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The Success and The Failures of Lefthanders in Sports

Bubba Watson is an American professional golfer who turned pro in 2001.  He played on the Nationwide Tour with moderate success through 2005, when he played well enough to earn his chance on the PGA tour.  He was one of three lefthanders, (Eric Axley and Greg Chalmers were the other two), to join the tour that year, and he has been the most successful of the three by far.

Watson played in 27 tour events in 2005, and made the cut in 15 of them.  His best finish of the year was a tie for 3rd place, with 2 more times top 10, and 3 more times in the top 25.  That was enough to win over $1,000,000 in prize money in his first year, a mark that he has passed in every year on the tour.  He also led the PGA Tour in driving distance that first year, and he is still one of the longest drivers on the tour.

Over the next three years Watson was consistently good, but not quite good enough to win.  He had ties for 2nd place in each of those years, and ranked in the top 60 in earnings each year.  He earned his first tour victory in 2010 and won twice in 2011, winning over $3,000,000 in each of those years. 

Watson continued to improve and in 2012 he won the Masters Tournament and finished with over $4,000,000 in earnings on the PGA Tour.  After slumping at bit in 2013, he won the Masters again in 2014 along with 1 other tour victory, and then won 2 tournaments in 2015, earning over $6,000,000 in each of those years.  He faltered a bit in 2016 and 2017, but has bounced back in 2018 with 3 tour wins and over $5,000,000 in earnings.   He has not won a tournament since his 2018, with a 3rd place finish his best over these past three years.

For his career, Watson has over $46,912,788 in earnings which is the 14th among all golfers.  He has 12 tour victories, 14 2nd place finishes and 6 more 3rd place finishes. While he has a long way to go to pass Phil Mickelson, he is a lot younger and could have his best golf in front of him.

Bubba Watson

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