Bubba Watson makes WV home

You know how it is in West Virginia.  We hang on to our celebrities.  We don’t have many of them, so when somebody makes it big, we like to remind them—and everyone else—that they are from the Mountain State.

I imagine that’s common with a small state.  You just don’t have that many people of fame or accomplishment you can lay claim to, especially when it comes to professional sports.

We made golfer Sam Snead our own for many years.  Slammin’ Sammy was more of a Virginian—he was born and died in the Commonwealth—but because he served as the pro at the Greenbrier for years we included him on our list.

Basketball legend and West Virginia native Jerry West was gone for a long time.  He was an LA guy who for years made occasional return visits to the state.  But West has been back for a few years now, making his home at the Greenbrier.

When you drive up Route 60 approaching the famed resort, you see a billboard featuring Jerry West and a young man who is the newest state celebrity—Bubba Watson.

The two-time Masters golf champion fell in love with the Greenbrier when he played here for the first time a year ago.  He says he and his wife, Angie, were looking for a farm or a mountain home to settle in with their adopted son and the Greenbrier had what they were looking for.

“I’ve got four golf courses and I’ve got four pools on all the properties.  The restaurants are great,” Watson said at a press conference Tuesday.  “There are a lot of activities to do outside, so it was an easy sell for me to move here.”

In fact, Watson’s house was just recently finished and he and his family moved in about a month ago.  That, he says, makes him more comfortable for this week’s tournament because he’s sleeping in his own bed.

He’s even serving as a tour guide this week.  Watson took his family and some of his friends through the famed bunker Monday, explaining how the Greenbrier and the federal government conspired to keep secret the installation that was designed to serve as a protected hideaway for the government in case of nuclear attack.

Although Watson is just getting settled in, he’s already talking about ways he can give back to the community. He’s a devout Christian known for his charity work and he says he’s consulting with the Greenbrier to find ways he can have an impact on young people outside the confines of the luxurious resort.

So, is Bubba one of us now?  A West Virginian?  His bios still list his residence as Florida, his home state.  When asked at yesterday’s news conference if he’s now an official resident of West Virginia, he said, “I like it so far, so I hope everybody else likes me.”

 





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