Canada's like, I'll go with him. And then my mom was like, well, look, other grandma's here. I'll go with you, too. It's Augusta. Wow. So we went to Augusta, and, you know, I win. It was just a whirlwind. But I think, again, like I said, In9 is where it hit me what's most important.

Right.

Like, I mean, you can always downsize house. You could always go to a cheaper car. You could. I mean, you could figure out a way to get a real job. Yeah. Yeah. This glamorous life of golf life when all this family stuff happened. So how blessed, truly Blessed Are you in 09? And I think that's just freed me up mentally to be like, man, if I win, that's awesome. If I lose, man, I tried my best.

Yeah.

And so I just changed. And I think that's really what changed me over those first four years of. I guess I matured in those first few years. Yeah.

Yeah.

I hate to say it. My dad's sickness changed who I am as a person in what ways. But I think it's because of how I thought about things. Not golf, golf, but other things as well. And, you know, you're using this negative as a positive, you know, changed how my mom thought. Changed how my mom saw things. Changed how my whole family saw things and did things. And so you have to use a negative to a positive. And that's what we. We try to do as a family, but I try to do.

What was the biggest lesson your dad taught you?

Oh, gosh. There's. There's a couple that stand in mind. I'm going to tell you two, because I just always change it up. But the first one was never lie. He said, I don't care how much it's going to hurt somebody, you tell the truth. He goes, because it's going to be better than not telling the truth. He always said if he found out later that I was lying to him.

He'S going to whoop your butt.

Right. We don't do that, but you'd be in more trouble. And he said, as a poor person, all you have is the truth, and if people can't trust you, then you have nothing. Wow. So I've always told the truth, wrong or right. Sometimes it might come across a little mean, but I always tell the truth. And then second one, he. Without saying a word, when he left the room, left the house, he kissed my mom goodbye. And when he came home, first thing he did kiss my mom. And so I always saw that, always remembered that. And it was a way to see that he truly loved. They truly loved each other. So now when I leave the house and come back, there's no words. I just say, bye, I love you, and give her a kiss. And then when I come back, it's a kiss before I do anything else. I don't care if the kids are screaming, dad, let's do this, let's do that. I find my wife, I give her a kiss, then I do whatever the kids want to do then. But it's something that always stuck with me. And seeing a loving couple, a loving family, no matter how upset they were at each other, they could be upset at each other, but he would kiss her goodbye before he stormed out. You know, it was one of those things where I'm leaving, but I love you, and he walked out. Right. So those are the two things that stick with me today. That. Wow. Yeah.

So he got to watch you win.

And play in the Ryder Cup?

Yeah.

Play in the Ryder Cup. He didn't get to see the Masters.

Right. He went to the Masters one time, so Boo. Weekly. He Slocum. They're from my hometown. They're five years older than me. So we didn't play in high school golf together, but we all went to the same high school.

Yeah.

So those were my idols growing up. Those are people I saw every day playing golf. And so they've won on tour, and now I've won. So us three went to the same high School. We've all won at least three times on tour, and we all made the Masters in 08.

It's crazy.

So my dad went to the Masters only in 08. I didn't make the Masters in 09. So, yeah, he got to go, but he couldn't walk. He had rheumatoid arthritis, some health issues, so he couldn't walk. So he sat behind number nine, green C18. You can see 1, 9, 18, and 10. And so, yeah, that's the only time he got to go.

Do you think you would be as successful as you are now without your dad passing?

Oh, man, that's a good question.

If he was totally healthy.

If he was totally healthy and none of this ever happened, I mean, gosh, I would, you know, let's just say no, because I think I. I spun it for me. I spun it to a positive real fast. And, you know, my wife going through a health scare. We went to many doctors, brain scans on her gland right here. So I think all of that just, you know, when you spin it, we can spin everything we want, right? We can spin it negative, we can spin it positively. And I, you know, going back to losing this playoff to win the PGA Championship, my first major, if I'd have won that, what would have happened? Would I have ever won the Master? You know what I'm saying? Like, it just spitballs, right? So I would have to say I wouldn't be as successful if my dad was still here.

What's the.

And I know that sounds negative, but, I mean, I'm just saying, like, I don't know if I would have hit maturity, the maturity button real fast.

It's interesting because I.

