Lefty - Love Him or Hate Him?

As mentioned in a recent conversation, Lefty is one of those guys that seems to draw a lot of attention for "choking". As recently as this morning, I heard a local guy say the same, and offering more convincing arguments than simply saying, "he didn't finish with a birdie", mentioning instead his overall demeanor, the push drive that reared its ugly head at Winged Foot on 17 and 18 and on two playoff holes over the weekend. (the push is a sign of being tentative - not finishing a swing, [trying to avoid a snapper, a mistake in which I am well familiar])

So, it seems to me, that he is just that ... a choker. At least to an extent. But you simply have to mention in the conversation that he isn't choking to the degree that he's not winning tournaments. And the fact that he's in these things until the last hole or near the end, means, his choking is very limited. I think a guy who leads for 3 days and then doesn't finish top 10 is a choker. A guy who is within 2 holes of winning the tournament might choke on 18, but you have to give him some due. In the case of Phil, some serious due, because just about any tournament where the course is a good fit, he's in the top 5 and that's just about every tournament there is. A guy who makes a 20 foot downhiller at Augusta to win isn't a choker, nor is a guy who chips in to win the PGA, nor is the guy who has the lead on Sunday and wins comfortably. To be fair, the guy who needs a par to win the US and doesn't do it, he just choked. So, there is something there when compared to Tiger (who never chokes) but I'm not sure anyone over the past few years has been as good as Phil so that's about all we can compare him to.

But what of other critiques that question his sincerity, his overall character, and whether or not his "good guy, aw-shucks demeanor, is a front? I did a little searching because he is incredibly interesting to me as a competitor. As expected, the web articles are all across the board.

My own feelings of being a frustrated fan of his are mainly to do with his game. I have, more than once, declared to be done with him because he can be so frustrating to watch. It is, indeed, not easy to root for him, because so often, he let's you down. Why do I keep liking him and pulling for him? Because he seems so human out there.

The other side of the coin. Tiger, Nicklaus. They all had something of a villain persona. They would consistently beat the other, nicer guy, sometimes, on the sheer force of being mentally perfect, even if their game didn't measure up that day. Nicklaus was vilified for beating Arnie and later, Watson. They begin by being disliked because they're NOT human. But Jack became revered as the greatest, out of a deep appreciation for having "it". That rare combination of superiority in sport AND a mental edge. What tends to be, as it were, is an initial backlash, and then pure admiration. I didn't like Tiger when he first came on the scene, but after awhile, you have to just sit back and enjoy the ride. With Jack, you can't tell me in 1985, that he was the best player out there with the sticks, he was well past his prime. But don't tell him that. He still says if he's out there competing, he is only out there because he thinks he can win. This attitude is admirable and gets you places in life.

Phil is not that guy. He's the anti-Woods. All the skill to win on a given day, but lacking the same "it" factor. (Brings to mind why some kickers in football know they're going to make big kicks and others, having the physical tools, fold under pressure) A guy like that brings the opposite response. Pull for him, and when he shows the all too human propensity to doubt, and to lose, you hate him for it. Because his struggle (Like Kramer) is man's struggle. People hate seeing that because it reminds people of their own short-comings. We would rather watch the guy triumph over all, and it is much easier to associate with that kind of an athlete.

Then you have the other things, mentioned in some of these articles. He's out of shape, (not Tiger). 90% of the guys watching golf on the weekend are out of shape and they hate that about themselves. 90% of them miss 2 footers in their own big matches. Phil is missing the 20 footers and vicariously receiving the frustration of the weekend golfer/athlete. He's a rich white guy, I presume he was born that way, and there's nothing easier to dislike in America today than the rich white guy. He talks about his wife and kids like someone would if they were trying to make you believe they had the perfect life. Not only does the public hate the thought of someone having a perfect life, but they assume there must be some fake-ness in that.

I am admittedly biased because I just want to see a guy who has a serious flaw, overcome it, and win in spite of it. And I like to believe that his good nature is genuine and from those who claim personal interaction with him, I am convinced it is, on the whole, real. The main criticism with the tour players in these articles, is he is fake and to that I would say, the whole lot of them are. They're notorious for being demanding (I wanted the red Mercedes S-Class courtesy car!) and out-of-touch (Heck, they spend their lives being catered to by the segment of the population that is catered to by the world. The clubs are the most exclusive in America and the week the players arrive, they roll out the red carpet.) But most of all in these comments, it smacks of good, old-fashioned, jealousy, and the human nature in all of us that likes to kick a gifted, super-wealthy, flawed human being when he's down. Call me crazy, but I happen to hope he can overcome his problems and showcase that unbelievable talent. Life and sports seem so much more interesting that way.

