Leishman ready to shed “underrated” label?

Phil Mickelson faces perhaps the biggest challenge of his historic golf career as he partners with NBA legend Charles Barkley against two-time Super Bowl champion Peyton Manning and current Golden State Warriors NBA legend and three-time NBA Champion Stephen Curry in Capital One's The Match: Champions for Change. Stone Canyon Golf Club in Oro Valley, Arizona is our host as 44-time PGA TOUR winner Mickelson tries to get Barkley's notoriously unreliable swing smooth enough to get through against near-scratch golfer Curry and single digit handicapper Manning. RELATED: How to watch The event will contribute toward and highlight diversity, equality, and inclusion through donations to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and organizations that support them (Thurgood Marshall Fund, United Negro College Fund) while raising awareness and spotlighting opportunities for diversity and equality in sports. As many of us lay back in a food coma following Thanksgiving feasts it's also important to note The Match will support Feeding America. Around 50 million people may face hunger in the U.S. during 2020's pandemic times, including more than 17 million children. The competition format will be modified alternate shot match play where each player will hit a tee shot and the team can then choose their best option before continuing in alternate shot fashion until the ball is holed. PRE MATCH The smack talk has already begun with Manning handing Barkley a special kit that includes an airhorn he can blow if he gets lost in the desert. Clearly these four champions are out for some fun while raising money and awareness for great causes. Mickelson has his calves out in all their glory - and he'll likely need them to carry a pretty big load given what we've seen out of Barkley in the past. But the 44-time PGA TOUR winner is at least talking a confident game - while reminding us he'll be hitting bombs and hellacious seeds to put some pressure on the Curry/Manning combo. And hey, look at this, Barkley has actually made some decent contact on a few at the range. Could an upset be on the cards? GO TIME Just minutes away from the start of The Match and players are getting their final warm up moments in. Mickelson is dialed in on the putting green while Barkley is trying to stretch out his back before he submits it to his swing that usually resembles a frog in a blender. Curry and Manning have that look of quiet confidence but there's also a whiff of nerves coming from the duo who, at their best in their respective sports, were seemingly impervious to jitters. The anticipation for the smack talk battle is just as high as it is for the golf itself. HOLE-BY-HOLE Hole 1: (par 4, 426 yards) The Curry / Manning team gets off to a fine start after Curry splits the fairway. Mickelson then busts out his driver and lets the group know, "I wouldn't normally hit driver here but I just want to set the tone," and cuts the corner of the dogleg left opener, but finds the rough. Barkley then takes iron and hits a perfect draw into the fairway, but it's well back meaning they decide to use Mickelson's shot. Manning pulls his approach ever so slightly to the fringe of the green, but ensures Curry will get a birdie look from around 20 feet. Mickelson tells Barkley the shot is 70 yards as he's worried about pace through the rough. It's actually 55 yards. Mickelson math backfires and Barkley hits it through the green to the back fringe leaving about 70-feet. "I won't do that to you again," the TOUR star is forced to say to his teammate. Mickelson lags it down to six-feet giving Curry a chance to win the hole, but his effort comes up well short. "I don't recall Tiger leaving you five-footers," Mickelson chirps to Manning referencing the previous Capital One's The Match where Tiger Woods and Manning bested Mickelson and Tom Brady 1up. Barkley leaves his par putt on the high edge and lips out but Manning makes no mistake and an early lead is established. Hole Result: Curry / Manning WIN Hole Scores: Curry / Manning - Par; Mickelson / Barkley - Bogey Match Score: Curry / Manning 1up Mickelson / Barkley Hole 2: (par 5, 559 yards) A change in strategy for the Mickelson / Barkley team is instituted immediately