My dad's still alive, but he got in a really bad car accident. About, man, what Was this, like, 13 years ago? And he was in a coma for three months. We had to teach him how to walk and talk. It took. You know, he's still recovering, and he still has amnesia, and he forgets a lot. So my dad's alive, but he's not really my dad the way I used to know him. You know, the conversations are different. He's not emotionally available, really. It's not that he doesn't want to be. It's like the brain injury he had.

Right.

And I remember I used to always kind of rely on him for so much financially, you know, as a younger guy playing football in college, like, he would just take care of me. He was like, just train. I'll take care of you when you're done playing ball. Come Work with me. And when he had that injury, it was like, everything changed. And I remember thinking, like, I've got to figure this stuff out now. Like, I don't have my dad emotional support. I can't really communicate with him the same way financially. All these things changed. And I look back at him, like, if he didn't get injured, there's no way I'd be living the lifestyle, have the business. Success would be impacting people the way I do. None of this would be happening, I don't think.

Right.

And it's like, huh? I'd much rather him be healthy and available in the way that I knew him to be. But at the same side, I'm also, like, spinning it to be like. But I also get to do something greater that I probably would have never done.

Right.

It's crazy, right?

Right. For sure. I remember my dad after I won Travelers in 2010. You know, I called him. We were on the 16th hole, so I had to drive. We had to drive back to 18 after, because I won on 16. And so calling him. We didn't get a word out. We were crying, you know, and said, I loved you, and all that stuff. And the next day, I was going somewhere to another event. I called him, hey, dad, how are you doing today? You know, and because he's. At any moment, it could have. It could have happened. And so he goes, hey, are you practicing? I said, no, dad. I'm going to the tournament. I'm taking today off. He goes, you shouldn't take today off. You keep. You got to keep practicing. And that's. I remember that. Like, that's what he always said to me. I don't care how good you did. You got to keep practicing. Those other guys are practicing. And so that was. That stuck with me. When you're thinking about, like, dads and stuff, like, that's one. The very next day, I got the trophy. I got the trophy in my car, where we're going. And he's like, you practicing? Nah, Dad, I just woke up. I'm going to the next tournament. Well, they're practicing. Wow. But it was like. It wasn't mean. It was just. He was basically giving me a mindset. Look, is this it? Or you gonna. Are you gonna work harder? Are you gonna try to get another one? So that's powerful. Yeah.

How important is adversity in your life? Do you look for adversity? Because you know it's going to ultimately make you stronger and probably make you better with your mindset, you know, as a.

As A human being.

We want to play. We want to be comfortable, Right.

As a human being, I falter a lot. And I. I look at the negatives. I mean, right now, negative sales on tv, right? Not this, but everything else. And so negative sales, Right. And that's what gets the clickbait, as we want to call it. Right. And so I fall in that trap, you know, like, gosh, I just three putted, man. I'm never going to be a good putter again. I'm never going to. I hit that ball in the water. I am terrible at golf. You know, Then my kids yell at me and I'm like, man, I'm a terrible dad. Yeah. Then my wife looks at me, I'm like, I'm a terrible husband, you know? So, like, you always look at that. Now if you look six months ahead, you forget all about what happened because you got other issues, you got other things going, right? Or it could be positive in six months, that could be another win. Or it could be a birthday of a child, whatever it is. But you forgot all about that last six months. And so I don't look for adversity. I don't want adversity. But when you think about it, what you're going through is minor because there's somebody always going through worse. And whatever that situation, somewhere in the world, there's somebody going through worse, and you can find them real fast who's going through worst. And so for me, I don't look for it, but, yeah, I mean, if you look deep when you think you're going through something really bad, you can definitely spin it to a positive real fast, too.

Yeah. What has being a dad taught you about being a better golfer and being a better human?

Oh, my gosh. Just alone. I mean, now with YouTube and people wanting to get their phones out and. And make fun of you and the commentators wanted to tell you how you're yelling at people. I gotta change my tune real fast. You know, golf is the one place where I'll use a word that you shouldn't use real fast. And with this day and age, with cameras and catch everything, and if you're gonna call yourself a Christian. Don't get me wrong by calling myself a Christian doesn't mean I'm perfect.

You're not a perfect human being.

No. I don't know about you, but I'm.

Not perfect at all.

