BUBBA WATSON has leapt to the defence of Tiger Woods after his DUI arrest and says he has “nothing but love” for the struggling star.
Woods, 50, was arrested after crashing into a pickup truck and rolling his SUV in Florida last week.
The golf legend spent eight hours in jail and was charged with driving under the influence and refusing to submit to a urine test.
He later fell asleep in a police car on his way to the station.
Woods – who is a 15 time major winner – has since submitted a not guilty plea following his arrest and there is now huge doubt over his future in golf.
Fellow pro Watson has come to his defence and insisted he was “pulling for him as a human being” amid his ordeal – even though Woods has blocked his number.
Speaking to the media at Augusta, he said: “I couldn’t care less about Tiger’s golf. I’ve always been in his ear.
“I told him that I wanted to be here for his next major. I was here in ’19. We were in the champions’ locker, and I made a lot of the champions come down to congratulate him. That was very emotional.
“I told him from day one that we started hanging out back in ’06, ’07, somewhere in there, that I’m pulling for him as a human being, forget his golf, I couldn’t care less about his golf.
“Anybody that’s struggling with anything, I feel for him because I’ve been through a lot of mental stuff.
“So yeah, I always pull for him. I don’t have his phone number anymore. He blocks me because I make fun of him all the time.
“But yes, when we were on the Ryder Cup captaincy together, he told me how much that meant that I was here in ’19 after he won.
“He was very appreciative that I was here, and I told him I’d be here for the majors. Nothing but love for him, and hopefully he can come back stronger.”
Woods has also received support from six-time major winner Nick Faldo, who claimed the veteran star was “living in 24/7 pain”.
However, he said Woods still had to take accountability over the “serious issue”.
Faldo said: “I feel sorry for Tiger, he’s living 24/7 in pain. I asked him that years ago, even before the LA accident [in 2021], but it’s all been self-inflicted.
“There are two sides to this right now. There’s one side that’s, like, ‘Let’s care for Tiger’. And then there is, ‘There has got to be a responsibility and an accountability side as well’. This is a serious thing that he has done.
“The bottom line is that I really think that this is a serious issue and something should be done that is a little bit more than waving him off to a tropical island and saying ‘welcome back’ in three or four months or whatever it might be.”
