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| Bubba Watson celebrates his win with his wife, Angie, and their son, Caleb. |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bubba Watson wasn't about to let another chance get away.
Two weeks after Watson made a pair of late bogeys in the Phoenix Open, he delivered the best closing round at Riviera in some three decades. Watson played the final 39 holes without a bogey and shot a 7-under 64 on Sunday to win the Northern Trust Open.
It was his first victory in 22 months and 41 tournaments worldwide dating to the 2012 Masters.
Watson wound up with a two-shot victory over Dustin Johnson, who closed with a 66 for the second straight week and got the same result.
Watson won on the PGA TOUR for the fifth time, setting the all-time mark for Georgia golfers.
This wasn't Bubba golf as much as it was simply great golf.
Watson, who also shot 64 on Saturday to start the final round four shots behind William McGirt, made up ground so quickly that he broke out of a four-way tie for the lead with a birdie on the eighth hole and made the turn in 30.
Equally critical were a pair of par saves with 7-foot putts on the 12th and 13th holes.
Johnson, who was second at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am last week after a final-round 66, made birdie on the 15th hole to get within one shot. He didn't give himself good birdie chances on the last three holes.
Watson made a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th to cap off the best closing round in this tournament since Doug Tewell shot a 63 in 1986. Even sweeter was going up the steps toward the famous clubhouse to see his 2-year-old son, Caleb, whom Watson adopted just before his Masters victory.
"When I won the Masters, it was just me," Watson said. "Family members were there, but not my wife and not my son, who was just adopted at that point, and now is two weeks away from being 2 years old. What a thrill. We'll have some pictures with him and my wife and the trophy, so it's nice."
Watson won for the fifth time in his career, and he had to earn it. With no margin for error over the closing holes, he managed to get out of a deep fairway bunker on the 15th hole to the front edge of the green. He smartly played to the middle of the green on the par-3 16th hole for a par. Facing the uphill tee shot on the 18th, he blasted his drive down the middle of the fairway and hit wedge into 15 feet to the right of the pin.
And when it was over, he felt a lot better than he did two weeks ago in Phoenix, where he missed a short par putt on the last hole to lose by one to Kevin Stadler.
