Day: May 26, 2021

Could Tiger and Phil both be at the Ryder Cup?Could Tiger and Phil both be at the Ryder Cup?

May 26, 2021May 26, 2021| 15:09

Though it may have seemed uncertain months ago, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson could both be at this year’s Ryder Cup. Woods’ car accident in February and Mickelson’s poor play made uncertain their status for this year’s edition of the biennial matches between the United States and Europe, which will be held Sept. 24-26 at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin. Mickelson won last week’s PGA Championship, however, and Woods appears to be making progress in his recovery. He was recently photographed in public, appearing on the Instagram feed of a young cancer patient who met Woods at a soccer game. Woods was out of the walking boot he wore in last month’s Instagram post, but he was on crutches and his right leg, which received the worst of the injuries from his February crash, was covered in a compression sock. Woods’ return to play remains uncertain but he has shown a passion for serving at team events in any capacity. That’s true of this year’s Ryder Cup, as well. “He’s all in with us,” U.S. Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker said this week. “He’s all in to help us in any capacity that he can. We’re not sure health-wise where he will be at at that point, but he’s all in. That’s the kind of guy he is. What he means to the players is a great deal and what he can bring to the team is insurmountable, too. Hopefully we can have him be a part of it in some shape or form.” Woods first served as a vice captain at the 2016 Ryder Cup, bringing the same competitiveness to his captaincies as he has shown on the course throughout his career. He also was a vice captain under Stricker at the 2017 Presidents Cup before performing admirably as a playing captain in the 2019 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne. The United States won all three events. “I’d love to have him there,” Stricker said at last week’s PGA Championship. “Who wouldn’t, right? The guys really respect him and he did a great job obviously as a captain, but he was an assistant captain of mine in 2017 of the Presidents Cup and he was unbelievable. He would do anything for you and he’s totally, totally vested in the situation and the process and almost to the point of he’s on it early and so much, it’s like, dude, we’ve still got months to go yet.” After winning the PGA, Mickelson moved from 52nd to 16th on the U.S. points list. He’s still 10 spots outside of automatic qualification but certainly on Stricker’s short list for one of the six captain’s picks. “There was a reason why he was 52nd, right? He wasn’t playing all that great. Well, now there’s a reason why he’s 16th, because he had one great tournament,” Stricker said. “But now I need to see what he’s going to do from this point forward. We still have a lot of play left. I’m rooting for him. He’s a great team player. He’s great in the locker rooms. He’s a great partner. So I’d love to see him continue what he did this last week and keep climbing that point list because I think he’s a huge benefit for our team. Bottom line, I think he does us a lot of good.” Mickelson’s popularity and his victory in the PGA of America’s flagship event will make him a strong candidate. The PGA of America also runs the Ryder Cup. Mickelson’s candidacy is also bolstered by the similarities to Kiawah Island and Whistling Straits. “I told people last week before the PGA started that I was going to watch who plays well there because it’s a Pete Dye course on a body of water and the wind blows,” Stricker said. “There’s a lot of similarities to whistling straits. That’s a feather in his cap if (Phil) needs a pick.” John Daly in 1991 was the last American to win the PGA Championship but fail to qualify for that year’s Ryder Cup (Rich Beem won the 2002 PGA but did not play in that year’s Ryder Cup, which was delayed by 9/11, because the rosters were frozen from 2001). Mickelson’s role should he not make the team remains uncertain. The 2019 Presidents Cup was the first team event since the 1993 Ryder Cup where Mickelson wasn’t on the U.S. roster. Could this year mark Mickelson’s debut as a vice captain, a role that would prepare him for future Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup captains? It remains to be seen, but the possibility of both Woods and Mickelson at the Ryder Cup, in any capacity, is good news.

