Bubba Watson, known mostly for hitting a golf ball a long way, spinning down-home stories about his childhood and the small town where he grew up, is making a name for himself at the 107th U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club.

	Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Bubba Watson finished the second round in second dplace at 1-over-par. Click photo for larger image. Multimedia: Surprise newcomer Bubba Watson is in second place after two rounds at the U.S. Open at Oakmont: Excerpts of Watson's press conference Tiger Woods on Bubba Watson Click to view video report PG golf Writer Gerry Dulac wraps up Day Two developments at Oakmont.

But please don't refer to him as a Cinderella story.

"I wouldn't say that," said Watson, who shot a 71 yesterday to go with a 70 Thursday for a 141 total that is one stroke behind leader Angel Cabrera heading into the final two rounds this weekend. "I haven't done anything yet. It's just Friday. I made the cut. If making the cut is a Cinderella story, yeah, I did that."

He paused for emphasis, then added, "You can call it that [a Cinderella story] if I win the trophy."

Watson, a left-hander who has gone against his instincts to sheave his driver this week, has never won a PGA Tour event.

"Today, jokingly on No. 14, it's 358 straight downwind, so I walk up to the tee after I made a birdie and tell my caddy, Teddy, 'Think I should hit driver. I can get there.' He goes, 'I know you can get there, but this is what we're hitting.' "

After those at the media conference stopped laughing, Watson continued, "He's got a little baby, so he's got to eat, too."

Watson explained that putting away the driver is hard for him to do.

"It's more fun for me to hit the driver," said Watson, whose length allowed him to use irons off the tee to keep the ball in the fairway and still be able to reach the longer par 4s.

"When I'm home [Bagdad, Fla.], that's all I hit no matter if the hole is long, short, it doesn't matter. That's all I'm hitting off the tees. You look, not like a man when you're at our home course hitting irons off the tee.

"So, it's hard, when you see it's the U.S. Open you've got to hit these fairways."

Watson is a self-taught player who never has taken formal lessons.

"My dad, who shot in the 80s every once in a while, taught me. He's right-handed so we used a mirror," Watson said. "He was the only one who really told me anything when I started the game.

"He told me just to hit it as hard as I can when I was a junior and then we'll figure out the rest after that, try to hit it straighter after that. That's why I learned to hit far because I swung as hard as I could and had that long swing."

Watson gets a special thrill out of hitting drives past Tiger Woods during practice rounds.

"I blast by him every time," Watson said, laughing. "He always talks about his wins, and I always talk about how far I hit it.

"He doesn't listen very much. He always talks about majors and all that stuff."

Watson, playing in a U.S. Open for the second time, embraces the challenge of Oakmont that played to an average of 77.2 strokes yesterday and yielded two sub-par rounds, including Paul Casey's 4-under 66.

"Out here, everybody is going to make mistakes. I know I'm going to make mistakes," said Watson, who didn't make the cut at the 2004 U.S. Open. "But, if everybody else is making mistakes, now we're on an even playing field, so the U.S. Open might be good for me because I'm going to make mistakes and somebody else is going to make mistakes."

Because of his ability to hit long irons off the tee that should be more accurate than a driver and find the fairways, Watson is confident he can remain in contention for 36 more holes.

"I hit one more fairway today than yesterday," he said, with a laugh, "so I was real focused today."

Does Watson expect to get a good night's sleep and be well-rested for the third round today?

"Again, it will be a sick feeling. I'm like a little kid. I'm going to wake up early when I really want to wake up at 10 o'clock. This morning [Friday], I had my alarm set for 9:50 and I woke up at 8. I want to try to sleep but I can't because I'm excited to play. It's the U.S. Open."

Asked if he's concerned that he'll awake and, like Cinderella when the clock struck midnight, the magic will have disappeared, Watson answered with a grin, "I might shoot 65-65 or 85-85.

"Hopefully, my wife will still love me no matter what I do. I'm not really looking at what score or what's going to happen or if anybody else is going to go crazy or if Tiger Woods is going to go crazy and beat Johnny Miller's score of 63.

"I don't know what's going to happen. I'm just a guy trying to play golf."