Watson turned professional in 2002 and joined the
Nationwide Tour, where he played until 2005. He finished 21st on the Nationwide Tour's money list in
2005, making him the last player to qualify for the following year's
PGA Tour. As a rookie in
2006, he earned $1,019,264 (90th overall) and led the PGA Tour in driving distance at . His longest drive in professional competition was on the PGA Tour at the
WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. Watson played well at the
2007 U.S. Open. He was in the final group on Saturday after shooting rounds of 70-71 (+1) at
Oakmont Country Club near
Pittsburgh. Watson was one stroke off the lead after 36 holes but then slipped, shooting 74 (+4) in both the third and fourth rounds; he finished in a tie for fifth.
2010 Watson claimed his first
PGA Tour win on June 27, 2010, in
Cromwell, Connecticut, at the
Travelers Championship on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff with
Corey Pavin and
Scott Verplank. Watson tearfully dedicated the win to his parents, specifically his father who was battling
cancer. Watson was runner-up to
Martin Kaymer at the
PGA Championship at
Whistling Straits, falling in the three-hole aggregate playoff that included
Dustin Johnson until he incurred a two-stroke penalty on the 72nd hole. Watson led the playoff after a birdie on the first hole, but Kaymer birdied the par-3 second hole to tie, effectively turning the playoff into sudden-death. Watson's second shot found the water hazard and Kaymer bested him by a stroke to win the major championship. Watson had his own clothing line called "Bubba Golf" at the former
Steve & Barry's. He was invited on
The Ellen DeGeneres Show after he sent her a video of a golf trick shot he completed for her birthday.
2011 On January 30,
2011, Watson won his second PGA Tour event, the
Farmers Insurance Open, finishing one stroke ahead of runner-up
Phil Mickelson. Watson picked up his second win of the 2011 season and third career PGA Tour title on May 1 when he defeated
Webb Simpson at the second playoff hole at the
Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Both players birdied the first playoff hole, with Watson holing a 12-footer; he birdied the next hole to win the tournament. In July 2011, Watson provoked controversy by criticizing the
Alstom Open de France on the
European Tour, in which he was playing under a sponsor's exemption. He indicated after his first round that he would not be playing any further events on the European Tour, and complained after his second round about security and organization at the tournament. Watson took part in the Long Drive Contest for charity at the
Hyundai Tournament of Champions alongside
Dustin Johnson and
Robert Garrigus. He finished in second place, with a longest drive of behind a drive of over by
Jamie Sadlowski.
2012 Watson began the year with three top-5 finishes in seven events, including finishing second at the
WGC-Cadillac Championship.
Masters win Watson's first
major championship win came at the
Masters. He began the final round at six-under-par, three strokes off the lead, held by
Peter Hanson. On the back nine, Watson bogeyed the par-3 12th hole to return to even par for the round. He then recorded four consecutive birdies for a round of 68 (-4) and tied for the 72-hole lead with fourth-round playing partner
Louis Oosthuizen at ten-under-par. In the
sudden-death playoff, Oosthuizen and Watson both made par on the uphill 18th hole. On the next hole, the downhill 10th, both drove their tee shots towards the woods to the right of the hole. Oosthuizen's landed in the rough away, while Watson's ball landed deep in the woods on pine straw, from the pin without a clear shot to the green. Watson executed a recovery shot with 40 yards of hook on his 52-degree gap wedge and stopped the ball within fifteen feet of the hole. Oosthuizen's approach shot landed short of the green, but he chipped past the hole and narrowly missed his lengthy putt for par. Watson trickled his birdie putt a foot past the hole, took his time on the very short par putt, then made it for the victory. The win took him to a world ranking of four, a career-high at the time.
Rest of 2012 Following his Masters win, Watson began to struggle. He missed the cut at the
Memorial Tournament and the
U.S. Open. A week after the U.S. Open, he finished tied for second at the
Travelers Championship. A month later, he played
Open Championship, the third major of the year. While shooting a first round of −3 to tie him at third place, he never advanced much after that, finishing tied for 23rd place. In the final major of the year, the
PGA Championship, Watson tied for 11th. He finished the year with one win, six top-5 finishes, seven top-10 finishes and three missed cuts. The victory raised him to 14 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He followed that win with two more strong finishes—a ninth-place tie in the
WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship and a second-place tie in the
WGC-Cadillac Championship. Those performances elevated him from 14 to 12 in the world ranking.
Second Masters win Watson won the 2014
Masters by three shots, with a score of 280 (−8). He entered the final round tied for the lead with 20-year-old Masters rookie
Jordan Spieth. Playing together in the final pairing, Spieth birdied the seventh hole for a two-stroke lead over Watson. However, the momentum turned on the par-5 eighth hole. Spieth had a birdie putt, but ended up three-putting for bogey while Watson birdied to pull into a first-place tie. Then, on the ninth hole, Watson birdied again while Spieth bogeyed, and the four-shot swing over two holes gave Watson a lead that he never relinquished in a win over Spieth and
Jonas Blixt. With the win, Watson became the 17th player to win the Masters two or more times. The win moved him again to number four in the Official World Golf Ranking. As a result, he was jeered by fans for the majority of the tournament, later criticizing the media for "turning his words around". Two weeks later though, he returned to the winner's circle after winning the Northern Trust Open at Riviera for a second time in three years, seeing off the challenge of Adam Scott and Jason Kokrak to win by one shot on 15-under-par.
2017 Watson did not chalk a win during the
2017 season, and missed the cut at three of the year's four majors (his only cut a T27 at
The Open Championship). He had five top-10 finishes with more than $1.3 million in tour earnings.
2018 The
2018 season started with a T7 at the
QBE Shootout in December 2017 marking the best of his first six starts. Watson returned to the winner's circle with a 12-under finish at the
Genesis Open in February, his third victory at this tournament (2014, 2016), all at Riviera. His trifecta at the Genesis (previously known as the
Los Angeles Open, Northern Trust Open, and Nissan Open) makes him only the fifth to win this long-standing event at least three times, along with
Ben Hogan,
Arnold Palmer,
Lloyd Mangrum, and
Macdonald Smith. On March 25, he gained his eleventh tour win at the
WGC-Dell Match Play event in
Austin, Texas, with a winner's share of $1.7 million. In September 2018, Watson qualified for the U.S. team participating in the
2018 Ryder Cup. Europe defeated the U.S. team 17 1/2 to 10 1/2. Watson went 1–2–0. He lost his singles match against
Henrik Stenson.
2022 On July 29, 2022, Watson announced that he had joined
LIV Golf as a non-playing team captain for the remainder of the season while he recovered from a
torn meniscus, with the intention of returning to play from 2023. On August 10, he announced that he had resigned from the PGA Tour. ==Personal life==