Four days after this practice swing, Bubba Watson would don his first green jacket before uttering, with beautiful humility, “I never got this far in my dreams.”

Just after 8am on the morning of Wednesday, April 4, 2012, I stood on the edge of the 14th tee box at Augusta National Golf Course, a trigger happy shutterbug.  Getting in position early had afforded me a clear view of the hopeful pros making their way through the final practice round before the start of that week’s Masters.  Ignorance of the etiquette for where and when I could snap photos gave me the nerve to capture several action sequences of guys teeing off.  So I shot first and asked questions later, questions like, “Who was that guy with the pink driver?”

I now know that the 14th at Augusta is called “Chinese Fir”, and that the Man in White that morning was named Bubba Watson.  He’d go on to win his first green jacket four days after I watched him practice ; his second two years and nine days later.  Yes, I got shots of Tiger on the tee that morning, and I like them, too.  But none more than these images of Bubba just before takeoff, lightning as accidentally bottled as it’s ever been.

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(All Photos: PaC)