Bubba Watson dreamed of being a champion golfer while growing up in a small town outside Pensacola, Florida. He has more than fulfilled that dream with 12 wins on the PGA Tour, including two Masters. He and his wife, Angie, are committed to leveraging success on the golf course into creating better lives for others. With his LIV Golf RangeGoats teammates, Watson is partnering with Convoy of Hope. During a visit to Convoy’s Global Headquarters & Training Center, he explained why.
HQ: You spent a day connecting with the Convoy of Hope team. How did it go?
Bubba: I constantly felt the love at the base of everything going on here. Your team does this for people they don’t even know. And there’s such a sense of pursuing a common goal — to support people and help people, not only in this community but across our country and around the world.
HQ: Do you see any common elements between golf and relief work?
Bubba: When we helped pack bags of hygiene products and other resources for disaster survivors, I kept thinking how important preparation is in both golf and relief work. We constantly prepare for the next tournament, the next event. In relief work, you don’t want the next disaster to happen, but you know it will. Hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, wildfires … you’re preparing months in advance so you can be there to hug a survivor and give them something they need.
HQ: As the RangeGoats, you’re promoting Convoy’s use of goats in our relief work.
Bubba: Once we learned about Convoy of Hope’s goat giving, we knew it was a perfect fit with our team. The idea of helping a family through the gift of a goat is one thing, but knowing that the effect of just one goat and the support of Convoy of Hope’s Agriculture program can grow to impact an entire community for generations makes it feel that much more special.
HQ: What stands out to you about Convoy’s global work?
Bubba: Convoy adapts to local conditions when meeting needs. In your Agriculture program, for example, you’ve developed a tractor that can be maintained and repaired with locally supplied parts. You can find most of those parts in just about any country, so you can fix your equipment and keep going. That smaller hand-pushed model is light enough for one person to use.
HQ: Connecting with people is very important to you. How does that play into your partnership with Convoy of Hope?
Bubba: You hear the term “dignity” used a lot in nonprofit work. But that is so central to everything Convoy of Hope does. When Convoy brings hope into people’s lives, it never comes across as creating embarrassment for anything someone lacks. Convoy creates opportunities for personal growth, for families to change even over generations. A solution may not come together this year or next year, but change does come. The goats you give away, for example, have baby goats. And goats are just a tiny piece of everything going on here.
