Martin Kaymer, Nick Watney, Bubba and Other Transitions Tidbits

As the fog started to clear early last Thursday morning, he was easy to spot on the putting green at Innisbrook.

While Nick Watney exchanged laughs and stories with a couple of caddies, Martin Kaymer went about his business, dressed in black, with a calm exterior and a silky putting stroke. Kaymer was prepping for his day with Watney and Bubba Watson, the world's No. 1 was the middle of a bomber's sandwich.

They opened on the 10th tee, their first of the day. Watney hit a long, towering hook into the left trees and Watson went even farther right, a big hook for the left-handed bomber. Stood at the 315-yard mark, and watched as Kaymer's drive split the middle, 305 dead-center.

Thus started a four-hour examination of the world's No.1, and perhaps the two hottest Americans.

Through it all, these observations:

Kaymer is better than you think he is. He's also taller and leaner. He would produce some unforgettable shots. One was his third to the par five 14th where his second shot left him short-sided with a 40-yard bunker shot to a pin that only gave him seven feet of green to work with.

"That's dead," said one gallery member. Martin then hit a shot that landed in the fringe and stopped a foot from the hole.

At the par five first, his 10th hole of the day, he hit a second shot with a fairway metal that hit five feet from the hole and stopped 20 feet away. He would hold the downhill left-to-right breaker for eagle.

At the par three fourth, from 208 yards, his tee shot sailed high, landed seven feet from the hole, one-hopped and started rolling like a putt. "It's heading straight into the hole," was my immediate thought. The ball grazed the right lip and stopped inside a foot.

At his final hole, the par four uphill ninth, his tee shot went left into a fairway bunker, too close to a high lip. His second shot was 75 yards short of the uphill, elevated green. He couldn't see the hole, his third shot with a sand wedge stopped within a foot.

This guy is flat-out surgical. Didn't have that great a tournament but he is very, very impressive. AND, the hard part to believe is that he's only 26 years old.

Initial impression: Martin Kaymer has the gunfighter's edge: cool, calm and impossible to rattle.

Nick Watney looked unbeatable for the first 12 holes. The guy birdies one, two and three and he gets to seven-under for the day. At the fourth, where Kaymer nearly makes an ace, Watney pulls his tee shot into a greenside bunker. He hit too close to the ball and sailed the green, made a superb chip for bogey. But it was as though all the wind came out of his sails. He struggled the final five holes, played them one over and finished five-under.

Bubba is Bubba. On the range, you run out of land around 320 yards and there's a pond. Bubba flew his first two drivers into the water. He only hit about eight with the driver. Bubba is right when he says, "Bubbba don't hit balls, Bubba plays golf." He only hit about 20 balls during his warm-up.

Bubba struggled with his tee ball on Thursday, which made it hard for him to go low.

Also, Bubba's wife Angie is close to 6'4" in flip-flops. She's taller than Bubba. Bubba may also have the smallest biceps on the PGA Tour. 

Bubba's also very generous: He handed one of the PGA Tour officials a check for $50,000 for the American Red Cross for the Japanese relief effort over the weekend.

Speaking of the Japanese, the sheer number of the Japanese "press corps" is borderline ridiculous. They've got probably 50 or so, all there for Ryo Ishikawa, who hasn't done anything in America. Now you'd think with all the disaster problems in Japan right now, the news outlets would have much more pressing situations.

Best young player in golf? It's not Rickie Fowler; it's not Ryo Ishikawa. It's Matteo Manassero. Watched the kid hit balls. MAJOR talent. What were you doing when you were 17? I was trying to win high school matches; this kid is shooting rounds of 68-68-72-70 on a really tough golf course. He turns 18 on April 19.

Good gallery following Kaymer, Watson and Watney on Thursday morning, probably about 3,000, which is good for early morning without someone named Eldrick in the group. There in the gallery was a guy who looked like the poorly dressed cousin of Larry, The Cable Guy. Thought to myself that it had to be Germany's answer to Larry. My suspicions were confirmed when he came up to me at the 16th fairway and in a distinct German accent inquired:  "Weech of dees drives ees Kaymers?" The guy had on plaid cargo pants, brown socks, a red and white checkerboard table cloth shirt, shirt-tail out, of course and some sort of plaid cap. Made Larry, The Cable Guy look like a GQ candidate.

Gary Woodland can hit it as far as he wants. The farthest flag on the range was at 289 yards, and he was hitting two-irons to it. The two-iron he hit on the 18th hole Sunday went 284 yards and that's a severe uphill fairway.

The security guards had to remove a volunteer marshal from the 13th tee. The players and caddies asked him to move because his shadow was falling on the spot where they wanted to tee off, and the guy refused. Now there's a first.

The Copperhead course at Innisbrook is the best tuneup for Augusta for these players. It is the best of the Florida swing courses (have played all of them), and it is a very, very unique property. It has amazing elevations that mimic some of the holes at Augusta. It is surrounded by towering pines that can cause the kind of second shot trouble that Augusta presents to errant tee shots, although the fairways here are more narrow than they are at Augusta National. The greens don't have the severe slopes that Augusta presents but those are unique to the Masters. These greens have some severe slopes, like the 18th where both Webb Simpson and Gary Woodland were above the hole, neither could get it close but Woodland made the long putt to win.

PGA National had the Bear Trap, the Copperhead has the Snake Pit. Three really tough holes with the 475-yard 16th, the 230-yard 17th where Woodland hit the incredible tee shot and made a really difficult left-to-righter for birdie, only the second of the day and the 440-yard 18th, all uphill. You saw the difficulty when you get above the pin. Three great finishing holes.

Difficult course? Consider that for three days, there was virtually no wind for the field. The breeze came up Sunday, a bit. Winning score of 15-under was strong.

Who's the best American player? Watney's top 10 streak came to an end and Watson had some tree trouble here. You look at how well Woodland played and it's amazing considering he's something like 140th in sand saves and there were bunkers all over this place. Best player? How about best putter? When was the last time you saw a putting exhibition like the one Woodland put together on Sunday?