Article #1

Many people know that golfer Phil Mickelson won the Masters again this year, and many people know he's a great guy. Phil Mickelson came to town for the PGA tour event that was played here this past weekend, and at the outset he announced that he would donate all of his winnings to New Orleans relief efforts. Unfortunately, he didn't win the tournament. He finished 15th, which entitled him to $82,000.

So did Phil Mickelson donate $82,000 to New Orleans? No, he didn't. "We were hoping it would be a first-place check," Mickelson, said. "But we didn't want to leave without giving $250,000." So, he added $168,000 of his own money to the winnings and donated that to the city.

Article #2

Indeed, whenever Phil Mickelson is out there doing his job, the Dobler family is watching closely, from a distance. "Never even met Phil, never even talked to him, although I would like to, for obvious reasons," said Dobler, who at one time assumed Mickelson's job was merely to hit a little white ball into a hole with a stick, then jump onto his private jet and count his money. But that changed the day the phone rang at Dobler's home in Leawood, Kan. It was Mickelson's lawyer, Glenn Cohen. "He told me Phil had become aware of our situation," Dobler said. "Phil wanted to pay for our daughter Holli's college education. A random act of kindness is the only way to describe it. Holli's a sophomore at Miami of Ohio, the school of her choice, because of one person: Phil Mickelson."

Dobler was known as the dirtiest player in football during his playing days.The Doblers were enjoying a Fourth of July in 2001 when life changed for Conrad, wife Joy and their six children. Friends were coming over to the house, and he was cooking when Joy fell out of a hammock. "She said she couldn't feel anything," Conrad said. "We phoned 911. She's been a quadriplegic ever since. We've had to downsize. The business we have, providing temporary medical help to hospitals, used to be a lot larger than it is now. I've had to sell a lot of assets, [it's] everything I can possibly do to make it financially. Holli's tuition would have been a big ticket." Because the NFL treats former players like pieces of furniture, Dobler's benefits from the country's richest league are meager. "Judging by our disability payments, we're America's safest industry," he said. "The greeters at Wal-Mart are taken better care of. Pretty ironic that a guy from another sport does more for us than the sport I played 10 years."

Dobler has endured multiple surgeries on both knees, but a lot of retired linemen are physical wrecks, and they don't have his expenses. The most he ever earned was $125,000 with the Buffalo Bills. He has put four times that toward Joy's rehabilitation. "That's why Phil's generosity is so unbelievable," he said. "When Glenn told me what was going on, I asked him, 'Why is Phil doing this for a complete stranger?' Glenn's answer was, 'Because he can.' Like I said, I've never even talked to Phil to thank him, but he's made me a better person. I've become accustomed to saying 'I'm sorry' for some of the things I've done. But if I ever hit the lottery, my first impulse would be to give a bunch of it away. That's what he's all about. I have a feeling he does a lot of this sort of thing. But he doesn't even want to talk about it."

Mickelson has gone public with his contributions of $100 per birdie and $500 per eagle to Birdies for the Brave, which funnels money to Homes for Our Troops and Special Operations Warrior Foundation -- organizations that support wounded soldiers and families who lose a member in combat. The more he promotes those causes, the more corporate cash comes in. But the Dobler case is different, and when asked about it last week in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he was playing in the FBR Open, Mickelson politely declined comment. He does communicate with Holli, who waits tables at school when she isn't cracking the books. She has a 3.8 GPA with a heavy course load. And she isn't studying sportswriting.

"Our daughter is forever grateful to Phil," Joy said. "I'll tell you how involved he is. Since he made his first donation of $20,000, he's made sure to include a cost-of-living increase each year. This year, his check was for $22,000. Next year, he's promised $24,000. If there's anything he's missing in his life, it's a set of wings. He's an angel. And if I can when I see him for the first time, I'm going to go up and give him a big hug. I have therapy five hours a day, seven days a week. I'm getting there. Parts of me that didn't move after the accident are moving again, sensations I didn't feel, I feel. I don't plan on being in this wheelchair forever."

Quietly, Mickelson has invited the Doblers to the Memorial tournament in late May. At last, Conrad and Joy will be able to give thanks in person. "I'd do anything for Phil," he said. "If I could get up and down a ladder, I'd paint his house."

