AUGUSTA, Ga. — Bubba Watson said he doesn’t remember the last few holes.
“I just remember hanging on,’’ he said Sunday night, cozily wrapped in his second Masters green jacket. “All I thought about was: ‘Make pars, make pars.’ ’’
So that’s what he did. He hung on. Watson made pars on the final six holes to clinch his second Masters title in the last three years. There were no fireworks on the back nine this time as there were two years ago when he won in a playoff. There were no miraculous bend-it-like-Beckham shots out of the woods, off pine straw to the green to clinch victory.
Just six pars down the stretch and no one in the field making a serious charge at him.
It was that kind of underwhelming week at the 78th Masters — a rare, flat, nondescript week with no real memorable pop to it — with no Tiger Woods, who is recuperating from back surgery, and with Phil Mickelson having missed the cut along with a private jet full of the game’s other stars.
No matter to Watson, though. He cried just as hard this time as he did when he won in dramatic fashion two years ago.
“It’s overwhelming to win twice,’’ Watson, the 2012 winner, said. “A small-town guy named Bubba now has two green jackets. The first one was a dream come true. The second one is icing on the cake.’’
Watson, who shot a 3-under-par 69 in the final round to finish 8-under for the week, overcame a game 20-year-old Masters rookie named Jordan Spieth, who you’ll hear a lot more about in the coming months and years, beating him by three shots. Jonas Blixt also finished 5-under, one shot ahead of Miguel Angel Jimenez.
Watson seized the tournament by outplaying Spieth, who entered the day tied for the lead and was trying to become the youngest Masters winner ever, on a few key holes.
The first moment came on No. 4, where, after Spieth holed out a bunker shot for birdie, Watson sank his birdie putt. The second came on No. 6, where he again topped a Spieth birdie with one of his own. With those putts, Watson kept pace with Spieth, who was leading.
Then the true turning point of the day came on the eighth and ninth holes, where Watson turned a two-shot deficit into a two-shot lead that he would never relinquish with birdies on both holes while Spieth bogeyed both.
“It was a huge change,’’ Spieth said. “Two two-shot swings in a row, that’s very hard on this golf course to come back from. It stings right now. I’ve worked my whole life to lead the Masters on Sunday.
I had it in my hands and I could have gone forward with it.’’
When it was over, Spieth, who looks like golf’s next big thing, handled defeat with the grace of a veteran and vowed to be back.
Perhaps Sunday was just too soon for him.
“Although it’s a little hard right now, I will be back and I can’t wait to be back,’’ Spieth said.
When Watson hugged Spieth on the 18th green, he told him, “You’re a great talent, you’re a guy that’s going to have many more opportunities.’’
There was one moment on the back nine that looked like it had a chance to define this Masters — to ignite it. It came when Watson, seemingly recklessly, went for the green with a shot through the trees and over water from 196 yards on the par-5 15th hole while protecting a three-shot lead.
Watsons caddie, Ted Scott, often refers to “Bubba Golf.’’ Asked how he would describe it, Scott said, “Freak show.’’
When the two walked up the 18th fairway with the crowds lining the hole roaring, Scott said this to his Watson: “Are you from Mars or something? Because I don’t believe that you can hit these shots that you hit.’’
Watson could have brought Spieth and some other players on the leaderboard back into the tournament had he posted a big number on No. 15, but he averted disaster by finding land behind the green with the approach shot and making par while Spieth was unable to birdie and close the gap.
Because of Watson’s uncanny talent (remember that carved 8-iron out of the woods off the pine straw and onto the green on No. 10, the second playoff hole that won him his first green jacket in 2012?), he pulled it off and put the tournament to sleep, where it had been for much of the week.