But that's what I'm saying. So, like, for me, I'm not perfect, and so that's why I need help. But my child, both Now, Dakota doesn't really know TV and YouTube yet or any of that stuff, but Caleb's starting to understand it and getting what we're talking about. And so for me, knowing he could be looking or years down the road, this is going to be sitting on the web somewhere. It helped me again, like in 2009. It helped me focus on catching myself, trying to be better. Golf is the one that always brings it out. There's no other time I can think of in my life where I want to just freak out.

So frustrating, right?

Right, Exactly. It's unbelievable. And I'm probably thankful that my son's not into golf yet because he'll probably freak out, too.

But do you feel like you're more under control now than five or ten years ago with your reactions when something doesn't go as planned?

Oh, for sure. I'm definitely better. That doesn't mean I'm good, you know? You know, my thing is, I always joke about is if you were doing something wrong 100 times a day, right. The next day on Tuesday instead of Monday, you down in 99. You've improved. I'm never near perfect at 99 bad things, but if I can improve, if we go six months from now, man, you're down to 95 bad things. We've improved. And I'm not saying this improvement is going to happen overnight or you're never going to be the perfect human being. But my goal was to try as hard as I can. And if my trying lets my kid or my kids or my friends or my wife for that matter, improve their own self, then we're doing something in the right direction. Yeah.

What's your biggest. We'll call it a flaw or thing you need to work on in your marriage as a father and as a golfer.

That's simple. They all work together. I need to read more, because reading, for me personally, it's the mental part. Right. It's to be clocked in. When I'm on the road. I want to play video games because I want to space out Fortnite. I don't play. I play Call of Duty only Call of Duty. I want to get the headset on and yell at my friend. I'm not.

You could swear there.

Right, Right. I don't. I don't.

Because they record that, too.

I'm so good in that I don't remember myself. Golf is the only. Golf is a bad sport. It's a great sport, but it's very bad for everybody. So I want to space out. And then when I get home, a lot of times I focus on. When I'm at home, I focus more on golf. Man, look at all these guys playing this week. Why am I taking this week off? The weather's perfect over there, you know. And then when I'm on the golf course, I'm like, oh man, I wish I was with my kids. I wish I was with my wife. And so by reading more, reading these books more, reading the Bible more, it shows you and teaches you, it makes you focus on the positive instead of the negative. And a lot of times I focus on the negative. And so I believe all of that helps me in life. And I think over the last. Gosh. I read my first book recently. Gosh, what's the name of it? I don't know. But anyway, it's 300 pages. It took me about three months to get through it. 20 minutes a day. I gave myself 20 minutes a day. So I woke up 20 minutes early and started reading. Man, it took me forever to understand the book.

What was it about?

It was about just life. Gosh, what's the name of the book? I'm gonna. I'm terrible. That's how bad I am at reading.

Tell me later.

Yeah, right, exactly.

So reading more, reading more. What will reading?

Truthfully, it's a boring message, but I want to read more about Christ centered stuff. I want to focus on being a better person. The Bible tells you to love all people. So if you love all people, you're not gonna honk the horn when somebody cuts you off. It was funny. I heard that today. I honked it for at least a minute and a half in la. Oh my gosh, it was fun. I was like, yes, I'm better than that person. No, that's not what I was meant to say. But no, it's just the thing. If you love all people and you're focused on helping other people and not worried about the self centeredness of myself, what can you do for me? Right? A lot of times we go into that mindset. When I say we, me go into that mindset and I got to focus more on my wife. If I'm focused on my wife and making her happy and she was reading the same book and she's focused on making me happy, what a relationship that would be. And I think I'm the one that's lacking in that part. And so to get better there, my kids will see that. They're going to feel the energy, they're going to see it. We're going to be a light for them. And so that helps there and then with the right processes in the game of golf, the same help and all this other stuff is going to help me in golf. It's going to relax me. And if that means losing every week, but enjoying the game that I truly do love, I mean, I play it every day at home. So what is a trophy going to do for me except right on my mantle, you know what I'm saying? So, like, truthfully, the book, the reading, the things that I want to read are going to help me in all areas of life. Is it going to win me more tournaments? I can't tell you that answer. But it's not going to hurt me.

Yeah.

To think better.

Yeah.

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When do you feel the most loved in your life?