as Barkley defies all odds and finds his second straight fairway off the tee. Mickelson's drive is significantly longer, but they choose Barkley's ball, allowing Phil to try to reach the green in two. The 50-year-old comes up just short to the front of the green. After a sweet Manning drive, Curry lays up to a number that Manning clearly loved as his wedge shot tracks to the hole and actually lips out before settling about six-feet away. Unfortunately, Curry pushes the birdie putt out to the right. That miss proves costly as Barkley produces an impressive long lag putt from the front of the green to five-feet and given the chance to square The Match, Mickelson makes no mistake. "I made a mistake there in strategy and gave them a hole," Mickelson says of the opening hole. "But Chuck and I can make pars and birdies on this course if we play to our strengths and with him that's his putting so I'll work on giving him those chances." Hole Result: Mickelson / Barkley WIN Hole Scores: Curry / Manning - Par; Mickelson / Barkley - Birdie Match Score: Curry / Manning ALL SQUARE Mickelson / Barkley Hole 3: (par 4, 304 yards) We've hit the Ford Mustang Mach-E Drivable par 4 challenge where a Hole-in-One would trigger a $5 million donation to HBCUs, an eagle nets $1 million, a drive within 10-feet is worth $250,000 and the winner of the hole $100,000. Mickelson doesn't even need driver and lets loose, coming up with a shot to the back fringe of the green. Barkley brings out his driver for the first time and snipes a low bullet that they can dismiss. Both Curry and Manning have a crack with driver with the former NFL star's shot just short and right in the rough the best of the two. Curry chips out, but the ball rolls out significantly so Manning must try for an unlikely birdie. It doesn't quite have the gas to get there and they settle for par. Barkley has a putt for the $1 million and the hole with Mickelson reminding him to "quieten his mind," and forget about the money, the cameras and all of the outside noise. His 25-foot eagle effort has some heat and runs five-feet past. The stress of it all is evident on his face, but you'd be hard pressed finding many 25 handicappers (Barkley's official number) able to do much better under the spotlight like this. Mickelson proves his pedigree by converting the birdie to win the hole and take their first lead in The Match. Hole Result: Mickelson / Barkley WIN Hole Scores: Curry / Manning - Par; Mickelson / Barkley - Birdie Match Score: Mickelson / Barkley 1up Curry / Manning Hole 4: (par 4, 374 yards) Barkley has clearly been in some sort of golf boot camp like back in the day when he was part of the Hank Haney Project on Golf Channel. His swing is holding up fairly well under pressure and he once again finds the middle of the fairway off the tee. This allows Mickelson to go full flex with his calves and try to hit a bomb up near the green. "I've only seen one better resurrection," Gary McCord quips of Barkley's game in commentary. Mickelson does hit a huge drive that finds the fairway, but the 50-yard pitch would have to go over a bunker and find the correct tier of the green so he learns from the opening hole and decides to back his approach game from distance against Barkley's short game. A clever shot to about 18-feet makes the strategy appear genius. Manning's drive hooks into the left rough leaving Curry under enormous pressure given the momentum of The Match. The Warriors weapon steps up in the clutch and pounds a good drive up near the green, albeit into the left rough. The angle for the short wedge approach is a good one though. Manning, mindful of needing to get the ball to the back tier where the pin is located, is just a tad aggressive and sends the second shot into the back rough, but close enough for Curry to use his putter for their third. That effort rolls some 10-feet past the pin. Barkley's attempt to win the hole with birdie from 18 feet is tracking, but ends up just short. It's good enough though when Manning pushes his par putt. Hole Result: Mickelson / Barkley WIN Hole Scores: Curry / Manning - Bogey; Mickelson / Barkley - Par Match Score: Mickelson / Barkley 2up Curry / Manning Hole 5: (par 4, 423 yards) Trouble off the tee for both Mickelson and Barkley as