Also, this is good news for Jack Nicklaus, because Mickelson is obviously planning to play golf that week.

Article #3

Congratulations to Phil Mickelson for making GQ’s list of the "10 Most Hated Athletes" in the February issue, now on the newsstands. Way to go, we're proud of you, Lefty! After years of trying, you finally won a major tournament. And now you've been exposed as a phony in a major magazine.

Phil was named the eighth biggest jerk in sports, and what makes the accomplishment really noteworthy is the select group of certified schmucks he joins, among them: 1) Terrell Owens, 2) Barry Bonds, 5) Kobe Bryant, 7) Bonzi Wells, and 10) Lleyton Hewitt.

The article says Phil doesn’t have a single friend among the players on the PGA Tour, and yet he’s one of the most popular players with the fans. How can we explain the contradiction?

To understand in the most efficient way, I went back to Jennifer Mario's column on author John Feinstein. The author of "A Good Walk Spoiled" nails Phil’s personality with two words: Eddie Haskell.

Readers of a certain age will recall that in the late 1950s and early 60s, Eddie was a supporting character in the popular TV series "Leave it to Beaver." Eddie was the funniest character on the show, probably because he was an archetype that everyone in the television audience instantly recognized from their own lives. He was that snooty little brat we all loved to hate. An unctuous brown-noser when the parents were around, he showed his true self – sarcastic, mean, conniving and self-congratulatory – when only kids were present.

Eddie was so vivid in his phoniness that Ken Osmond, the actor who played Eddie, never had much of a career after the series was canceled and ended up working as a cop. Nobody could look at the guy without thinking of Eddie Haskell. By the time he'd reached middle age Osmond was consigned to autograph shows and B-movies like "Dead Women in Lingerie" (1991). Hope nothing like that happens to Phil.

Toom comments: Hmmm. Hate the guy because he's nice for the camera, (that camera that never shows your sorry butt) sticks around and signs autographs for kids in front of the camera, and then goes back to the locker room and acts like everyone else??? Only he's better than 95% of you, has a hotter wife than all of you, and has a better family life than 95% too. No wonder no one likes him in the clubhouse. He's so different, yet he doesn't carry the weight of TW so it is cool to trash him.

Article #4 The GQ article

The Ten Most Hated Athletes
8. Phil Mickelson

Last August at the PGA Championship at Baltusrol, in New Jersey, a reporter turned to a golfer on the tour and said of Phil Mickelson, “Man, the fans here love Phil.” The golfer replied, “They don’t know him the way we do.” It blew our minds a little when we heard this, since Mickelson ranks among the most admired golfers in America. But today the same reporter makes his case bluntly: “Phil Mickelson literally has no friends out there. He annoys everybody.”

Toom: Again, it sounds like he annoys everybody because he is the anti-them. Standoffish and prick-ish, maybe in the clubhouse just like all of them, but perceived as a nice guy with the public, bc publicly, he IS!

Mickelson has earned many nicknames on the Tour, but our favorite is FIGJAM (F*ck, I’m good—just ask me). “There are a bunch of pros who think he and his whole smiley, happy face are a fraud,” another reporter says. “They think he’s preening and insincere.” Mickelson has aggressively pursued a family-man image that is crucial to his success as an endorser. In 1999, when he nearly won the U.S. Open, Mickelson wore a beeper onto the fairway to alert him when his wife went into labor. If the beeper went off during the final round, he announced, he would simply walk off the course. Some of Mickelson’s peers, smelling a PR stunt, badly wanted to call his bluff. “Everybody’s saying, ‘Oh God, I want that beeper to go off,’ ” recalls one writer. (It didn’t.)

Toom: Maybe they just can't believe someone would rank family over a major. Regardless of being a PR stunt, to say it, meant if it happened, he had to do it, and to put yourself out there like that is pretty cool.

In 2003, Mickelson violated multiple taboos when he told a reporter that Tiger Woods was playing with “inferior equipment” and that he envied Mickelson’s longer drives from the tee. Woods was infuriated. “You just don’t say sh!t like that in golf,” says a reporter. (To be fair, another reporter says, “Phil was right.”)

