“I want to lift a trophy” – Bubba Watson opens up about ‘challenging’ for a win on LIV Golf after injury woes

Day 1 of LIV Golf Las Vegas concluded with Bubba Watson’s RangeGoats GC leading, and Watson seemed happy with the leaderboard. Following Round 1 of the competition, the 45-year-old stated that he is pushing for a win, both for himself and his team. The golfer said that he “wants to lift a trophy,” despite his injury woes.

Watson has had a rough journey on LIV Golf so far. The former Ryder Cup star was unable to make his playing debut in the initial season of the breakaway tour due to an injury. A detached meniscus in his knee kept him out of the greens for months. He returned to playing last season but only managed to accumulate 20 points from 14 events to finish 36th on the LIV Golf 2023 leaderboard.

The two-time Major winner has now revealed that he wishes to remain on top of the LIV Golf leaderboard. He said he’s “looking forward to the challenges all year long,” and is ready to compete for the win.

Speaking about his performance after last year’s knee surgery, Bubba Watson said at LIV Golf Las Vegas (at 6:06):

"That's what I wanted to do. I wanted to challenge. I want to lift a trophy. Not only for the team but also for me personally, selfish reasons that I want to prove to myself I can play golf at a high level still. I knew it, talking to the doctors, and consulting everybody, my therapist Tyler. I knew it going into it. It was going to be a two-year process to get to 100% or 95%.

"We had to take out some of the meniscus. But we saved about 80%. So, we knew it was coming. We just had to keep grinding. And here we are... This week starting out with day one I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to the challenges all year long and trying to compete and have my name said more than once later in the week each tournament."

LIV Golf Las Vegas Day 1 leaderboard

4Aces GC’s Harold Varner III and Crushers GC’s Paul Casey shared the individual lead. The duo shot 7-under 63s each to grab the first-round lead on Thursday at Las Vegas Country Club.

Bubba Watson ended Round 1 of LIV Golf Las Vegas at fourth on the individual leaderboard. He finished the round at 5-under, alongside teammates Matt Wolff and Thomas Pieters. The trio sat two-shot behind the leaders.

Owing to the trio’s performance, RangeGoats GC took the top spot on the team leaderboard. They lead the team competition at 15 under, to beat Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC and Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC.

Listed below are the standings for Thursday’s opening round of the team competition at LIV Golf Las Vegas:

1.RangeGoats GC -15 (Watson 65, Wolff 65, Pieters 65)
2. Crushers GC -14 (Casey 63, Lahiri 66, Dechambeau 67)
T3. Smash GC -13 (Kokrak 65, Gooch 66, Mcdowell 66)
T3. 4aces GC -13 (Varner Iii 63, Johnson 67, Perez 67)
T5. Fireballs GC -8 (Ancer 67, Puig 67, Chacarra 68)
T5. Legion Xiii -8 (Hatton 67, Surratt 67, Rahm 68)
7. Torque GC -7 (Muñoz 67, Niemann 68, Ortiz 68)
T8. Ripper GC -6 (Smith 67, Herbert 68, Leishman 69)
T8. Iron Heads GC -6 (Lee 68, Kozuma 68, Vincent 68)
10. Cleeks GC -5 (Meronk 67, Bland 69, Samooja 69)
11. Hyflyers GC -4 (Ogletree 67, Tringale 69, Mickelson 70)
12. Majesticks GC -3 (Stenson 68, Westwood 69, Poulter 70)
13. Stinger GC -2 (Schwartzel 69, Grace 69, Burmester 70)

More details on the LIV Golf Las Vegas will be updated as the event progresses.