Last week ESPN.com published the results of a survey it had conducted with 103 tour pros.This survey contained various questions about some of the hottest topics in the game, including a roundabout way of asking tour professionals who they most dislike out on tour.When the tour pros were asked who they would be least likely to help in a fistfight, two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson stood out by a large margin.Twenty-three out of the 103 tour pros surveyed said that they would be least likely to help Watson.Patrick Reed received 11 percent of the vote, while Rory Sabbatini and Robert Allenby each received nine percent of the vote, respectively.As you can see, the answer to this particular survey question was not even closeWatson is clearly the most disliked player out on tour right now.On Tuesday of Masters week Watson addressed ESPNs survey while speaking to the media at Augusta National, as reported by ASAP Sports:Here is the way I take it. I take it as I need to improve as a man. I take it with pride. I need to get better. And I think over my career, since my rookie season to now, I've gotten better. But obviously there's more room for me to improve as a man. And so hopefully next year or the year after, it improves. It's a challenge. It's great. I'm glad that it came out and it's going to help me improve. So if it's a bad thing and people don't like me, then I've got to improve and prove them wrong.Watson being ranked by his peers as the most disliked player on tour may have surprised some casual golf fans, but it was not the slightest bit surprising to those of us that have followed the game closely for many years.While Watson may come across as a fun-loving, big kid-type character while in front of the camera, he can quickly turn into the most ornery, rabbit eared golfer to walk a PGA Tour fairway since Colin Montgomerie when the cameras are not rolling.He berates his caddie on a regular basis, scolds fans and the media for making any noise that can be construed as louder than a yawn and consistently blames the greens for every bad putt he happens to strike.Watsons ranking as the most disliked player on tour should also serve as a lesson to all golf fansthe persona players display while in front of the camera can often be vastly different to their true personalities.Back in 2006 GQ ranked Phil Mickelson as one of the most hated athletes in the world.The GQ article stated the following:Last August at the PGA Championship at Baltusrol, in New Jersey, a reporter turned to a golfer on the tour and said of Phil Mickelson, Man, the fans here love Phil. The golfer replied, They dont know him the way we do. It blew our minds a little when we heard this, since Mickelson ranks among the most admired golfers in America. But today the same reporter makes his case bluntly: Phil Mickelson literally has no friends out there. He annoys everybody.Mickelson has earned many nicknames on the Tour, but our favorite is FIGJAM (expletive, Im goodjust ask me). There are a bunch of pros who think he and his whole smiley, happy face are a fraud, another reporter says. They think hes preening and insincere. Mickelson has aggressively pursued a family-man image that is crucial to his success as an endorser.This may come as a shock for many die-hard Mickelson fans, but this type of report doesnt just appear out of nowhere, especially when considering that Mickelson's peers ranked him as the second most disliked playing partner on tour in a 2007 Sports Illustrated player survey and then again ranked him as one of the top-five most disliked playing partners in a 2011 Golf.com player survey.At the end of the day, would any of us really know if Mickelson is a vastly different person when the cameras arent rolling'Then, of course, we have the example of Tiger Woods.While Woods name has never appeared in any rankings of the most disliked players on tour, we all know that for many years Woods was living a lifestyle vastly different to the one that he portrayed for the public.Woods public facade was obviously stripped in late 2009 and his brand has yet to recover from that extreme form of embarrassment.Between Mickelson, Woods and now Watson, have we not learned our lesson yet'It is irresponsible for any of us to become emotionally attached to the public personas put forth by any professional athlete.Golfers such as Watson, Mickelson and Woods literally have 10s of millions of dollars resting on the public image they are able to create when the cameras are rolling.That is an incredibly large incentive to step into what may very well be a completely different personality for that minuscule portion of their lives they spend in front of the cameras.There are 168 hours in any given week.If a golfer makes the cut and plays four rounds, he will be in front of the public for around 16 of those 168 hours, with virtually all of that time spent concentrating on his golf game and not speaking with the fans or media.A golfer may speak to the media for about 15 minutes or so after each round. This is the only time that a professional golfer truly needs to turn into the type of character that will be attractive to fans and sponsors.So ask yourself this, for $50 million per year would you be able to successfully create a completely different personality for a mere one hour (0.60 percent of the total hours during any given week) per week for those 20 or so weeks you are out on tour'Fool us once, shame on you, fool us two, three, four, five times, shame on us for not realizing that we know absolutely nothing about the true personalities of the golfers we so often admire based on the minuscule portion of time they spend in front of the cameras.Its time to learn our lesson, folks.
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