Career Comparison: Bubba Watson vs. Zach Johnson
As golf fans, we are constantly looking for ways to compare players’ careers. While this exercise leads to countless hours of entertaining debates, it would be great to have an objective system to compare two players’ careers. With this exercise in mind, I decided to come up with my own system that can be used to compare any two players from the modern era.
System Overview
For my system, I first started by ranking and assigning a point value for winning each different type of professional golf tournament that exists in the modern era of golf. The point values that I assigned to the tournaments are as follows:
Tournament — Points
Majors — 5
The Players Championship — 4
World Golf Championships and FedEx Cup playoff events — 3
Rolex Series tournaments and Race to Dubai Final series — 2
Other PGA Tour events — 1
Other European Tour events — 0.5
Top 10 finish in Majors (excluding wins counted above) — 0.25
Any other official OWGR eligible professional tour victories — 0.25
At the end of this process, each golfer will end up with a single point total, and the player with the higher point total will have been deemed to have greater career achievements. For ease of comparability, my system focuses only on individual professional tournaments. This will allow for the comparison of players that grew up in different areas of the world and for players that may or may not have played golf collegiately. Additionally, my system does not award any points for a player earning a spot on a national team for the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup. Awarding points for earning a spot on a national team would provide a golfer from the United States with double the opportunities to earn points compared to an International golfer, as the United States players have the opportunity to play for a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup team every year, while an International player only has the opportunity to play in a team event once every two years. Lastly, I chose not to award points for season long awards that golfers earned, as I feel like the player will already have earned points (according to the table above) for the wins in that season that led them to the award.
For prior applications of my system, I chose to compare the careers of Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson (which can be found here) and Jordan Spieth and Brooks Koepka (found here).
Player Comparison Introduction
For my third edition, I chose to compare the careers of two American players in their 40s, both with two majors to their name and each the owner of a green jacket: Bubba Watson and Zach Johnson. At the time of this comparison on March 1, 2021, Bubba is 42 years old Zach is 45.
Bubba is best known for being one of the few left-handed golfers on tour and for the many creative ways that he shapes shots with his unique style of play. Bubba was born and raised in Bagdad, Florida, at the top of the state’s panhandle. After attending his local high school, Bubba went on to star for the Faulkner State Community College golf team in Alabama, where he was named a junior college All-American. His success at the junior college level then attracted the attention of Division I golf teams, and he then transferred to play for the University of Georgia for the 2000 and 2001 seasons. Bubba then turned professional in 2002 and earned membership on the Nationwide Tour (now the Korn Ferry Tour), where he played until 2005. His play on the Nationwide Tour in 2005 earned him his first PGA Tour Card for the 2006 season. Bubba kept his PGA Tour Card with solid play over the next few seasons, and he earned his first PGA Tour win in June 2010 at the Travelers Championship. After establishing himself as a mainstay on the PGA Tour, Bubba went on to win the 2012 and then the 2014 Masters. After his victory at the 2014 Masters, Bubba went on to win six more times over the next four years, and his most recent win is in June 2018 at the Travelers Championship.
Zach was born and raised in Iowa and was only the number-two player on both his high school and college golf teams. After his collegiate career at Drake University, Zach turned professional in 1998 and played on various developmental tours across the United States. In 2003, Zach finished atop the money list on the Nationwide Tour, which earned him his first PGA Tour Card for the 2004 season. Zach then notched his first PGA Tour victory in April 2004 at the BellSouth Classic, and his second victory then came at the 2007 Masters. In the seven years after his Masters victory, Zach accumulated 9 more wins, and then won the 2015 British Open. The 2015 British Open has been Zach’s most recent win, and at the age of 45, one has to think that Zach has his sights set on moving to the PGA Tour Champions upon his 50th birthday.
Now, we will go through Bubba and Zach’s career victories with my point system, to determine which player has objectively achieved more in their career as of today.