they end up in the left rough on a slope. Manning finds the left first cut which gives Curry a chance to go hard at one. He tattoos it, but it catches a bunker on the left side of the fairway. "That was hit a long way," Mickelson says of Curry's shot. "Was that hellacious?" Curry asks. "Yeah but if it is in the bunker you don't want to go bragging about it," Mickelson fires. As players reach the fairway, the chatter starts to take an even more competitive turn. "What happened on that shot... I'd like to see a little more of those," Manning says to Barkley. But after Curry finds a greenside bunker on approach Mickelson starts his world renowned talk. He calls his shot, letting everyone know he will put it to about 20-feet from the hole in a spot Barkley was practicing his putting from... and goes pretty close to doing just that, going a little long to the back fringe. And a slow motion replay brings more calf action in to play. "I have been in the gym every day activating them daily, they are ready," Mickelson says. "You can see the intimidation has already begun." After Manning catches his bunker shot thin to the back rough, Mickelson starts announcing how two putts will be enough but "let's make it anyway." When Curry chunks a chip they confidently concede a bogey... "We don't want handouts, we want to earn it," Mickelson grins. Barkley takes a better shot saying, "We gonna run out of daylight," when explaining the concession. Barkley puts the birdie attempt five-feet past and Mickelson makes the par, but only after the ball does a victory lap of the hole. "We're 14-0 down and the kid hasn't got the kicking tee off the field yet," Manning says. Hole Result: Mickelson / Barkley WIN Hole Scores: Curry / Manning - Bogey; Mickelson / Barkley - Par Match Score: Mickelson / Barkley 3up Curry / Manning Hole 6: (par 3, 131 yards) TNT legend Ernie Johnson joins the telecast for the first par three of the round and at one point quips to Mickelson how he's worried he might "lose your voice before the end." Mickelson's tongue is as sharp as his wedges. "We're not going all 18, we will be done well before that," he says. Barkley can't find the green, but Mickelson rescues things by shaping one to about 20-feet. Manning once again fights his right to left ball flight and ends up in the water feature on this short and pretty hole. Under extreme pressure now, Curry finds his zone and sticks his shot to six-feet. Barkley has to attempt his birdie after his NBA on TNT colleagues Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Smith spend several minutes trash talking him. It comes up short. With the door open, Manning has a short birdie look to stop the bleeding but his aggressive effort lips out hard from the left side. Hole Result: Halved Hole Scores: Curry / Manning - Par; Mickelson / Barkley - Par Match Score: Mickelson / Barkley 3up Curry / Manning Hole 7: (par 5, 513 yards) What starts as a golden opportunity for Curry and Manning turns into a nightmare as Mickelson and Barkley extend their commanding lead. Despite Mickelson finding the desert off the tee and Barkley, who was about to hit driver only to be called off his shot to hit 5-iron, pull hooking his shot short and left - the Curry / Manning combo find a way to implode. After Barkley punches out sideways, Mickelson finds the middle of the green in three. Meanwhile, incredibly Curry decides to lay up and Manning then pulls his approach into the greenside bunker. From there Curry goes long, Manning misses the putt from the back fringe and Curry misses from six feet to make a serious bird of it. We learn Curry and Manning played a morning practice round in just 50 minutes. "Looks like they should have taken a little longer," International Presidents Cup captain Trevor Immelman says. After the hole, Barkley looks down the camera and announces the network needs "to get some of those Law and Order reruns ready," as he anticipates a quick kill. Hole Result: Mickelson / Barkley WIN Hole Scores: Curry / Manning - Double Bogey; Mickelson / Barkley - Par Match Score: Mickelson / Barkley 4up Curry / Manning Hole 8: (par 4, 340 yards) Is it the start of a comeback? Mickelson is the beneficiary of a room-service bounce after his drive looks set to find cactus country, but hits