PGA Championship 2022: Bubba Watson flirts with another major as only Bubba can do
It all started promisingly enough. Ahead of him, Will Zalatoris was clearly feeling the pressure of leading a major, and Watson’s playing partner Justin Thomas was massively out of sorts from the start on his way to a disappointing 74. Nobody was making a massive charge from below, and only Mito Pereira, with birdies on Nos. 2 and 5, was holding up his end of the bargain at the top. A bogey at the third momentarily set Bubba back, but on the short par-4 fourth, he unleashed a 318-yard bomb, pitched 60 yards onto the green and buried the five-footer for birdie. Things went a bit calm on the course at that point as the wind picked up, but when things seemed to have settled into the same low key that predominated on Thursday and Friday, Watson sparked a massive roar on the seventh with a 21-foot birdie to take solo second, six under for the tournament. For a very brief moment, if you blurred your eyes just a little and forgot the vast expanse of time and fate between now and Sunday night, you could see your way into believing the 2022 PGA Championship had become a two-horse race.