Paul When I feel the most loved. Oh man. I can't answer that question, but I can answer it this way at church. I just served for the first time at my church and it was, all it was was at the preschool desk, Sunday school, so the kids can go to Sunday school or their little classes, we'll call it Sunday school. And the parents go up to the sanctuary and listen to the message. And for me, checking them in and then taking the kids to their little classes. And the pastor's, he's a new pastor, young pastor, has three kids, but his wife is away. And so he's a man trying to take care of three kids and trying to lead the church, right? Yeah, he's 36 years old. And so we happened to park because I was going to serve, me and my wife were going to serve. And so I said, hey man, you need some help? Yes, I do. I mean, the kids hairs were everywhere, so I took them and me and my wife took them. And so truly I felt more love then, but I think it's more of a satisfaction for me.

But being in service, you mean?

Right, Being in service and helping, it's not like I don't think there's anything you can do that makes me feel more loved. It's me really just doing it myself. That sounds really bad, but it's more what I, how I can use my platform. God has given me this platform and how do I use it? And, and making a smile on somebody's face shows me love in general because I helped him. And like the pastor was like, yeah, man, can you help me? I gotta go get the message ready. I gotta get this stuff ready. Yeah man, I'll take your kids. And so we took them. And so him just going, yeah man, you can help. So he didn't even give me like a real smile. And so that made me feel like I was doing something, doing a part to help somebody in a small way. But it just, it was, you know, my wife telling me she loves me and my wife always being there cooking meals and making sure everything's right. Making sure I get my 12 hours of sleep at a golf tournament. Yeah, I feel love, don't get me wrong. But we actually talked about it after the church service. It was, I was like, man, how much better do you feel serving? We just became members of the church. It was the first time we could serve, be a part of the church. And so it was, it was an eye opening experience, but a fun experience. We. So I don't know how to answer this question.

When was this?

This is actually yesterday. Yesterday yeah.

So you're 40 years old.

I didn't know when this aired, so I didn't want to let you know. It's like playing time.

It does. So you're 40 years old.

Nobody's watching this anymore.

You're 40 years old.

Right.

You don't feel, this is fascinating to me that your answer wasn't, I don't know. After I win the Masters and everyone's celebrating me and the trophy and everyone's interview and money and checks and love and hugs, you said when I was serving a couple of preschool kids and the church.

Because, you know, truthfully, it's. I look at life differently, I grew up differently. Right. I don't know how some people grew up, but some people grew up. They have to be the best, they have to be the greatest. And as we've seen in many sports and many businesses, there's been trying to use advantages to get to a level. Right. Because of big contracts.

Yeah.

But I've never been motivated by the money. I've never been. Nobody's ever going to dangle money in front of me and say, bubba, do you want to do this?

No.

I've turned down big deals. I've turned down traveling out of the country for big deals because that's not what motivates me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to turn down a check if you're handing it out, but that's not what motivates me. And as I've had the kids and my wife and the things we've been able to accomplish and be a part of and help the Masters helps me personally, because again, as a kid I wanted to win it. And I think after I won in 12, I think my quote was, I've never dreamed this far.

Wow.

Because now we're in the media and all these people are looking at me, waiting for my great advice I'm about to give the world. Right. But my dream as a kid, you're making a 10 foot putt to win the Masters and that's all you. As a 12 year old, you don't know about money, fame, social media at that time, because social media wasn't even out at that time. Yeah, big house, more debt. I mean, you don't think about all this stuff. More family members that call you, hey, want something, Right? And so your dream ends. You're catching a touchdown pass, you're throwing a touchdown pass to win and that's it. You win the super bowl, that's it. You don't go past that.

That's your dream, right?

Or I didn't. I didn't think about a car. I didn't think about this, a house or that or that, or a boat. I thought, win the Masters, my life is set. That's what I dreamed about. And so when I did win it, I realized that dream doesn't work out the same way I had it in my head. And so that's why I don't feel like people telling me how great I am on social media. People tell me how great I am on the Golf Channel or espn. I don't listen to it. I don't want to be too positive, too high, don't want to be too low. I want to just stay right here. My goal is to win as many tournaments as I can for my own self, not for you or anybody else. So, yeah, I don't really feel love after a. Because Monday morning they're off to the next tournament. They're focused on who's going to win the next one.

That's right.

They'll dog me just as fast as I see.

I know.

You lose the next one, they say, oh, it was a fluke.

Yeah, he just got lucky. Yeah.

So is this a new awakening or a new awareness that yesterday this happened, or is this something you've been doing for a while, like serving other people, whether it be the church or using your platform for good and feeling that sense of love and connection to something greater?

