Bubba Watson shows Tiger Woods how to put 'pro' above 'ego'

Making the rounds on YouTube this week for anyone who missed Friday’s action of last week’s Zurich Classic like I did is Bubba Watson’s on-air frustrations with playing partner Steve Elkington.

Click here for the (edited) incident and post-round Watson reaction.

First off, Golf Channel’s director was obviously asleep at the wheel leaving Bubba’s boom mic hot for that long. Secondly, analyst Nick Faldo’s response to the situation “Ummm…I’d like to change the topic and share with everyone some culinary delights…” was a cowardly dodge, or maybe all the analysts at G.C. are gun shy after the recent Tilghman controversy…

But unlike Tiger Woods’ recent documented on-course profanities at Doral, which has been the topic of a heated debate at WorldGolf.com this week, I think Bubba handled the situation perfectly.

Despite feeling shorted by Elkington’s consistent breaches in etiquette, he swallowed his pride and offered numerous apologies to anyone listening. On the other hand, Tiger put his ego above the game and defended his distasteful reaction.

When faced with a conflict, your reaction can either diffuse or escalate a situation. Bubba, through a post-round “hug out” with Elkington and above-and-beyond apologies to anyone who may have heard it, has diffused it to the best of his ability (though he may still be in for a little veteran hazing in the coming weeks…).

For Woods, it’s hard to believe his ongoing feud with the photographers has been diffused at all. The photogs are likely to get more defensive and Woods’ camp will be more aggressive in attempting to abolish any trigger-happy photographers.

It’s simply amicability versus animosity.

Bubba-Elk appears to be over. But is anyone willing to bet against another Tiger-Photog clash in 2008?