Bye-bye, Bubba, we’re gonna miss you. For three weeks, at least.

Watson was happy enough with his rebound at the Travelers, where he finished T2, that he’s taking a breather until the British Open, according to Jason Sobel at the Golf Channel.

At the Travelers Championship, though, Watson got back on track, finishing in a share of second place at the event where he won his first career PGA Tour title back in 2010.

“All in all, it was a great day. Came up a little short, but it was good,” he said after a second straight 65 on the weekend. “It’s good to get back and get under the gun and get under the pressure and get back to where I was starting at the beginning of the year.”

Watson revealed that he will skip each of the next three scheduled PGA Tour events, next competing at The Open Championship.

We hope Watson’s enjoying part-time work. Counting the Travelers, Watson has played in four tournaments since winning the Masters the first week of April. Until last week, Bubba showed some rust on the rudder, as he was all over the golf courses that he did play. But – Has he told you? – Bubba has a kid now, and the way he talks about young Caleb we suspect he'll be in for a happy, exhausting vacation.

Ace Prediction
What soothsaying spectator called Rory Sabbatini’s hole-in-one Sunday at the Travelers? We still don’t know. But someone did. Watch the video below, courtesy of the PGA Tour:

Jim Nantz picked up on it: Sabbatini’s peculiar response -– “You called it” -– suggests that he had ace on the brain heading to the tee. And he made it anyway. Golf’s tiny mysteries endure.

Pure Michigan
Shanty Creek Resort in Bellaire, Mich., somewhere near the top of the mitten, announced its plan to nearly double the size of the hole in an effort to make golf more fun for beginners, according to WorldGolf.com. They’ll keep the standard 4.25ers, and add the new caverns, which will be two inches larger than a Pizza Hut Personal Pan pie. As the article reports:

This is a very unique and unprecedented program we are implementing at Shanty Creek Resort. Guests will have an option every day to play either the regular tees to the traditional cups or move to the forward tees and play to the 8-inch cups," explains Brian Kautz, director of golf and PGA Professional for SCR. "We have four golf courses at our resort, so this was the perfect opportunity to convert one of our courses and implement this program. Hopefully, this will help grow the game of golf."

This initiative is part of the "Golf 2.0" campaign that Jack Nicklaus has been urging members of the PGA to adopt to restore fun, particularly for women and junior players, to the game.

Someday, when carts are hovercrafts and Ping is on the G2000, we’ll look back with nostalgia on the quaint, old days when cups were 4.25 inches, and drivers were only titanium. But remember: you’re gravity-defying lip outs will still smack Isaac Newton in the face, no matter how large the target.

 Tweet of the Day

I'm jazzed to have just been asked to be a voter for the World Golf Hall of Fame. So I guess I'm now part of the establishment. *Shudder*

— Alan Shipnuck (@AlanShipnuck) June 25, 2012

CROMWELL, Conn. -- Jerry Kelly has been around long enough to know he can get in his own way. He broods, he gets grumpy, and the people around him suffer the consequences.

It's never been clear whether grumpiness leads to bogeys or bogeys lead to grumpiness, but Kelly figures he may as well address the part he can control: his attitude. 

"The way I came out here this week was to kind of reset the program a little bit," Kelly said after an opening-round 66 at the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands on Thursday. "And be a little nicer to myself and maybe everybody else."

So far, so good. Starting on the back nine, Kelly, a three-time Tour winner from Madison, Wis., birdied his first three holes and cruised from there, taking just 24 putts in a bogey-free opening round.

At 45, Kelly freely admits he's at a career crossroads. He missed the Masters, and the U.S. Open. He's missed the cut in seven of 15 starts on Tour this season, with his best result a T18 at the Valero Texas Open in April. Coming back to Hartford, where he went to college, he decided to take an honest assessment of his game and ask himself some hard questions.

"I've always got the desire," he said. "Sometimes I take it the wrong way and push myself a little over the top. I really wanted to reset myself, and I think the last couple of years I haven't been that much fun to be around. I haven't been that much fun to play with. I haven't enjoyed myself a whole lot.

"So you know what, I had to take stock," he added, "and you know, I'm getting older. I started missing majors, and I don't like that. What am I going to do? Am I going to go off into the shadows, or am I going to reassert myself and enjoy the game and try and play hard again? That's what I'm planning on doing."

(Photo: Jim Rogash/Getty Images)