I've always tried to help charity wise.

I remember donated a lot for hospitals and other charities.

Yeah. And even starting out, when I was first on the mini tours, I didn't have any money. Right. I had a pocket change, but it was my first job ever, so I thought I was rich, you know what I'm saying? A couple thousand bucks in my bank account. And so I used to sponsor a little college tournament, a women's college golf tournament in my hometown. And it was two grand. And you talking about $2,000. I was like, you know what? I'm gonna do it. And so like, I just did it. And I did it for years until they canceled the tournament. So for me, it was, it was, it's something I've always done, but like starting to serve and serve in a community. And I wanted. I moved back to my hometown because I wanted to be part of the town. I didn't want to be Bubba Watson. I wanted to be a citizen. I wanted to be part of this town. I wanted to get involved in this town. And like you said, the hospital, the children's hospital came up and I wanted to be a part of it. How do I move back? It was a two year process to move back home. And how do you do that? How do you get involved with the city? How do you try to give back as much as the city gave to me? And when I say that the city raised me, the city, city of Pensacola, when I say Pensacola, it's Santa Rosa in Escambia County, Milton, Baghdad, Pace, Pensacola, they all raised me. There was somebody at that time that paid for these tournaments that I could play for free or for small amounts of money that my parents could afford. So when I think about that now as a golfer or as a. Not as a golfer, I want to give back. And my profession just happens to be a golfer. But so I give back to the game of golf, the children's hospital, different organizations around the country, around the world that we've been involved in. It's been a dream. And that the master's is personal. But don't get me wrong, I know that that Master's win helps me and my platform, giving and being involved in organizations that give back. And now with the adoption that we've been talking about, adoption processes that we went through, the struggles, the happiness, the sadness, and that's why we teamed up now with Jockey, is to be a part of that, with the adoption stories that they have from their own family and company to help. And so this is just another avenue for us to get our word out and use our platform from the right way to impact lives. And so that means more to me. My business side of winning golf tournaments does help the platform and helps the money side and everything, but it's. It's only a personal gain to get that jacket or get a trophy.

It's nice, though, but.

Yeah, yeah, right. It's nice, but I, I've never been in my room and when people come over and be like, hey, you want to go see my trophy? You know what I'm saying?

Like, I don't.

I don't do it now if they ask, I mean, yeah, let's go look at the master's trophy. I mean, I have one master's trophy at the University of Georgia. That's cool. It's in the golf room, the golf locker room down at the golf course. So they have it there on display again, because by seeing that trophy, maybe one of the Georgia guys gets inspired, you know, maybe he turns out to be the world's greatest golfer of all time. He gets inspired because he saw the trophy, but then he gives back using his Platform. I mean, Tiger woods is Phil Mickelson. I mean, we can see Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer. Their golf is great. But what they've been able to impact off the course.

Yeah.

Is mind blowing and is amazing.

Now, what are you doing with jockeying specifically right now? What's that partnership been like?

Well, I mean, I'm an underwear model now, so I like it, man. Yeah. Who doesn't want that? Right? I can tell everybody I'm an underwear model. I'm not in shape as all the other ones, but, man, I'm there.

Yeah, man.

Again, like I said, the adoption process, it's about how do we. The foundation is all about helping them. And right now the campaign is show me what's underneath or show them what's underneath. Sorry. So for me, it's our story, me and my wife's story.

So not exactly show them what's underneath.

Right. It's showing what's underneath and about helping these kids. Right. A kid is not asked to be in a situation. You know, all of our families, they're somewhere down the line. In the history of our families, there's been some situations, right? And so for us, our two kids alone, we want to teach them about their family. The birth moms, we don't know the birth dads, but we know the moms. And so the right time and the right moment when they're 18 or older, I will help them meet their parents. I guess not their parents, but their birth mom if they want to. It's their choice. It's totally fine. I want to teach them about their family and how much they were loved, and that's why this happened. And so. But what Jockey's doing and what they're passionate about and for good reason, is that the adoption process doesn't stop when the kid comes home with you, because there's going to be questions. Now, what do I do? There could be mental problems when you tell them what happened. There's a lot of things that could happen behind the scenes that people don't think about. You just think about the adoption and, oh, it's beautiful. You know, my son's running around. It's a beautiful story. But there's other things that could happen, might happen, but then there's other things for, like me in general as the parent is how do I, you know, I need somebody to talk to. You've been through this. Tell me the insight. How do I break the story? How do I deal with this? How do I show love to him? How do I teach him and not get upset if he wants to go see his mom or how do I. There's a lot of unanswered questions that we haven't even dealt with yet. But at the same time, our inspirational story, I think it's inspirational we tell them so that maybe there is a family that's going, you know what? Maybe we should adopt a child and help a child in need. Because back in the 80s, 70s, even adoption was not talked about very much.