a boulder and ricochets back near the fairway. Being the course owner has its perks it seems. But Curry has similar luck and Manning shows lovely touch to wedge it to around six-feet. Barkley finds the green as well, but on the lower tier forcing Mickelson to attempt birdie from long range. He lags to four-feet, but a conceded par is not forthcoming at all from those staring a four-hole deficit in the face. Curry misses the birdie on the low side but when Barkley pulls the par putt left there is life for Manning and Curry again. Hole Result: Curry / Manning WIN Hole Scores: Curry / Manning - Par; Mickelson / Barkley - Bogey Match Score: Mickelson / Barkley 3up Curry / Manning Hole 9: (par 3, 177 yards) Top Tracer shows off its full range of capabilities as Barkley shanks one off the tee and it manages to keep up. But the big man makes up for it with a brilliant putt from the rough after they're forced to use Mickelson's tee ball. Manning and Curry both hit near identical tee shots to about 20-feet, but it is the former Colts and Broncos quarterback who gets the chance to cut the deficit heading to the turn. Unfortunately, his birdie try stays out on the right side and they have to settle for a half and are down three at the turn. Hole Result: Halved Hole Scores: Curry / Manning - Par; Mickelson / Barkley - Par Match Score: Mickelson / Barkley 3up Curry / Manning Hole 10: (par 5, 622 yards) Incredible picturesque scenes of the Arizona desert frame the shot from the elevated 10th tee box. It's a small teeing area so you wouldn't want to swing out of your shoes and lose your balance. If you do, you might find a few cactus barbs in your behind. Manning, Barkley and Mickelson find the fairway, but Curry, on advice from Mickelson, takes an aggressive line towards a water hazard. Mickelson claimed Curry couldn't reach the hazard... but he did just that. Using Manning's tee ball, Curry refuses to lay up this time and lasers one to the greenside bunker. Mickelson's approach comes up just short of the green leaving Barkley a long range eagle try from the fringe and he duly lags it to three-feet with great touch. Short-sided, Manning's bunker shot runs well past the pin and down to the front of the green from where Curry can't convert a long-range birdie try. Mickelson slots home the birdie and puts his team on the brink of victory well out from the clubhouse. Hole Result: Mickelson / Barkley WIN Hole Scores: Curry / Manning - Par; Mickelson / Barkley - Birdie Match Score: Mickelson / Barkley 4up Curry / Manning Hole 11: (par 4, 435 yards) A hacker battle breaks out on this hole, the first time both teams have shown significant struggle at the same time, but it is Curry and Manning who secure a much needed win. Tee troubles see Barkley need to attempt to rescue a ball from the desert, but he's unable to do so and Mickelson's calves get lost in knee high desert bushes as he's forced to punch out. They're still not on the putting surface after four shots, but Curry's approach finds a bunker and Manning's escape from the sand leaves a long range par putt that Curry fails to put within gimme range. It's inconsequential in the end as Mickelson fails to chip in and Barkley misses the putt for double bogey. Hole Result: Curry / Manning WIN Hole Scores: Curry / Manning - Bogey; Mickelson / Barkley - Triple Bogey Match Score: Mickelson / Barkley 3up Curry / Manning Hole 12: (par 4, 458 yards) The less said about this hole the better. Both teams were forced into unplayable penalties after wayward tee shots from all four competitors found the desert. While Mickelson was able to recover somewhere up near the green with the third shot, the same couldn't be said for Manning and Curry who needed to hit two shots from wasteland and one from sand before securing a triple bogey. In the end a lag from Mickelson to set up a double bogey was enough. Manning holds the NFL record with 43 fourth quarter comebacks... but coming back from here might dwarf all of those. Hole Result: Mickelson / Barkley WIN Hole Scores: Curry / Manning - Triple Bogey; Mickelson / Barkley - Double Bogey Match Score: Mickelson / Barkley 4up Curry / Manning Hole 13: (Par 4, 403 yards) Bombs away as Mickelson unleashes one over the desert, cuts a corner and finds the