Toom: I remember that well and it read like a compliment to me. He's playing with old equipment (actually, his old Titleist driver was not as long, but more accurate than the new stuff) and he's still winning. Woods was mad because he didn't want it known that the Nike people couldn't get their act together and provide him with new stuff that worked as well as his old. They even came out and said the same, though I'm sure it caused him a lot of problems with corporate.

Shortly before the 2004 Ryder Cup, though, Mickelson abruptly switched from Titleist to Callaway equipment. He left himself little time to get used to the new balls and clubs. “It wasn’t in the best interest of the team,” says a reporter. “The only thing that it was in the best interest of was his financial gain.” The contract paid a reported $7 million to $10 million annually. “What it did was set up a bull’s-eye on him if he played poorly,” says a different reporter. “Which he did.”

Toom: And all those guys are into team golf. Please. We're getting trounced consistently in these Ryder cups bc our guys are not team guys. That and guys like Tiger and Phil are built for 72 holes. Shoot 4 under every day and you may win vs a guy who shoots 65 and then blows up.

Most recently, Mickelson blew off the 2005 Tour Championship, though the PGA was in the midst of negotiating its new TV contract. One reporter says, “The Tour was trying to come up with a plan that would make the networks happy, so it wouldn’t have to give back a lot of money, and here’s the number three player in the world skipping the premier season-ending event. Other players said, ‘How about helping the rest of us who aren’t as rich?’ ” Adds another reporter: “It’s like not showing up for somebody’s wedding.”

Toom: Everybody known blew that thing off. I went last November and there were very few known golfers that made the trip. To try and suggest Phil was the only one of note who ruins it for the little guy is laughable. And to suggest that he has an obligation to play so others can benefit is just stupid and shows self-centered-ness on their end, not Phil's. It's sad to me that a guy can become such an easy mark among fellow competitors because they know TW is off limits and there are others who don't mind being the fall guy. The mob mentality has a place it seems, even in the pristine world of the PGA.

Another website puts it this way.

I get the feeling from many people that they simply don’t like him because they think he is arrogant, cocky, or maybe because he is just damn good at golf.

When Tiger had his season in 2000-2001, people started to not like him because he won everything he looked at. People called him cocky and arrogant. Heck, maybe he is a little bit. Keep in mind, these top tour players lead celebrity lives and with that comes alot of pressure not just on the course, but in the media spotlight. Everything they say and do is dissected and analyzed. Small clips of a paragraph of words are used as headlines or taken out of context. It happens.

Take Tiger’s ’slump’ for example. Uh, if you can win at least 1 tournament in a year, your not in a slump. A slump goes for those players who have been on the tour for 10 years and are fighting for Top 10 finishes only to get a tie for 35th every time. Thats a slump. Tiger has managed to pull out at least 1 tour victory per year. Its hard to win out there, and the fact that Phil, Tiger, Ernie, or Vijay can do it multiple times is incredible. Give them a damn break, please.

These players work their asses off. Tiger has to deal with death threats everyday. Phil had to deal with the fact that his little boy and wife almost died on the delivery table in late 2003 - 2004. Then to go out onto the course with thousands of players either booing you or cheering you on and try and win the tournament is alot of pressure. I played high school and college golf, and at times the intensity of very high. Standing over a 5 footer just to help your team get 2nd place is one thing, standing over a 5 footer down 1 shot for a chance at a playoff and a share at $500,000 is another.

Sure, money isn’t anything to the statures of Tiger or Phil. Point is, its still competition and there is still pressure, so it doesn’t help having media come out and say you are in a slump or you choke all the time.

In the case of the Doral, playing to the last hole certaintly isn’t a choke. Heck, especially after he almost chips in for the playoff. Everyone watching the golf tournament had their sphincter muscles tightened up because it was intense. That is how golf SHOULD be played, to the line every time. Tiger played great, Phil played great. Thats it! Tiger won because he happened to shoot 1 stroke better then Phil.

From everything I see of Phil, he looks like a really cool guy. He hangs around to sign lots of autographs, he seems like a traditional family guy, he is nice to fans, and he always has a smile on his face.

Some people don’t like that. Some people are not happy people, and to see someone smiling actually pisses some people off. So be it. Everyone is allowed their own opinion, thats the great thing of freedom.

Is Phil a fake? I don’t know. I doubt it, but there are some media outlets that will lead you to believe that. I don’t know him nor will I ever know him. He is a great golfer. He seems like a nice guy and I just don’t agree with alot of the anti-Mickelson sentiment that floats around. However, that is me, and I am not everyone so take it for what its worth