Right?

It was from my side. I've never been tested to see if I could have a kid, but we knew for a fact my wife couldn't have kids. And so I've never been tested. I mean, I could be not able to have a kid, but from the man's side, just because that's the side. I know. I mean, it would be tough, especially, you know, the old. In the old days when people would be like, oh, you can't have your own kid. You know, people. Those nasty jokes that people would say to you. And so I think we're trying to shine a light on this. And I think there's celebrities all over the world that have done this in a beautiful way about adopting. And the adoption is not just for you. It's for helping a child that could be the president of the United States one day, could be a doctor, it could be cures, something. It could be anything. And so that's really our story. That's why we wanted to get on board so we can help. But then it also, I think it's helping us more because of the fact that these events that Jockey does is we get to sit there and listen to families and shed tears with families, talking about their story and their ups and downs and our ups and downs and how much they truly match up. Doesn't matter what you do in life, no matter how high of a celebrity people think you are, you have the same issues as they're going through. So Jockey, what they're doing right now in their initiative, I get to be an underwear model. But for them, it's building these bridges to match people up, no matter where you are in life, that you have other people going through the same issues and you're trying to work together. And I think it's a beautiful love story about our world. Right? We should all be trying to help, and all we're doing is just trying to help kids. We wanted a family, but at the same time, we're learning so much more from our kids and from Jockey and what they're trying to create than we could ever Imagine, it was all about us. It was selfish, right? We want a family. But then we're looking at this going, gosh, man, how much are we going to learn from this? How much better are we going to be as a couple and as a family learning from this, from these beautiful kids that were. Were so loved that they were given up for adoption. Wow.

I love the way you reframe it. They were so loved they were given up for adoption.

Right. My wife says it best that they were born in somebody else's womb. They were knitted in somebody else's womb and given to us. And so for us, it's. I mean. And like I tell Caleb, I read to him, I say prayers with him every night, and Angie's with. And so for us, we pray with him. And I always try to explain to him, I was like, one day you're going to realize how blessed and how lucky we all are in this situation. Because at six years old, he doesn't understand yet. But he started asking a few questions because some random people will walk up, go, oh, is this your adopted son? And my son's like, what's adoption? I'm like, oh, gosh, why do y' all have to say stuff like that? But, yeah, so, no, I mean, it's a. It's a. For us personally, the inspirational story of our kids. What we're gonna learn from them is way more than what they're gonna learn from us, you know, especially if they see YouTube and me being angry.

I'm not a parent, but I know being a parent is challenging in its own way. Do you think being a parent who's adopted kids is even more challenging? If so, what's the differences?

The only challenge that I've seen right now is, you know. Cause we can talk to her parents, we can talk to my mom about their upbringing, Right? Cause they had their kids, and so they had us, and so we can talk to them about the upbringing. But the only challenge for us so far has been every time we've adopted, we've had about a week, maybe a little bit less than a week to prepare. But if you have nine months. If you have nine months to get. And get your friends and your family to buy all your gifts, you know? But we don't have nine months, you know, like in Florida, like, he couldn't leave Florida. So the Masters is coming up. I was playing good. I won twice the year before. So they're going to be like, why is your wife not here, bubba? So we had to come out and say, We've adopted this child, can't leave the state right now, and blah, blah, blah. And so that was the only challenge that I've seen that's different from having your own child to adoption. And in red tape, right? Like the tape of taking this child home, the government asking questions. You can have your own child without any questions asked.

Right, right.

But then having a. You have to show that you're in love. You have to show that you're going to be a loving home. I don't know how you show that. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's. How do you. And then when they want to see my bank account, I didn't get that. But, you know, there's a lot of things that you're like, why do you need to see my bank account? Because people can have babies without any money.

Poor bro.