grass again. The Hall-of-Famer can smell the blood in the water and is now just putting on a show. But Barkley comes up short on approach as the two debate whether he should hit a 60 or 56 degree wedge. Manning and Curry sit in the box seat after finding the green in regulation, but contrary to their usual clutch nature, the duo find a way to three-putt and miss the chance to reduce the significant hole they find themselves in. The big moment was left to Curry from about seven feet, but another lip out ensured that only a miracle could save them from here. Hole Result: Halved Hole Scores: Curry / Manning - Bogey; Mickelson / Barkley - Bogey Match Score: Mickelson / Barkley 4up Curry / Manning Hole 14 (par 3, 154 yards) Barkley has the chance to win The Match after Mickelson and Curry find the green off the tee, but Manning can't get the mid-range birdie try to go. The former Phoenix Sun gives it a decent crack, but the victory party will have to wait at least one more hole. He takes great pleasure in being able to let the folks at home know he's just recently learned the term "dormie"... as indeed they sit four up with four to play. Hole Result: Halved Hole Scores: Curry / Manning - Par; Mickelson / Barkley - Par Match Score: Mickelson / Barkley 4up Curry / Manning Hole 15: (par 5, 578 yards) The lone hole with a different format is where things end up as the sun goes close to ducking behind the awesome Arizona mountains. After modified alternate shot had been used exclusively to this point, this par five is to be played as a scramble hole. This essentially means Mickelson is taking on Manning and Curry. Both teams find themselves in a greenside bunker in two shots and after setting up six-foot birdie tries, Manning gives his team life with a lovely putt. Barkley is given the first chance to close out the match, but his attempt dives across the hole late meaning it falls to Mickelson to seal the deal. He makes no mistake, meaning he's now the beneficiary of a 2-1 record over the three versions of Capital One's The Match as the only player to be part of them all. Hole Result: Halved Hole Scores: Curry / Manning - Birdie; Mickelson / Barkley - Birdie Match Score: Mickelson / Barkley defeat Curry / Manning 4 and 3.Hole 15: (par 5, 578 yards)

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Rory McIlroy will have an MRI on Monday when he returns to Northern Ireland after completing THE PLAYERS Championship. McIlroy has been dealing with back pain this week while competing on THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. He is expected to make the cut after shooting 73-71 in the first two rounds. “It’s obviously not 100 percent, but it’s good enough to get myself around here for the next couple of days,” McIlroy said about his back. He said the pain is coming from the same area as the stress fracture in his ribs that sidelined him for the start of the year. “If that injury was an 8 or a 9 in terms of pain and soreness and stiffness, this is around a 4 or 5,” he said. “It might just be a flare-up of what happened previously and I just need to rest for a few days and it might be OK. Hopefully that’s what it shows in the scan next week.” The pain he’s feeling this week feels like muscular discomfort instead of pain in a bone or joint, he said. McIlroy suffered a stress fracture in his ribs while testing golf equipment during the offseason. The injury sidelined him from mid-January until March. McIlroy, who announced this week that he has signed an equipment endorsement deal with TaylorMade, said his current discomfort may have been caused by a rapid return to practice after taking time off for his wedding. “I took three weeks off and then I went back at it again on Friday and instead of maybe gradually building it up again, I hit balls for four or five hours on Friday and did the same on Saturday,” said McIlroy, who got married on April 22. “I felt a bit of stiffness on Sunday, hit a couple of drives that didn’t quite feel right. Maybe I should have just taken it a bit easier over the weekend, but I was excited to get back, excited to play again.” McIlroy, who ranks 48th in the FedExCup, has finished in the top 12 in the past four PLAYERS. This is his first start since finishing seventh at the Masters.

