FACTBOX - Masters winner Bubba Watson

Bubba Watson of the U.S. receives his green jacket from 2011 champion Charl Schwartzel of South Africa after winning the 2012 Masters Golf Tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, April 8, 2012.

REUTERS - Factbox on American Bubba Watson, who won his first major title by clinching the Masters in a playoff at Augusta National Golf Club on Sunday:

Born November 5, 1978 in Bagdad, Florida

GOLFING FAMILY

* A self-taught player who learned the game by hitting wiffle balls around his house after being encouraged by his late father Gerry. He became an All-American at Faulkner State in Alabama. Attended the University of Georgia where he helped the Bulldogs to the 2000 SEC title.

PROFESSIONAL DAYS

* Graduated to the PGA Tour in 2006 after finishing 21st on the 2005 Nationwide Tour money list.

* In the 2007 U.S. Open at Oakmont, in his second major championship start, he tied for fifth after trailing the eventual champion, Angel Cabrera, by one shot after 36 holes.

* Won his first PGA Tour title at the 2010 Travelers Championship, an emotional win he dedicated to his father who had been diagnosed with lung cancer in October 2009 and died one year later.

* Carded four sub-par rounds in the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits where he was beaten by Germany's Martin Kaymer on the third playoff hole. His play there earned him a place on the U.S. Ryder Cup team at Celtic Manor in Wales.

* Enjoyed a career-best season on the 2011 PGA Tour, winning the Farmers Insurance Open and New Orleans Classic, making 19 cuts and missing only two.

* Reached the semi-finals of the 2011 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, where he lost to Kaymer, and qualified for his first Presidents Cup that year in Australia, where he posted a 3-2-0 record for the triumphant U.S. team.

* A prodigious hitter of the golf ball who uses a pink-shafted driver with a pink head, he placed second at the elite WGC-Cadillac Championship last month, then finished fourth at the Arnold Palmer Invitational before winning his first major title at the 2012 Masters on his next PGA Tour start.

(Writing by Mark Lamport-Stokes; Editing by Nick Mulvenney)