Congratulations to Phil Mickelson for winning the 2010 Masters Golf Tournament, his third, putting him in some rather elite company in the history of professional golf. His play was steady and consistent through four days of competition punctuated by a scattering of incredible shots which gave him the advantage over a strong field.
Somehow, given all the buildup to this year’s tournament, the fellow who many see as Tiger Woods’ most legitimate rival winning this most elite contest almost seems just. Everything about Mickelson seems to be the anti-Tiger from his low key demeanor, his fatherly family man lifestyle, and being such a decent ordinary kind of fellow in style and substance. Outside the world of golf and the most dedicated sports fans, no one would think of Phil Mickelson as a celebrity, but he’s a man of great honor for his efforts outside his sport giving time and money to charitable causes. His 2009 season was interrupted by the revelation on May 20th, his beloved wife Amy was stricken with breast cancer forcing Mickelson to sit out the next few events on the schedule resuming play for the St. Jude Classic and U.S. Open where he finished second. Hardly getting his feet back on the ground in competition, came another grave revelation when on July 6, it was announced his mother, Mary, also required surgery for breast cancer. His schedule was again interrupted including playing in the PGA Open. He’d not return to competition until the Bridgestone Invitational as prelude to the PGA Championship. He parlayed his status as a well-known golfer to help raise awareness and funding to treat the horrible illness.
Naturally, much of the four days of competition focused on Tiger Woods’ return. Much was made of a display of temper in the third round where microphones and cameras caught a blowup were he muttered, “Tiger Woods, you suck” followed by a loud “God damnit.” Woods played his best first round ever at Augusta on Thursday, but his efforts slipped the following days still good enough to finish tied for fourth, five strokes off the lead.
Englishman, Lee Westwood, finished the tournament second, three strokes behind Mickelson, going into day 4 with a one point lead. Anthony Kim vaulted himself into competition shooting a superb 65 for the final round leaving Tiger Woods and K.J. Choi in 4th place.
One of the real popular highlights was the fine play by 50 year old golfer, Fred Couples, who hung on to finish 6th, seven strokes off the lead as a popular geezer pleaser. Last year’s winner, Angel Cabrera was not a factor in this year’s competition tied for 18th in the final standings.
For all the media buildup barking about Tiger Woods’ return to competition, by Sunday’s action, it was all about the competition and who was positioned to win the green jacket. Fortunately, there was very little to make noise about concerning Tiger Woods other than Tiger was back, he played effectively but not his best, and there were no episodes to feed off the controversy. While his temper attack is not commendable, we only know about it because there were so many cameras trained on the dishonored star. Surely, other competitors engaged in less than gentlemanly speech at times too.
Here’s hoping that the attention will be on the golf course and not the bedroom as the PGA tour is now up and running in full swing with one major tournament completed and three to go with many other fine events scattered through out the schedule.
There just seems to be a certain sense of justice “Lefty” would win the big one. Tiger Woods was perhaps the most recognized athlete in the world with his fall from grace taking on almost titanic proportions. Phil Mickelson is more like an everyman kind of guy, your next door neighbor, who just happens to play golf extremely well.
It was Lefty’s day today. Somehow that just seems so right.
No comments:
Post a Comment