ESPN Survey Reports Bubba Watson Is the Least Popular Among Fellow Pro Golfers

The Masters kicks off Thursday, and the weird subplots and quasi-drama are already unfurling.

In a report filed by ESPN.com on Monday, the news outlet published its findings from an anonymous poll it recently conducted with 103 PGA players.

Ostensibly put together to determine the current pulse of the game (or as a Scientology-inspired stunt to acquire blackmail material), the ESPN survey covers a wide range of subjects varying in seriousness and nature.

Perhaps the most ridiculous question of the poll is one centering on popularity/street justice. Specifically, ESPN posed a hypothetical asking golfers which of their colleagues they'd like to see beaten up in a parking lot.

The prompt read "___________ is in a fight in the parking lot. I'm not helping him."

So, uh, that's a real question asked by a news outlet, and according to ESPN, the most common answer to the prompt was Bubba Watson.

According to the ESPN report, 22.6 percent of golfers surveyed answered the 2012 and 2014 Masters champion would be the last person they'd help in a scrap. Watson was the runaway club favorite for this, nearly doubling up Patrick Reed, the second-leading answer (11 percent). 

The survey also revealed that 72 golfers don't think Rory McIlroy will win the 2015 Masters, and 64 said they believe Tiger Woods will win another major. Forty golfers said they think the PGA should discontinue testing players for marijuana use.

Welp, I don't know what to tell you, Bubba.

Mike Stobe/Getty Images

ESPN's Gene Wojciechowski lists a number of reasons as to why your colleagues might not like you that much.

"Phony. Whiner. Loner. Standoffish. Golf diva. Am I missing any of the popular criticisms of our two-time Masters winner, Bubba Watson?" Wojciechowski writes.

As someone less versed in the apparently thriving anti-Bubba movement, I don't understand some of these criticisms. Watson has always been an eccentric, but "phony" sounds like an unmerited descriptor for a guy who doesn't seem to put on airs.

In any case, don't get in a fight at the Augusta parking lot, Bubba. Only four of five golfers will help you out, which I guess isn't enough?

Dan is on Twitter. He hopes golfers don't fight in any parking lots.