The first hug came within four seconds of history being made, after Phil Mickelson slotted home the simplest of putts to end the most complex of triumphs. It was from his brother, Tim, his caddie. Tim Mickelson is 43, which is a pretty typical age for a guy to be caddying in a major championship. His elder sibling, known as Lefty to you, me and anyone who’s enjoyed golf for the past three decades, is 50 – not a typical age to be hugging people because you’ve just won one. Over the next couple of minutes after the Mickelsons’ celebration on Sunday, there would be 15 more, from tight squeezes to long embraces, hugs accompanied by well-wishing words and nods of acknowledgement from those who know, because they’ve seen, just what it took to pull this off. As he made his way from the final green at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course there was one hug from Steve Loy, his coach at Arizona State and now his manager. There were greetings from PGA Tour staff and other associates, and from plenty of players who waited around: Jon Rahm, Paul Casey, Rickie Fowler. All of whom know what it means to win, none of whom can probably imagine doing it on this stage at that age. Don’t get lured in by the big name. Sure, Mickelson has won five majors before. Sure, he has been the best golfer of the 2000s, with the sole exception of Tiger Woods. Sure, it was Phil, innately talented, supremely composed, steeled and hardened, waging war against a course that tamed most of the field. But this wasn’t supposed to be the Mickelson of old. The guy who strode to the first tee box on Thursday of the PGA Championship was ranked 115th in the world and hadn’t placed in the top 20 a single time this season. Heck, he didn’t really stride at all, more ambled, with tight muscles and a choppy gait from knees and hamstrings that don’t have much flexibility these days. Never mind. Over three days of build-up and a remarkable afternoon to finish it off, Mickelson held it together, occasionally imperious, mostly nerve-free, always in the moment, and once blessed with fortuitous magic, when an incredible bunker shot on the fifth hole made everyone realize that wow, yeah, this could really happen. “I tried to shut my mind to a lot of stuff that was going on,” Mickelson said afterwards. “I was just trying to quiet things down because I’ll get my thoughts racing.” Let’s be clear about what type of story this is. This isn’t one of those columns that talks about how athletes can perform at their peak for longer, getting better with age rather than being stymied by its restrictive effects. This isn’t Tom Brady turning back the clock, still feeling like a 25-year-old because of a monastic lifestyle and able to parlay his smarts into enduring brilliance. Mickelson isn’t a week-in week-out force on the golf circuit. He hadn’t placed in the top 20 in a major since 2016. He’s eligible for the senior tour now and he’s already played on it twice. He was going to need a special exemption to the U.S. Open in a few weeks, the only major he hasn’t won. Thanks to this triumph, he’s now in the field on merit. The past week wasn’t a precursor of a late career revival where Mickelson goes on a tear and we see more days from him like this. It is a one-off and let’s just take that, stick it in our back pocket and be grateful for the reminder. Sports doesn’t always have to make sense. It’s nice when it does but my goodness, isn’t it so much nicer when it doesn’t? A national outlet this week published a story listing each of the PGA contestants and separating them into four categories, which loosely translated into contender, pretender, no-hoper and guy who is just in the field because he once was a champion, a number of years ago. Mickelson was in the third category. FOX Bet had him at 400-to-1 odds and not many people figured it was worth even a few speculative bucks. “I believed for a long time that I could play at this level again,” Mickelson added. “I didn’t see why I couldn’t, but I wasn’t executing the way I could. Although I believed it, until I actually did it I had a lot of doubt.” Sometimes, we think we have sports all figured out. We have access to more statistics and metrics than ever before. We talk about sports all the time because we like them so much. It is all great, but that combination also makes it easy for us to speak in certainties when there are none. Anything can happen, even the most unexpected thing. Even Phil Mickelson, supposedly washed up, becoming the oldest champion in golf’s long history of major championships. Mickelson is a crowd favorite, now more than ever. There is also an abundance of anecdotal evidence that he’s not always been the nicest of guys. Yet there were enough people happy for him here, appreciative of what he’s given the game and how he deserved this crazy old weekend, when he outlasted a physical marvel in Brooks Koepka and a spry course magician in Louis Oosthuizen and won by two. His wife Amy wasn’t there and they shared a tender phone call soon enough, one that conjured memories of their emotional celebration after winning the Masters in 2010, as Amy battled breast cancer. They’ll talk about this win for a long time, as they should. It took a century-and-a-half for a 50-year-old to win a major. Who knows how long before it happens again? Of all the hugs, all the conversations, all the interactions Mickelson had at the end of that dramatic round, one with flanking, roaring, reveling crowds, there was another with special poignancy. On his walk to the scorer’s tent, Mickelson passed by his coach, who said just one thing. “Knew you could do it,” grinned Andrew Getson. Few others did. But that didn’t matter. Here’s what others have said … Jon Rahm, Golfer: “He’s been on tour as long as I’ve been alive. For him to keep that willingness to play and compete and practice, it’s truly admirable.” Louis Oosthuizen, Golfer: “It was like the Phil that I remember watching just when I turned pro, and it was great to see. I mean, what an achievement to win a major at 50 years old, and he deserves all of that today.” Mark Blackburn, Golf Digest: “He’s so resilient to the ‘failure’ of all those second place finishes that he clearly has figured out how to spin them as positives in his mind so they don’t hold him back. That is a powerful superpower.” |
