Fun-loving Bubba Watson plays down his 'big dog' status at Ryder Cup
American star says he won't be 'goofy' as Europe have him firmly in their sights in Scotland
Bubba Watson played down his newly acquired "big dog" epithet and said he was ready to curb his exuberance if he felt it could help his American team deal with what is likely to be a red-hot Ryder Cup atmosphere this week.
Earlier in the day, United States captain Tom Watson said the big-hitting two-times Masters winner would probably be the man the Europeans would most like to beat, just as his team have their crosshairs firmly fixed on Ian Poulter.
Both players have revelled in the noisy atmosphere of the Ryder Cup, particularly in 2012 when they positively encouraged the crowd to keep on cheering right through their swings when they squared off in a memorable foursomes event.
I'm just here to play golf, make some putts. But you know, the Ryder Cup brings out a different audience sometimes and people who might not play golf
Despite both players missing their fairways with their opening drives, they continued to gee up the crowd all the way round the Medinah course.
"When you're at home, you can do other things and be goofy, but when you're away, you don't want to do anything like that, even though we had some fun a couple of years ago with getting the crowd revved up," Watson said.
"I'm just here to play golf, make some putts. But you know, the Ryder Cup brings out a different audience sometimes and people who might not play golf. So for us it was about how you're going to try to grow the game.
"So I thought that making it fun instead of a six-hour round would be my way of doing it. And so we tried to make it fun a couple of years ago.
"I've won a few matches, lost a few matches and still haven't won a Ryder Cup, so obviously it hasn't propelled our team to win one yet."