And so it just. A lot of it didn't make sense to us, but in the very end product of this whole thing, it's well worth it. Yeah, but it was. So that would be. The only difference is that we didn't have the nine months to prepare.

So a couple questions left for you. But before I get into those questions, what can people do to be a part of this campaign or to. If they're looking to adopt, what do you recommend?

Well, I think you would just look up Jockey. I mean, you go to jockey.com or you'd go to Jockey's foundation website. We were selling bears for a while, and we probably still are. And these bears, all the money goes back to the foundation. And it's all about encouraging people with the adoption and then encouraging people that have adopted to get involved so you can have a shoulder to cry on. You're part of it.

So there's a community.

It's a community you're trying to create. They're trying to create a community and a beautiful community. That's. That's all trying to do the same thing is. Is and help these kids. That's right. And. And then help families dealing with situations. That's the easiest way to look up Jockey. Look up Jockey foundation and go that way and go that route and whatever you want to give, I don't care if it's a dollar, it's still. You're given to try to help as much as you can.

That's cool. That's cool. This question is called the Three Truths.

Three truths. I ask. I can't lie.

Dang it.

I know, right? I ask this at the end of every interview.

Can I change that one Thing. Yeah, I do lie.

So imagine this is your final day on Earth. At some point, at some point, you're going to have to pass on and move on to the next phase of wherever we go. Right? You can be as old as you want.

Perfect.

You can be 500 years old.

Oh, but it's a lot longer than today.

Exactly. Eventually you get to choose the day. It's the final day, okay? You've accomplished everything you want. The pro card was all you wanted. But then you've done so much more. You've seen your family blossom and do everything they want to create. You've lived the life of your dreams, but it's your last day.

Gosh, I feel like I'm dying now.

This is many years from now, many years from now.

It's your last day.

And for whatever reason, all of your trophies and videos and content that you've put out in the world, it has to go with you. So no one has access, unfortunately, to all the swear words on the videos and everything else. Right. But you get to leave behind a piece of paper that you write down three truths on, three things, lessons or ideas or truths that you would want the world to remember you by and your experience in your life by. So what would be your three truths?

You know, this is a lot deeper than my education, so I gotta figure this out. Does it matter how long the sentence is on this truth? Perfectly.

You can tell a whole story if.

You want to, right? Perfect. I'll tell the whole story. First one would have to be the Bible. And the reason why I believe in the Bible so much and why I think this is important to this is because I don't care if you're a believer of Jesus God. I think if you look at this Bible, the Bible gives us a plan. I'm an athlete, so I'll say game plan of life. If you believe the Bible and you believe in Jesus, great. If you don't, it still gives you a. If you read the stories, gives you a game plan how to treat people. So number one is the reading the Bible. Believer or non believer, that doesn't matter to me. It's the game plan of life that can teach you. Love all people, follow the laws of this land. But the main one is love all people. If you treat everybody with love and respect, non believer or believer, the world's a better place. So I think it's a perfect game plan. The Bible teaches you a perfect game plan. Okay, so number one, Number two, Truth. Oh, man, there's some funny ones I want to say, but I'll get blessed. So I'm not going to say always tell the truth. We've been dealing with some stuff about people stretching the truth lately. We'll say it that way. So we've been dealing with that lately back home. And so I'd say, always tell the truth. Always. And then number three would be, I would say, no matter what you accomplish, there's more you could have did. And that's about me. If I passed away today, there was more I could have done. When I say did, but could have done. And like I said, I could have got off the Xbox and read more, which would have accomplished number one. Would have got me to love people more. Right. Get off this anger kick when somebody drives in front of you and you want to honk the horn. So I just think that you could accomplish more. I don't feel like you can sit back and go, I did everything I could possibly do. I think that there's always more you could have did. So that would be my third one is like, whenever you think you've reached your goals, you hadn't reached them. You could have did better. And that's another way of pushing yourself. Yeah.

Those are powerful truths, man.

I don't know if they're truths, but that's what's going on in my crazy head.

I like it, man.

I like it. Exactly.

Before I ask the final question, where can we connect with you the most online? How else can we support you? Where do you hang out the most? Instagram, Twitter, Facebook.

Instagram and Facebook, obviously. But Instagram is a big one right now, right? Yeah, yeah.

You're on there. You're hanging out. Some people, they can connect with you.

There and, yeah, for sure.

Send a message about the interview that they're listening to.

Yeah, for sure.

It's just Bubba Watson.

