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Let’s all be totally honest here – this time last week as we started looking at the PGA Championship none of us, not one(!), thought of putting the name Phil Mickelson even near a list of players who could lift the Wanamaker Trophy on Sunday afternoon.
There was just no reason to assume that the 50-year-old legend could compete the way he used to in majors. His name was just another among a group of players who really had no shot to do anything special at such a tough course as Kiawah.
And then, of course, Phil went out and won the dang thing. He did it with a wild Sunday performance that had many cool moments and he did it with a huge crowd that walked with him up the 18th fairway, which was just an incredible scene that Mickelson said he’d never forget, though Brooks Koepka was rightly not a fan of it.
It was beautiful. All of it. And none of it made any kind of sense, which made it even better.
Mickelson was not supposed to win this thing. He entered the week as the 115th player in the world and had no top 10s at a major in the last five years. He made news a few days before the event when he accepted a special exemption to the upcoming U.S. Open because he had not qualified for the event. They gave him a handout (which he deserved) and invited him to that party that takes place a few weeks from no at Torrey Pines. A handout!
Well, now he won’t need any special invites to majors for the next five years because his win on Sunday, which made him the oldest player to win a major, booked those events for him until he’s 55, which is awesome.
But let’s get back to why this didn’t make sense. Mickelson has been a non-factor lately on the PGA Tour. In the 9 events he’s played since January he has four missed cuts and three finishes of 53rd or higher. His last event before the PGA was the Wells Fargo, where he finished 69th.
Those results tell a story about a man who just doesn’t have what it takes anymore to compete against people half his age.
Or so many of us thought they did, at least.
What Mickelson did the past four days was incredible and won’t be forgotten for a long time. Sunday’s round had the feels of that Sunday round at Augusta a few years ago when Tiger Woods, who was inspired by Phil’s performance on Sunday, won the Masters. Once again we got to turn back the clock and watch one of the all-time greats put on a show like he had done so many times in the past.
That he did it at Kiawah was all the more stunning, too, because there’s just no way that course and that man’s tendency to hit wild drives should be a match. But they were just that.
The whole experience was special and fun and emotional.
And absolutely none of it made sense. Which was just perfect.
Quick hits: Trae Young mocks MSG crowd… Stunning scenes from Monaco… Matthew McConaughey’s classic NASCAR intro… And more.
– Hawks star Trae Young explained why he mocked Spike Lee and the Knicks’ huge crowd at MSG after hitting a huge shot at the end of Atlanta’s Game 1 win Sunday night.
– Here are 12 stunning photos from Sunday’s F1 race in Monaco. What a beautiful place.
– Matthew McConaughey delivered NASCAR’s “start your engines” command in such a Matthew McConaughey way.
– The TNT crew roasted Charles Barkley for falling asleep during the Wizards-Sixers game.
– You need to see this catch by a high school softball player.