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According to one estimate, some 500 million tweets fly through the Twittersphere daily. And those are just the ones sent by Phil Mickelson. OK, that’s not technically true, but sometimes it seems that way. Since jumping into social media with both feet on Aug. 22, 2018, Mickelson — who this week takes on a new role as host of The American Express tournament in Palm Desert, California — has been a high-volume, high-quality, must-follow in the world of golf and beyond. “I didn’t realize how powerful a tool it was,â€� Mickelson tells the PGA TOUR. He does now. How did Mickelson, who didn’t even have a Twitter account 18 months ago, become such a player amongst golf’s social media set? To borrow a phrase from the man himself, it’s a recent development. ’I’ve got this Twitter thing down’ Mickelson will turn 50 this summer, which means when he first joined the PGA TOUR, “socialâ€� meant you happened to get paired with Lee Trevino. When that began to change, he played on, leaving social media to younger players and veterans such as Stewart Cink, Ian Poulter and Bubba Watson, early adopters all. It didn’t last. When along came Mickelson’s big-money, winner-take-all match against Tiger Woods in November 2018, the popular lefthander, a 44-time TOUR winner, wanted a way to promote it. His inaugural tweet, a GIF of him winking while at the Presidents Cup, featured the copy, “I got this @Twitter thing down.â€� Well, yes and no. He had to get up to speed on a new platform, and a language spoken more fluently by his kids and players like Thomas and Rickie Fowler. No worries; Mickelson backed up his bravado. He was funny, zany and daring. He was also prolific. If his match with Tiger inspired the leap into social media, then Mickelson’s earlier Mizzen+Main commercial, a goofy spot for performance menswear in which he danced and did the worm, informed his style. The video went viral, not only opening his eyes to the power of social media but establishing his brand of self-effacing humor. This led to half-serious, half-mocking posts about his calves and thumbs. If you were following him on Twitter or Instagram recently, you would have seen him working out in the gym, skiing down a mountain, and taking a selfie with his coaches and caddie. The copy read, in part: “I am ready to work hard and play some great golf again.â€� #hitbombs #attackpins Says Henrik Stenson, who posts only intermittently, “It takes a lot of effort to be that active. Whether that’s because he thinks it’s a lot of fun or to raise his profile and gain more followers and give more value to his sponsors, I’m not sure.â€� The answer to the “whyâ€� question is multi-pronged, but in general Mickelson says he wants to provide a forum for stories that have gone untold, and for players whose personalities don’t always come across when they’re between the ropes. He also just wants to have fun because, well, he’s Mickelson. He ticks all those boxes with “Phireside with Phil,â€� talk-show style interviews with TOUR pros (Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas, a shirtless Zach Johnson) and others (comedian Larry David). The setting: anywhere. The subject matter: anything. His one rule: Stories can’t denigrate anyone except, maybe, the person telling them. “I think everybody that watches those feels they’re getting the insight onto what’s going on on TOUR, and some funny little things that have happened,â€� Mickelson says. Some cringe-worthy things, too. Zach Johnson absent his shirt doesn’t even rate as cringe-worthy compared to a few other Mickelson moments, but it does beg for an explanation. “Well, if you know Zach, when we play in the team events, he walks around shirtless all the time,â€� Mickelson says. “So it’s just him, it’s just who he is. And I think it came to him, ‘Look, I’ll be on your show if I can be shirtless.’â€� The response has been unmistakable; people are watching, even if it’s through their fingers. Stenson, who beat Mickelson in an instant-classic duel at the 2016 Open Championship at Troon, has not been on yet but hasn’t ruled it out. “He asked me, but we were soaked in rain gear after one of the practice rounds at the British Open, so it never happened,â€� Stenson says. “Yeah, I’ll join him at the Phireside at some point when the timing is right.â€� Given the popularity of the Phireside concept, and the fact that Mickelson has 715,000 followers on Twitter alone – picking up north of 100,000 on day one – Gary Woodland sums it up nicely when he says of Lefty’s social media game, “I would say it’s pretty strong for a guy coming out of nowhere.