Hooray for Bubba Watson, a real champ who wears pink

AUGUSTA, Ga. - I'm glad Bubba Watson won that Masters playoff Sunday night, and not just because his name is Bubba.

Nor is it because he's from a Florida town of 1,500 people called Bagdad, though, how great is that?

Nor is it because he hits tee shots with a big pink driver, though how great is that?

The guy's not really my Northern-biased image of a Bubba. He achieved one of his goals by appearing on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” via a Twitter campaign he launched. That ain't Bubba.

Watson's a car guy. He bought the original “General Lee” from “The Dukes of Hazzard” television show at an auction last year for $110,000. He sold two Mercedes and a lime-green Lamborghini because he wanted to go to nothing but American vehicles.

“I'm trying to help the American economy and Detroit,” Watson told Sports Illustrated. “We now have Cadillac Escalades at both our homes.”

The obvious follow-up line to that is this: How many Bubbas have Escalades?

But beyond his celebrity and materialistic quirks, he gets money to good places.

A hundred replicas of the white shirt with pink stitching on the chest and shoulders that Watson wore for all four rounds at the Masters this year are on sale at travismathew.com for $200. As soon as 100 were sold, golf clothing line Travis Mathew was to donate $50,000 to Fresh Start, an organization providing cosmetic reconstructive surgery for children with physical defects.

Watson's agent told the Augusta Chronicle his client's goal is to raise $1 million for charities involving cancer research, military causes, and helping children. Now he has a green jacket to use as a big hammer for fundraising.

Speaking of helping kids, Watson and his wife adopted a month-old boy named Caleb two weeks ago. That's a lot more than putting your money where your mouth is located.

My first encounter with Watson was in 2007 at the John Deere Classic. He had a special press conference to announce his own clothing line, available through discount clothing store chain Steve & Barry's.

The company went bankrupt and out of business the next year, but that's not important here. I always remembered what Watson said then and how he reacted when he talked about the pride he had in his new venture with its reasonable prices for the public, and the roots from which he came.

“From back in Florida, you know, growing up,” Watson said, “my parents said if I'd go to school and try hard, I would never have to get a job, that they would make sure I didn't have a job. I would just try to get good grades and graduate school.

“And then golf came into my life at age 6 and I have been playing ever since. My parents said if you work hard at golf and practice and you keep showing us effort, we'll make sure you have everything you need to play golf and perform.

“So my mom had a paper route at - probably my 10th-grade year. It's hard to talk about. ... I don't like to talk about it,” he said, choking up. “She worked hard to support me and show me the ways that I should support my family and my kids to come, as many sacrifices as her and my dad made. It was just hard.

“I had the high school teachers telling me I couldn't graduate high school, couldn't make it in college, couldn't make it in golf, there's only certain people that can make it in professional sports.”

Watson graduated high school, went to a junior college, then transferred to the University of Georgia. His high school teachers were only right about that last thing. Only certain people can make it in pro sports.

Like someone who has never had a swing coach, but has a 316.9-yard driving average, 10 yards longer than anyone else on the PGA Tour. But he's also first on the Tour in greens in regulation.

As the man showed on his shot off pine straw in the woods to within 10 feet of the cup on the second and deciding playoff hole (No. 10), Watson has a lot more game than gripping and ripping.

Making four straight birdies from Nos. 13 to 16, that was championship stuff all the way. It took superb play down the stretch from Louis Oosthuizen to force Watson into a playoff.

Oosthuizen leaves here without a green jacket, but with his name etched in golf lore for a double-eagle Sunday at the par-5 No. 2, only the fourth “albatross” in Masters history.

But even that couldn't beat a guy from Bagdad named Bubba, a guy who has never had a formal golf lesson, a guy who apparently has a heart as big off the course as it is on it.

In the words of John Mellencamp, ain't that America? Big pink drivers for you and me.