A new Mickelson surfaces at Firestone
AKRON, Ohio - It's the most dreaded sound in golf. Worse than bogey, or double or triple. Maybe worse than disqualified. Worse than “You da man!” and “Git in the hole!”It was heard for the first time Saturday, coming from somewhere in the crowd on Firestone's front nine, and it was directed at Phil Mickelson.
“I love you more,” the drunk yelled, “more than my wife.”
“That,” Mickelson conceded, “is not a good thing either way you look at it -- for me or his wife.”
Thus was not only one man's aberrant behavior shouted to the tops of the hospitality tents, but also was exposed a side of Phil Mickelson apparently not seen or heard before. Mickelson has always been mostly agreeable before the media corps, and sometimes coy, and often Boy-Scoutish, a fountain of “Gollies” and “Goshes” and the like.
But this was a Mickelson refreshingly human, the kind of guy you'd find in, say, your office, or a bar, or playing a quick nine after work. A little badinage, exchanging barbs and jibes. Maybe it was the intimate surroundings, a small media corps in a small auditorium. This is a tournament of pretty hefty stature, the $8 million World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, field of only 80 from around the globe, but the media turnout wouldn't keep a bar open past closing. Then there was the good golf. How can anything but high humor come from a guy who just corrected some flaws in mid-round and pulled out a 2-under-par 68 to tie for the lead with Vijay Singh and Lee Westwood going into the final round.
“I was excited heading into the tournament because I've been playing well,” Mickelson. And so he was on a high, thanks to his game.
Now he has a chance to win for the first time in one of the WGCs. Or, as someone pointed out to him, for all of the glories in his career, it's surprising that he'd never won one. It should be noted that Mickelson was often reminded he was 0-for-42 in the majors before he won his first Masters. Now, Mickelson turned and looked at the guy with a wry look.
“I expected you to say, how many have I played in - 40, 30?” Mickelson said. “I expected you to phrase that differently, to say you're 0-for-30, whatever. That was really nice, thank you.”
(He's 0-for-24.)
Came another shot: How does it feel to be the best player never to have won a WGC?
“Thank you,” Mickelson said.
Not that he was doing stand-up, and not that the constitutional Mickelson had disappeared. Remember the one writer he asked what the crowds were like, and he responded, “You know, I don't know what the other groups had, but gosh, we had a lot of people.”
That was the old Phil Mickelson on the golf course, too, and playing alongside Vijay Singh, with whom he'd had differences. Of course, except for guys like Lee Trevino and Fuzzy Zoeller and a few others, golfers play like undertakers, and so nothing could be read into the silent conduct of their games.
Mickelson started with a stray drive and a bogey, and observers might be wondering whether this was Winged Foot and the like all over again. But he righted himself and made his way, getting even with a birdie at No. 2, but a little quirk had crept into his game.
“I really hit the ball well the first few days,” he said, “and today, the first 12, 15 holes, I was off just a little bit. I was missing by just a few yards here and there, and then I made a couple of big misses on 11 and 13. So I made an adjustment on the 14th tee.”
This is the golfer arcane. A little adjustment in his setup, he said. Maybe his left little toe was too close.
This was the other Phil Mickelson, that touch of piracy in the schoolboy. At the brutal 16th, he decided to go for the green in two. It's listed at 667 yards, and Firestone is legendary for the few who have tried to reach that green in two, and for the high casualty rate. Tournaments have died at that hole.
The gallery loved him. He hit the fairway with his tee shot, an accomplishment in itself. Then he clubbed his second over the fronting pond and over the green and into the back bunker. The crowd went wild.
Mickelson splashed out to about 5 feet and holed the putt. Birdies are hardly rare at the 16th, but that kind is.
“Did you tell the fans,” someone asked, “that the tee was moved up 50 yards?”
Mickelson gave a little grin.
“No,” he said. “They don't know. They don't need to know.”
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