Mark Cannizzaro

Mark Cannizzaro

Sports

Two-time Masters champ Bubba Watson no fan of TPC Sawgrass

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Bubba Watson has a score to settle this week — with The Players Championship and with the TPC Sawgrass.

“Me and the golf course,’’ Watson said Tuesday, “don’t see eye to eye.’’

Entering this week’s Players, the reigning Masters champion, who won his second green jacket, has played Sawgrass six times, missed three cuts and his top finish was a tie for 37th, which he did twice. He’s played 18 competitive rounds, broken par six times and is a total of 8-over par.

“I haven’t played very well around here,’’ said Watson, who is playing this week for the first time since winning his second Masters last month.

Watson went on to say — sarcastically — he’s “on a streak,’’ noting, “I made the cut the last two [times he has played — tied for 45th in 2011 and tied for 37th last year], so maybe a 36th this year, and I get my best tournament ever here.’’

Watson, raising some eyebrows and ruffling some feathers, skipped the Players Championship after he won his first Masters in 2012, opting to spend more time with his wife and their newly adopted son.

It was difficult to lambaste him for that decision, because family always should come first. There always will be another Players Championship, but a first child is a first child.

Nevertheless, Watson candidly conceded he was perhaps a little “selfish’’ after winning that first Masters.

“I think the last time, if it’s selfish or whatever, I thought I was the coolest guy in the world. I have a green jacket,’’ Watson said. “This time, my life has changed.’’

Watson is one of the more complicated players on the PGA Tour.

He’s as eccentric as anyone, wearing his imperfections on his shirt sleeves like sponsorship logos.

He can come off as engaging, and small-town down-home when he speaks of his background growing up in tiny Bagdad on the Florida panhandle. Former Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes, who grew up with Watson, once raved about him to me during a conversation before the Super Bowl in 2012.

Watson’s closest friends on the PGA Tour are fellow players in a Bible-study group, while others in the locker room view him as aloof and arrogant.

He can come off as genuine and engaging — such as Tuesday afternoon when he headlined a press conference to promote “airweave,’’ a portable mattress top from Japan that he uses. While speaking about his friendship with the owner of the company, which began at a 2012 dinner in Thailand, he jokingly said he refers to the gentleman as “Mr. Airweave’’ because his last name is difficult to pronounce.

But Watson also can come off as disingenuous.

I have been told stories by amateur players who have been paired with him in pro-ams before PGA Tour events about how he played 18 holes without speaking to his pro-am partners, people who spent thousands (going to charities) to play in the event.

Before the Masters, while discussing the aftermath of his first Masters win, he did not come off well while complaining about having to sign his autograph on so many of those yellow Masters flags — a problem most players would kill to have.

Watson, though, sounds like a man who is trying to be better.

“I didn’t like all the attention before,’’ he said. “Now, I think I’m just prepared for it, know how to handle it.’’

For this week, how he handles TPC Sawgrass will serve as one of the tournament’s compelling subplots. Watson, currently ranked No. 4 in the world, can take over the No. 1 spot with a solo second-place finish or better — as long as Adam Scott (No. 2) does not win.

“My best finish is 37th,’’ Watson said in full self-deprecating mode. “So unless 37th moves me to No. 1, we probably don’t need to worry about that.’’

Players Championship picks

JORDAN SPIETH: This is his first Players Championship, but he tied for second in his first Masters last month. Talent is talent, regardless of where it is playing. A Spieth victory at Augusta, which nearly became reality, would have had the golf world buzzing in its aftermath.

MATT KUCHAR: He won this tournament in 2012 and always seems to be in contention. Look for Kuchar, who has been in good form this year, to be a factor.

DAVID LINGMERTH: Who? Exactly. The way the PGA Tour is trending this season, obscure winners are all the rage. Lingmerth would be a good sleeper pick, considering, as a first-timer here a year ago, he finished second to Tiger Woods.