Different.

That’s one thing Bubba Watson always has been and always will be. But the PGA TOUR’s new-age bomber is different in, well, a different sort of way, a fact that makes him extremely difficult to categorize.

Start with his given name. It’s Gerry, but pronounced like Gary. He became Bubba shortly after he was born when his father noted his son was “fat and ugly’’ and said, “Let’s call him Bubba.’’

Take a look at his driver, the one he uses to wallop golf balls into different zip codes. First thing you notice is the shaft.

“It’s hot pink,’’ said Watson, a left-handed rookie who averages a supersonic 319.4 yards, more than six more than J.B. Holmes, another rookie launcher who won earlier this year at the FBR Open. And get this. That’s 15 yards shorter than his average 334-yard drive on the Nationwide Tour in 2005.

Ask him who his swing coach is. There is no answer. The self-taught Watson doesn’t have one. Does he deal with a sports psychologist? Are you kidding? Yet he readily admits the game of golf is “all mental’’ for him.

Inquire about his practice habits. “I don’t practice as much as a lot of players,’’ he said.

Watson hails from Bagdad, Fla., which is close to Milton, Fla., which is close to Pensacola, Fla., in the Sunshine State’s panhandle and adjacent to the area near the Florida-Alabama affectionately known as The Redneck Riviera.

So that would make Watson, 27, a Budweiser swilling, duck-shooting, tobacco chewing NASCAR addict, correct?

“I don’t drink,’’ Watson said, quite proudly in San Diego in a revealing moment. “I don’t hunt. I’ve never been camping, never done any of that stuff. I don’t drink beer. I’ve never been drunk. I’ve never partied, never done any of that. And NASCAR is not my thing.’’

That, Watson said, makes him a “New-Age redneck.’’

Watson leads the PGA TOUR with 319.4 yards off the tee. (Feldman/WireImage)

Categorize that.

Point is, Watson does not travel to the beat of a different drummer. This guy has his own marching band and you never know what it’s going to play -- or he’s going say – next.

One thing is certain though. Watson is like a breath of fresh air on the PGA TOUR where players can be a little too rehearsed in Media Centers across the land. Watson performs there like he does on the golf course, never taking himself too seriously and providing enough material to fill up two notebooks. It’s part and parcel of the Watson shtick.

He’s that different. And that’s what his wife, Angie, a former basketball player at the University of Georgia, appreciates about her unique husband.

“He loves to be different,’’ she said. “That’s the reason I fell in love with him. He’s not your average guy.’’

Or your average long driver for that matter. He’s got game, a complete one and he bristles when left out of the group of pros who can putt for dough.

“People think I can’t chip and putt,’’ he said.

But Watson isn’t complaining.

“I don’t think anyone would talk about me if I just dinked it off the tee,’’ he said, laughing. Watson drew immediate notice when he finished fourth at the Sony Open in Hawaii, the first event of his rookie season. He had the ESPN commentators going bonkers in the final round when he hits a 398-yard bomb.

He played even better at the Chrysler Classic of Tucson though, providing evidence of his potential. He finished third there and did not make a bogey over the course of 72 holes, an extremely rare feat. Watson called it “my best week ever’’ in his career.

“I lost (by three shots to Kirk Triplett, who shot a final-round 63), but I stayed focused,’’ he said. “When I hit a bad shot I didn’t get mad. I just kept walking and thought about hitting the next shot good. I was happy about everything.’’

Watson, who graduated to The Big Show by finishing 21st on the Nationwide Tour money list (“Thanks, Jason Gore,’’ he said, referring to the player who won three times on the Nationwide Tour and then won on the PGA TOUR, providing the Nationwide with an extra spot), still is. He has made five of seven cuts, amassed $450,145 and is just one more top 10 away from securing his playing privileges for 2007. His high level of play was sparked in late December when he traveled to Australia and lost to Robert Allenby on the first playoff hole of the Australian Masters.

“That showed me I could play as good as a lot of guys out here,’’ he said. “It was a big confidence boost for me. That just rolled over to the start of the season.’’ Nevertheless, Watson did not win in 63 attempts on the Nationwide Tour, something that gnaws at him a little bit. Winning on the PGA TOUR is something he thinks about often. That, he said, would be “an unbelievable accomplishment.’’

“Will that ever happen?’’ he asked. “Who knows, but I can do it. I believe in my head I can do it.’’ And if he did?

“I’d probably cry for three days,’’ he said. “That would tell me I made it. It would make my career complete. But shoot, I cried when I got my (PGA) TOUR card.’’

That’s Bubba for you. One of a kind.