There's. Yep.

All one word.

Cool.

Anything else we can do to support you besides cheering you on? The tournament's coming up.

The only way to truly support me was just pray.

Okay.

Just be thankful or be thinking of me. It starts with being. The first thing is first is being a better husband. The better I can be as a husband, the better she can be as a mom, and the better our family can be. So that's really it. And like I said, people will never believe me, but I love the game of golf. But professional golf, like, I have just as much thrill beating you at my home course as I do beating Tiger woods at the Masters. Right. Like, it's just. I just love the game of golf. I Love sports. And so for me, it's. The game of golf is great, but I'd rather be known as a Hall of Fame husband and a Hall of Fame dad than a Hall of Fame golfer. Wow.

That's pretty cool. Before I ask the final question, I would acknowledge.

I thought the last one was a final question.

No, I said I got one more, but I wanted to support you and see what you wanted to share. Before I ask the final question, I want to acknowledge you, Bubba, for all your wisdom, for constantly.

Let's don't. Let's. You know what? Let's keep it at that. Let's keep it at that. Yeah. Wisdom.

All your wisdom, because you've been. You've gone through a lot of different challenges, and you've had a lot of successes. And to hear you say you want to be a Hall of Famer husband and dad over your career or over your sport, the thing you love the most or something you love very much, for me, that speaks very highly of you. And I acknowledge your constant growth, your constant commitment to being a better husband and a better father. And, yeah, man, I'm just inspired by you as a person. So thank you for sharing your truth with us and for all that you do for the world. This is the final question.

All right, here we go.

What's your definition of greatness?

Definition of greatness? Definition of greatness. Well, it's hitting a hook shot out of the trees about 2012. Oh, man. Definition of greatness. I would have to say I can think of people that I think are great people in my life, and truly what they are is selfless. They always ask how you're doing. They always want to know how you're doing, and they mean it. You know what I'm saying? So I'd have to say what popped in my eyes as soon as you said that was selfless. Selfless acts over and over from an individual, that would be greatness. But I don't really think greatness can be achieved because, like I said, I just think we underachieve as people. We're so focused on ourselves that we don't really do as well as we can, because it's all about us. The other people in this world, I can't vouch for. But for me, personally, my whole life has been about me. Golf is about you. Right? It's about the individual. It's not about anybody else. And so I've been focused on myself for 40 years of my life. So I gotta. That's what I'm trying to change. And be better at. So I think greatness would be selfless for me. Greatness is selfless and not one care of yourself and focus on the people around you.

That's right.

Yeah.

You're the man. Thanks, brother.

Yeah, man. Appreciate it, man. Thanks for having me.

There you have it, my friends. I hope you have been rejuvenated with greatness in your life today after listening to this interview. If you have, make sure to share with your friends. Text one friend who you think this would this would resonate with. Text them right now and say, hey guys, check out this interview. You can take the link from the podcast app. You can just copy and paste that link. You can put it in your text message. You can tweet it. You can tag a friend on Instagram, you can send them the link to the show notes lewishouse.com/761 you can watch the full video interview there over on YouTube as well. We've got all of Bubba's information linked up over there, so make sure to check it out again. Lewishouse.com 761 Bubba Watson, people's champion. The man, the myth, the legend. Super exciting. All right, guys, I've been so pumped. We had an amazing interview. If this is your first time here, we had a big interview at the beginning of the week with Terry Crews. Go listen to that episode. Over the last few weeks, we have some big people on on the show. Robin Sharma was a huge interview for.

A lot of people.

We did a one on relationships where I open up about all my relationship past, the things I've learned, the mistakes I've made, the lessons, sharing all that as well. And we've got some big interviews coming up. I'm so pumped for you guys. We've just been diving in so deep with these conversations and I love every one of them. The people we bring on are vetted. They're people that are inspiring the world. They're people that have gone through real life experiences and I believe they can share real life practical lessons and advice on how to optimize your life to take it to the next level again. If you enjoyed this, make sure to share with a friend. Leave us a review. Subscribe on the podcast, on itunes, Spotify or anywhere else. You're listening. And as Doris Day said in the beginning, gratitude is riches, complaint is poverty. What are you doing today? Are you living a rich life by being grateful and expressing your gratitude? Or are you living in poverty by constantly complaining of what you don't have? Reflect on that as we end this episode. And as always, you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.

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