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Welcome to the world of Bubba -- the latest sign that something very strange is happening in the game of golf.

In tennis you basically know what you are going to get when a Grand Slam tournament comes around.

Andy Murray looks as if he might win, but then Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer takes the title. Only once in the last 28 Grand Slams has that not been the case.

In golf you simply do not have a clue what is going to happen next.

Big-hitting Bubba Watson's victory at The Masters makes it 14 different winners of the last 14 Majors.

The last eight of them had never won one before. And none of the others play the sport in anything like the way that the 33-year-old American left-hander does.

"We always joked about Bubba Golf," said Watson after his remarkable hooked shot out of the trees beat Louis Oosthuizen at the second play-off hole.

"I always attack. I don't like to go to the center of the greens -- I want to hit the incredible shot."

Louis Oosthuizen said: "Who doesn't? That's why we play the game of golf, to pull off the amazing shot.

"Truthfully, it's like Seve (Ballesteros) played. He hit shots that were unbelievable."

The late Ballesteros was a two-time Masters champion.

"If you watch Phil Mickelson, he goes for broke and that's why he wins so many times. He's not afraid."

Where Watson is different to Ballesteros and Mickelson and everyone else, though, is in how much shape he puts on the ball all the time.

But he sees method in what others might view as madness.

He added: "I can hit it straight, it's just it's easier to see curves. I remember Jack Nicklaus said he wanted to aim at the centre of the green and get the ball drifting towards the hole when he played Augusta.

"That's the way I like to play all the golf courses, not just Augusta.

"I don't play the game for fame. I'm just Bubba -- I goof around, I joke around. I just want to be me and play golf.

"A few years ago I was living the wrong way. Every golf shot was controlling how mad I got.

"I was so wrapped up in what everybody else was doing. Why is he beating me, why this, why that, why can't I make putts, why can't I make the cut? "My wife and caddie told me that I was going the wrong way. If I'm going to live my life as a Christian you can't live your life that way and so I had to change.

"It's a slow process, but I've been working hard and hopefully the years to come it gets better and better."

Off the course Watson and his wife Angie, a 6-foot 4-inch former basketball player, have just adopted a month-old boy called Caleb, so life was never going to be the same even before he won The Masters.

The disappointment of losing was softened for Oosthuizen by the fact that he won the 2010 Open at St Andrews and that he had produced what may prove to be the shot of the year.

When the South African's 253-yard four-iron to the long second ran into the hole for the first albatross there in Masters history he leapt from two behind into the lead.

There he stayed for the rest of the round, but Watson had four successive birdies from the 13th to catch him and make it an Easter Sunday to remember.

He is now up to a career-high fourth in the world and leads the race for places in Davis Love's Ryder Cup side.

Joint third were England's Lee Westwood, Swede Peter Hanson and two more Americans, Mickelson and Matt Kuchar.

Three-time winner Mickelson finished only two behind despite triple bogeys at the 10th hole in his opening 74 and the fourth hole in his closing 72.

While annoyed at missing out on a fourth green jacket he knew he had done a lot better than pre-tournament favourites Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. They tied for 40th and for Woods that was his worst finish in the event as a professional.