Bubba Watson opened eyes when he won the 2012 Masters using a pink-coloured Ping G20 driver. Since then Watson has continued to use some form of pink, but his latest iteration is certain to open some eyes. The Ping G425 LST driver Watson is using at the Farmers Insurance Open not only features a fair amount of pink on the crown, sole and shaft, but it reads “BUBBA” in pink in bold, all capital letters on the crown – as if anyone needed a reminder as to whose driver this is.
According to Ping, the process for Watson’s new G425 LST started more than a year ago with some concepts developed in-house by the company’s designers. The process includes arriving at some ideas on paper and then floating them internally for feedback before showing Watson. “Once we’re comfortable with a few options, we share them with Bubba who then chooses his favourite with any potential modifications, which he usually makes within reason,” said a Ping spokesperson.
The process is one the company is familiar with. Every time Ping comes out with a new driver, it does something special for Bubba’s pink version.
This is the seventh pink driver for Watson, who recently signed a “lifetime” contract with the company. The first pink was the G20 (which Ping sold 5,000 units of as a limited-edition offering with some proceeds going to charity). Since then he’s had a pink G25, G30 (resulting in another charitable limited-edition offering), G, G400, G410 and now the G425 LST.
Watson has chosen a good tournament to break out the new club as he has a solid history at Torrey Pines – he has a win at the Farmers in 2011 and four top-10 finishes (and six top 25s) in nine starts in the event, including a T-6 last year.
Which means there is a solid chance he’ll have plenty of eyes on him and his driver come Sunday afternoon.
