"Deeply tragic and embarrassing" Bubba Watson re-names LIV Golf League team

Two-time Masters champion and former PGA Tour player Bubba Watson appears to have re-branded his LIV Golf League side ahead of the 2023 season.

Ben Smith

03 Feb 2023

"Deeply tragic and embarrassing" Bubba Watson re-names LIV Golf League team

Bubba Watson appears to have re-branded his LIV Golf League side, switching from Niblicks GC to the Range GOATS.

The new name was spotted on the side of Watson's cap in a promotional video for the breakaway tour, with the second season set to get underway later this month in Mexico.

Watson, 44, resigned his PGA Tour membership last August to join fellow American players Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson.

Mickelson, in particular, has returned to social media and is making some audacious claims.

Related: Mickelson rips RBC

Bubba Watson if officially changing the name of his LIV team “Niblicks” to “RANGE GOATS”.
Thoughts??
@LIVGolfUpdates pic.twitter.com/JRmrz3Ma3S
— Flushing It (@flushingitgolf) February 2, 2023

Watson was a non-playing captain of the Niblicks in the LIV Golf Invitational Series in 2022. Instead, he served as an on course reporter and analyst.

He tore the meniscus in his right knee and was forced out of the game for more than eight months. Now he's made his return to the game.

Speaking before the PIF Saudi International, Watson painted a grim picture of just how gruesome his knee injury was.

The details were absolutely not for the squeamish. He discovered his meniscus had actually detached from the bone after the PGA Championship at Southern Hills.

Watson spoke of this then revealed he would beg PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan to let him play the 2023 PNC Championship with his son Caleb, despite severing ties with the North American circuit.

How golf fans reacted to the name change...

The apparent name change has not gone down too well with some golf fans.

Some comments included:

"Everybody knows the Range GOATS..."

"You're kidding"

"This is better?"

"Deeply, deeply tragic and embarrassing."

"My 2022 Niblicks gear is going to be worth dozens more dollars now."

"As bad as Niblicks was, this is worse."

"Change from an awful name to an awful name."

"I think we're on to something with LIV..."

The team aspect is meant to be a big driver for the success of LIV Golf. In 2022, the 4 Aces GC side dominated with DJ at the helm.

There are early reports that each team will eventually have their own jerseys.

Watson told the media that he reckons LIV are genuinely on to something.

He told the media:

"My son is used to the Yankees, he's used to the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs.

"He's used to watching teams, and that's the one thing that golf, high school golf has a team, college golf has a team, and then one of the biggest events in the world is the Ryder Cup, and that's a team event.

"Now that professional golf has a team, we're going to be able to get the below 60-year-olds watching Golf Channel to the 10-year-old who want to watch."

Watson added:

"I think we're on to something with LIV, and that's why I want to be part of it. When my 10-year-old who never watches golf and now watches golf, when my eight-year-old daughter now understands the teams, and she knows my new logo, she was part of it.

"My family was a part of making the new logo and the new team colours.

"That's what we're trying to do. To grow the game is not getting 60 and 70-year-olds to play, it's getting the young kids to play."

Next page: Nine players who changed their mind about LIV Golf