â€� Legendary Tweet-storms The most popular athletes on Instagram are soccer players, and they start at 200 million followers (Cristiano Ronaldo). But Mickelson holds his own in the golf space with 716,000, between Ian Poulter (423,000) and Bubba Watson (791,000). If nothing else, Mickelson has proven that golf Twitter and golf Instagram are not just the domain of the young. World Golf Hall of Famer Gary Player calls Mickelson a great follow. So does PGA TOUR Champions player Brad Faxon. “He’s hysterical,â€� Faxon says. “Almost like you want to shut your eyes and not watch some of the stuff he does. Childlike enthusiasm. Talk about no inhibitions. I admire it. Hope he plays great this year but really hope he gets me on his phireside chat.â€� Adds Player, “Phil gets it right. His personality shines through. He is engaging, funny and authentic.â€� No doubt, Mickelson has cultivated a loyal following. Whom does he follow back? On Twitter, his tastes run toward fellow TOUR pros and LPGA stars, but also the NFL (Tom Brady, J.J. Watt, Antonio Gates of the L.A. Chargers). He follows golf media (NBC’s Dan Hicks, David Feherty, Peter Jacobsen) and even some of the parody accounts that have taken an interest in him. Few of these accounts, though, are as active, and as goofy, as Mickelson’s. When he didn’t make the season-ending TOUR Championship last August, he spent the night before the first round firing off 180 tweets over roughly four hours. Census takers are still trying to find just one person he didn’t tweet to. “I just want you to know that my life would be complete if you won a U.S. Open,â€� someone tweeted. “Mine too,â€� Mickelson responded. And so on. One of the better exchanges: Barstool Sports tweeted a photo of him swimming, with, “Since When Does Phil Mickelson Have The Body of a Greek God?â€� Replied Mickelson, who has radically altered his diet, “It’s a recent development.â€� Absent much to post about in the way of good results last season, other than his AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am victory, and in between Phiresides, his newfound obliques and legendary calves have been a popular fallback in his postings. The best of these may have come last September, when Brady was battling a calf injury and declared limited for a New England Patriots practice. Mickelson jumped all over it. “I’m on standby for a flight to Boston,â€� he tweeted. “Let’s not let inadequate calves hold us back.â€� Replied Brady: “The Phil Mickelson Method … for jacked calves? Sign me up.â€� Younger players are among those who have watched with an air of bemusement. “He’s kind of fallen in love with it,â€� Fowler says. “People love the tips and things like that, the Phireside stuff. Not sure how I feel about the name; it’s kind of a little corny. But he’s having fun with it, and I think people are getting to see his character and his playfulness. It’s definitely entertaining.â€� Adds Thomas, a friend who lost a playoff to Mickelson at the 2018 World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship, “He’s not faking anything. He’s just being himself. People are like, ‘It’s not him,’ but I’m like, ‘Trust me, it’s him. It’s Phil.’ He’s not acting any differently. People are just seeing the side that we see every week.â€� The Phuture of Phireside Now that he’s a year and a half into it, Mickelson the social media maven has learned a few things, and has a good idea where he wants to go next. “It’s really struck me what a unique opportunity this is to engage and develop a much closer, more emotional relationship with the fans,â€� he says. “And so I want to continue to do that but really from my angle as opposed to a younger guy. “Me being somebody that’s almost 50 now,â€� he continues, “I want to use it as a way of telling the stories that have already happened that people haven’t heard about as opposed to posting what’s going on in the here and now.â€� He plans on having some caddies on the Phireside, “because they have some unique stories,â€� he says. But, he adds, he’s leery of his brother. Tim Mickelson once told this reporter a story about playing poker with Phil on a houseboat; Phil stacked the deck when Tim went to the bathroom and never told him. Perhaps wisely, Phil seems to have opted not to open himself up to further such yarns. Asked if he would go on the show, Fowler says, “I would have to figure out what we’d talk about.â€� Mickelson’s second interview with Thomas, recorded in the locker room at the BMW Championship last fall, hasn’t aired yet. “He just asked if you want to do a story,â€� Thomas says of how it all came to be. “And I brought a couple up and he was like, ‘Yeah, it sounds good.’â€� Could he see himself doing so much social media at 50? Thomas shakes his head. “I don’t think enough people will care what I’ll think at that age,â€� he says with a laugh. “But Phil will always be relevant.â€�

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