Phil Freaking Mickelson

Professional golf gets my attention four times a year, during the playing of the four majors. I can be counted on to faithfully watch The Masters, The U.S. Open, The British Open and the PGA Championship. The rest of the time I wouldn’t be caught dead. Why the majors? Because that’s when the very best players compete, the courses they play on are insanely difficult, and history is being made. Nobody cares who wins the Waste Disposal Open, but you win the British Open and you’re set for life. So yesterday there I was on the edge of my seat watching 50 year old Phil Mickelson trying to win his 6th major title. Literally...on the edge of my seat...

 

Phil Mickelson. In the golf world players are about the most boring people on the planet. Sure, there are exceptions like the mercurial brilliance of Tiger Woods or the brutish power and eccentricity of Bryson DeChambeau. But there is nobody like Phil Mickelson...unpredictable, affable, goofy, thumbs-upping the gallery after every decent shot Phil Freaking Mickelson. He is that rarest of commodities, an entertaining golfer. Watching him trying to win a golf tournament can be excruciating because the man is capable of anything. The same guy who can hole out from a green side bunker can also be counted on to duck-hook a drive into the water at any moment. Even yesterday when he was up by three with three holes to play I’m thinking his chances were 50/50. But then, with all the pressure in the world on him, he steps up to the16th tee and hits the longest drive of his career, a 366 yard bomb that split the fairway. His playing partner, Brooks Koepka was literally in diapers when Phil Mickelson won his first tournament. It must have galled him to be consistently out driven by the old guy. Did I, as a 63 year old who sometimes grows tired of hearing how better the newest version of everything is over anything that came before, take vicarious pleasure in seeing Phil sticking it to all those flat-bellies? You bet I did.