Lefty's White Whale
Posted at 9:23 PM by Damon Hack | Categories:
Phil Mickelson
,
U.S. Open
The Boston Red Sox broke the Curse of the Bambino. Heck, Susan Lucci won an Emmy. But it looks like Phil Mickelson is going to come up short at the U.S. Open yet again. Is there anything more painful to watch in sports than Lefty's quest to win golf's national championship? (Roger Federer's pursuit of the French Open, and the Cubs' endless search for a World Series come to mind.)
Posted by: Thacker | Jun 15, 2008 12:58:12 PM
Can we drop the Tiger-Phil rivalry talk? Phil was cruising until Tigers dropped the eagle on him in Frfiday's second round. Since Tiger turned his Open around on that hole, Phil has crapped the bed. Is it only a coincidence that on Saturday Tiger eagled the same hole Phil took a 9? Enough already with the five wedges and all the Dave Pelz-a-palooza on the Golf Channel. Phil looked like an amateur taking 4 wedges to get a ball to stick. He's no match for Tiger either with a club in his hand or just what's under his cap.
Posted by: Ivor | Jun 15, 2008 12:43:24 PM
While I agree with Rick that Phil isn't worthy of washing Tiger's shoes, let alone being placed on the same pedestal as him, to say he "is quite simply a wildly popular above-average golf player" is an insult to his talent and I would venture to say wrong. A quick skim through the world ranking for a start shows Phil, while miles behind Tiger (like everyone else), has nearly double the points tally of third placed Adam Scott. Translation: Phil is nearly twice as good as the best of the rest over the last two years and beyond for that matter. Also he is quite unlucky to be in the Tiger era (comparisons can easily be drawn with Rafa Nadal there). Three majors cannot be sniffed at and he'd certainly have one more anyway (at Bethpage) if it wasn't for the Tiger. Throw in a multitude of tour wins, a Player's Championship and a tour win as a college student (!) and you have the makings of, in your words, superstar status. Still never let the facts get in the way of a good argument, eh?
Posted by: Rick | Jun 15, 2008 9:03:47 AM
I hope this performance puts to bed any future mention of Phil Mickelson alongside Tiger. It seems every year or so we're being sold how Phil can hang with Tiger when it's simply not true. And to mention him alongside Roger Federer (though I like the analogy with the Cubs), is insulting to Federer's greatness. Phil is quite simply a wildly popular above-average golf player, but deserves no superstar status or mention. So please let's stop talking about him like that.
Posted by: lefty53 | Jun 14, 2008 10:00:41 PM
It seems he overthinks the Open. Maybe he listens too much to Pelz's statistics.