World's Greatest Birdie Maker: Bubba Watson

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When you're trying to make birdies on the PGA TOUR, particularly on par-5s, it helps if you have some power off the tee.

Bubba Watson has power - and then some.

Lately, Watson has become more than just a big driver. He won the Travelers Championship back in June and was within an eyelash of winning the PGA Championship in August, losing in a playoff to Martin Kaymer.

He also leads the TOUR in par-5 birdie percentage, converting on more than 51 percent of his attempts this season.

Watson, who incidentally attended the same high school as fellow TOUR players Heath Slocum and Boo Weekley (Milton High School in Florida), leads the PGA TOUR in driving distance with an average of 305.9 yards. His effort last week in Hartford - he averaged an astonishing 321.3 yards per drive on the way to his first TOUR title - gave him sole possession of the lead in that category. He had been tied with Dustin Johnson, who made headlines at Pebble Beach earlier in June when he held the 54-hole lead at the U.S. Open.

So how do you learn to become such a monstrous player? Watson, whose wife Angie is a former WNBA player, taught himself how to play golf by hitting wiffle balls around his house.

"The house was probably an acre and a half yard with big trees, downtown Bagdad (Fla.)," Watson once said. "The house is sitting here, and I drew in the dirt driveway. I'd draw a big circle, and that would be my hole, a five-foot circle.

"I'd go around it to the left and then I'd go around it to the right. So I learned to cut it. If you know about wiffle balls or plastic balls, it's hard to cut. Then I learned to hook it the other way, hit it high over limbs, hit it low under limbs. I'd say non-stop every day from 6 to 12 years old. Instead of playing with trucks out in the yard, I'd play with a ball and a club."

It's certainly paid off.