Jim,
He may have been further into the pine straw but not a whole lot closer to the green. If he was at an angle of 45* from where I placed him then he wouldn't have had 155 yards to the pin. But he could have been further to the right of where I placed him and had 155 yards in.
I take Jeff at his word that Bubba was near the beginning of the bunker. But that depends on what angle Jeff was looking from.
So, I'd say maybe 10 yards further in and 5 yards closer to the green than I marked.
Jeff,
The "T" for the tower should be maybe 5 yards closer to the green and maybe on the white line. Below is a bird's eye view where I've circled the tower location in red. The yellow circle is the behind-the green camera tower. The blue "X" marks my best guess of the spot of the shot.
In the interview he said the tower was in his line of sight to the pin, but he didn't want to ask for relief because he liked the look of the draw ..... hook .... shot. That alignment says he must have been a little right of where I marked him, but not a whole lot.
The second picture below is a screen shot of Bubba exiting the pine straw. The camera tower is obvious and appears to be 20 yards or more away from him, so it doesn't make sense that he was substantially closer to the green than I marked him. Also, you can see the behind-the-green camera tower circled in yellow in both pictures. Aligning Bubba emerging from the straw and the two camera towers suggests he was coming out near where I marked him, albeit probably from further in.
As to hitting 45 yard hooks, I can attest to having done it with wedges in hand a couple of times in the last couple of days. Not by design, and with no control and aided and abetted (or punished) by a quartering into 40 mph wind. But then I have no delusions of being a Bubba-quality player.
On the other hand, Bubba and other tour level players can probably pull off that shot with some degree of success a fair amount of the time. It was remarkable in the circumstances.