When Life Gets Rough, Do Like Bubba Watson And Master This Ability

Imagine having the unique opportunity to watch the top golfers on the planet parade through Augusta National Golf Club, hoping to join an elite company reserved only for Masters champions. Whether it’s the azaleas in bloom, the perfectly manicured fairways, the unforgiving rough, or the lore that comes with these pressure-packed four rounds of golf, each year, I find myself enamored by this tournament’s history more so than any other on the PGA schedule.

One of the most iconic shots in golf history came from the left-handed club of two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson. The year was 2012, Watson found himself on a playoff hole surrounded by trees and pine straw due to a wayward shot. Dressed in cloud-like white pants, shirt, and visor, Watson took his wedge from 150 yards out and shaped a dream shot from the rough to just a few feet of the flagstick. The crowd erupted with celebration as he went on to win that hole and his first Masters’ green jacket. It’s a shot on that unforgettable 10th hole that to this day remains a landmark for golf enthusiasts lucky enough to visit the course.

Full disclosure: I’ve developed a great admiration for 2-time Masters champion Bubba Watson while working on an upcoming book, so he and his team invited me to Augusta to walk the hallowed grounds and watch him work. Watson finished tied for 26th place last week, shooting a respectable 1-over par for the tourney. Bubba wanted a third Masters title to his credit, so I assumed his finish was a rough one. But then I remembered that unthinkable moment from 2012 and realized the rough is exactly where Watson made his career.

Sure, every golfer dreams of making perfect swings and sitting atop the leaderboard. But as I watched fan after fan intentionally go deep into the woods on the 10th hole in search of the exact spot where Bubba took his shot, I was reminded that sometimes our life’s greatest triumphs happen when we’re facing rough circumstances.

Fans, fellow golfers, and media members marvel at recreating his magical swing that sent a golf ball roughly 40 yards towards the fairway before spinning hard right toward a blind green. Watson shared with me that the challenge of hooking that shot perfectly didn’t phase him at all. Why? Because he’d actually practiced some version of it for years.

Several months ago, I visited Bubba at Tanglewood Golf Course—the Florida public course he grew up playing. He said he often found himself in the woods with a lie that required him to hit circus shots to recover from an errant tee shot. In fact, while on his hometown course, he dropped a ball into the woods to show me how learning to handle the rough scenarios was something he practiced often. Just as it did nine years earlier, his shot curved around potential hazards and onto the short grass. He couldn’t have placed it any better.

Here’s the takeaway. Bubba noted that, like most golfers, we all want to spend our lives playing in the comforts of smooth fairways and easy conditions. But the reality is that sometimes we end up in the rough. For some of us, the rough is where we can self-destruct and negatively influence our outcomes. For true leaders and competitors, the rough is where we can construct a belief that the struggle won’t last forever, and all it takes is one good swing followed by another. Sometimes all we need to do is keep believing…keep swinging.

It’s been nine years since Watson hit that remarkable shot, yet caddies at Augusta still say they see people gathered around that spot daily trying to imagine what they would have done in the rough. Most of us wouldn’t dare try a shot like his—and that’s the difference between good and great.

In this year’s tournament, the unflappable Hideki Matsuyama shot 10-under par for a one-stroke victory. He became the first Japanese-born golfer ever to win a Major. He donned the green jacket because he, too, consistently figured out how to recover quickly when the odds began to stack against him.

The next time you’re in the rough, realize that it could be your moment to do something amazing that others will still talk about years later. Finding a fair way to swing through rough circumstances is a skill we all should master.