Majors — 5 points
Bubba: 2012 Masters, 2014 Masters. 2 for 10 Points
Zach: 2007 Masters, 2015 British Open (Old Course at St Andrews). 2 for 10 Points
Players Championships — 4 points
Bubba: None. 0 Points
Zach: None. 0 Points
World Golf Championships — 3 points
Bubba: 2014 WGC-HSBC Champions (Sheshan Golf Club), 2018 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play (Austin Country Club). 2 for 6 Points
Zach: None. 0 Points
FedEx Cup Playoff Events — 3 points
Bubba: None. 0 Points
Zach: 2013 BMW Championship (Conway Farms Golf Club). 1 for 3 Points
Rolex Series and Race to Dubai Final Series Events — 2 points
Bubba: None. 0 Points
Zach: None. 0 Points
Regular PGA Tour Events (not already counted above) — 1 point
Bubba: 2010 Travelers Championship (TPC River Highlands), 2011 Farmers Insurance Open (Torrey Pines Golf Course — North and South), 2011 Zurich Classic of New Orleans (TPC Louisiana), 2014 Northern Trust Open (Riviera Country Club), 2015 Travelers Championship (TPC River Highlands), 2016 Northern Trust Open (Riviera Country Club), 2018 Genesis Open (Riviera Country Club), 2018 Travelers Championship (TPC River Highlands). 8 for 8 Points
Zach: 2004 BellSouth Classic (TPC Sugarloaf — Stables and Meadows nines), 2007 AT&T Classic (TPC Sugarloaf — Stables and Meadows nines), 2008 Valero Texas Open (La Cantera Golf Club — Resort Course), 2009 Sony Open in Hawaii (Waialae Country Club), 2009 Valero Texas Open (La Cantera Golf Club — Resort Course), 2010 Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial (Colonial Country Club), 2012 Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial (Colonial Country Club), 2012 John Deere Classic (TPC Deere Run), 2014 Hyundai Tournament of Champions (Kapalua Resort — Plantation Course) . 9 for 9 Points
Regular European Tour Events (not already counted above) — 0.5 points
Bubba: None. 0 Points
Zach: None. 0 Points
Top 10s in Majors (excluding wins counted above) — 0.25 points
Bubba: Masters (2018), US Open (2007), PGA Championship (2010). 3 for 0.75 Points
Zach: Masters (2015), US Open (2016, 2020), British Open (2012, 2013), PGA Championship (2009, 2010, 2013). 8 for 2 Points
All Other Official OWGR Eligible Tour Wins (not counted above) — 0.25 points
Bubba: None. 0 Points
Zach: 2003 Rheem Classic (Nationwide Tour), 2003 Envirocare Utah Classic (Nationwide Tour). 2 for 0.5 Points
Conclusion
Bubba Watson Total Points: 24.75
Zach Johnson Total Points: 24.50
As you can see, my system gives Bubba’s career accomplishments a very slight edge over Zach’s by a margin of 0.25 points. With both players having 2 major victories, and 12 career wins in total, I anticipated this result being very close. Bubba’s resume earned its slight edge due to his two 3-point WGC wins, compared to Zach only having one 3-point win in a FedEx Cup Playoff event. While their resumes were very similar in all the other categories, the one area where Zach has performed notably better than Bubba is in top 10 finishes in majors. Excluding their victories, Zach has 8 top 10 finishes in majors, while Bubba only has 3.
After looking deeper into the results, I found it interesting that both players earned at least half of their total wins at only three courses each. Of Bubba’s 12 career wins, he has 3 wins at Riviera, 3 wins at TPC River Highlands, and 2 wins at Augusta National. In total, 8 of Bubba’s 12 career wins have come from 3 golf courses. For Zach, of his 12 total career wins, he has 2 wins at TPC Sugarloaf, 2 wins at Colonial, and 2 wins at La Cantera. In total, 6 of Zach’s 12 career wins have come from 3 courses.
With Bubba and Zach’s careers separated by less than one point in my system, and with both players currently in the midst of multi-year winless droughts as they get deeper into their 40s, I wonder if this will be the final standings for their career accomplishments in my system. As both players are getting older, and the average age of the Tour is skewing younger, their chances for capturing additional wins are certainly getting slimmer. But, fortunately for Bubba, the Tour still makes annual stops at all 3 of the courses that have been the sight of 8 of his 12 career wins. As Bubba certainly has a penchant for performing at these venues, I think Bubba can still be considered a contender for the next few years at the Tour’s stops at Riviera, TPC River Highlands, and Augusta National. Unfortunately for Zach, the Tour doesn’t have regularly schedule events anymore at TPC Sugarloaf or at La Cantera. Since Zach is a few years older than Bubba, and Zach is now one of the shortest hitters on Tour, while Bubba has still been able to maintain his driving distance, I think it’s more likely that Bubba will have more success over the next few years, and that he will maintain his edge in career accomplishments over Zach.
Let me know what you think of my system, and if there are any changes that you think should be made to it? Also, let me know of other modern golfers that you would like to see me compare with my system!