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Phil Mickelson’s legacy will be longevityPhil Mickelson’s legacy will be longevity

May 26, 2021May 26, 2021| 14:22

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — Among the congratulations that poured in for Phil Mickelson becoming the oldest major champion in golf was a video tweet from Jack Nicklaus, who is still good at math. “You know, something sort of strikes me that 50 years old is older than 46,” Nicklaus said with a grin. “Well done, my friend. Many more.” Many more? At age 50? Mickelson plays a game with which Nicklaus might not be familiar, even though the most iconic of his 18 majors was Nicklaus winning the Masters at age 46. During an interview at the end of 2016, Nicklaus said that sixth Green Jacket “was an accident in many ways.” He started to scale back his schedule after winning two majors in 1980. He won twice more before the 1986 Masters, but he really wasn’t playing much golf. “It’s really difficult when you’ve had as much success as I had over a long period of time to charge your batteries, day after day, and go back out and say, ‘Man, I want to do this again,’” Nicklaus said. That’s where Mickelson stands alone. The list of 24 players who have reached No. 1 since the world ranking began in 1986 does not include Mickelson, who is more accomplished than all but one of them. He has never won a PGA TOUR money title. He has never been PGA TOUR Player of the Year. He is not among the most elite group in golf with the career Grand Slam. Only one of those can change. And even in the glow of his two-shot victory at Kiawah Island to win the PGA Championship, adding the U.S. Open still seems like a long shot. That would stand as his greatest major. It might even top Tiger Woods winning the Masters after overcoming four back surgeries that left him wondering if he could ever play again. What won’t change regardless of what Lefty does next is his legacy of longevity. It doesn’t sound all that sensational. But it is. Never mind Mickelson becoming the oldest player to win a major, breaking a record that had stood for 53 years. Mickelson set another record Sunday as the first player in PGA TOUR history to go 30 years between victories. He won his first when he was a junior at Arizona State. He won his 45th when his daughter was a senior at Brown. “He’s been on TOUR as long as I’ve been alive,” Jon Rahm said. “For him to keep that willingness to play and compete and practice, even when it hasn’t been working, it’s truly admirable.” From his first full season on the PGA TOUR, Mickelson never finished lower than 60th on the money list. That was last year, at age 49, during a season disrupted by the pandemic. He made the TOUR Championship 19 of his first 20 full seasons, the exception in 2003 when his wife went through a scary and troublesome pregnancy that ended well with their third child. As for team competitions, Mickelson played his first Presidents Cup in 1994 and was part of every U.S. team until the last one in 2019 at Royal Melbourne. He hasn’t missed a Ryder Cup since his 3-0 debut at Oak Hill in 1995. Whether he’s at Whistling Straits in September is to be determined. The last American to win a major and be left off the Ryder Cup team was Todd Hamilton, the British Open winner in 2004. The last American major winner left off any team was Keegan Bradley, who won the PGA Championship as a rookie in 2011. The final pick for the Presidents Cup went to Bill Haas, the FedExCup champion. Neither was named Phil Mickelson. Most remarkable about his longevity is that he kept working harder even as progress was difficult to see. Mickelson had gone more than two years without winning — except for two times he played on the 50-and-over PGA TOUR Champions — and nine months without finishing in the top 20. He fell out of the top 100 in the world in March. The last time he was outside the top 100 was August 1993, three weeks after Jordan Spieth was born. And still he pressed on without any secret sauce except to keep trying. “My desire to play is the same,” he said. “I’ve never been driven by exterior things. I’ve always been intrinsically motivated because I love to compete, I love playing the game. I love having opportunities to play against the best at the highest level. That’s what drives me, and the belief that I could still do it inspired me to work harder. “I just didn’t see why it couldn’t be done,” he said. “It just took a little bit more effort.” Winning is why he plays, and winning can be exhausting. That’s 48 victories worldwide to go along with 39 runner-up finishes and as much heartache as joy in some of the majors, particularly the U.S. Open. Mickelson is still finding ways to get better. The topic in that Nicklaus interview was Woods, who had just returned from 15 months off after a third of what would be four back surgeries. Nicklaus ended his thoughts on motivation by adding as aside, “Phil is not done yet, either.” That was five years ago. Nicklaus could say the same thing today.

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