Everything About Bubba Watson Is Marketing Gold
CNBC Sports Business Reporter
Fifteen minutes before we are going on air, Bubba Watson is politely asking our makeup person Mary Ann what she is doing combing his hair.
“I don’t need that,” Watson tells her. “I’m Bubba, Masters champion, that’s how my hair looks.”
That, in a nutshell, is what makes Bubba Watson the most refreshing golfer on the PGA Tour, in a long time. Nah, make that ever.
Named Gerry (pronounced Gary) for mere seconds before his father gave him the name Bubba because he looked like a football player, Watson might be the perfectly created marketing machine because he represents something so different from the norm.
He’s happy to be Bubba (“Gerry is boring) and, whether he knows it works for marketing or not, that’s who he is.
“I haven’t changed who I am, who my character is or what I do on and off the golf course,” Watson said on CNBC. “I’m Bubba, for me it’s just natural.”
Even though he was in his very formal fitted Masters green jacket, he wanted to play before the interview.
So he asked if he could slip behind the anchors as they were going to break.
Save for John Daly, it has hard for the average golfer to see themselves in a professional golfer.
Watson, though, is a different story. His club sponsor, PING, was pushed to make pink drivers after so many had asked for them following Watson’s Masters performance using the odd shade.
Don’t be surprised if companies that never advertised in golf take a chance on Bubba.
