Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf's Most Colorful Superstar by Alan Shipnuck

Author:Alan Shipnuck [Shipnuck, Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781476797113
Publisher: SimonSchuster
Published: 2022-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

A couple of days after the final round of the 2006 U.S. Open, Rob Mangini called up his old friend, expecting to have to talk him off the ledge. Instead, Phil Mickelson answered the phone from the happiest place on earth. “He was like, ‘I’m in line with the kids at A Small World, wearing a hat and big ol’ Prada sunglasses, and no one knows who the fuck I am—it’s great,’ ” says Mangini. A day later, they met for lunch. Mickelson got a huge sandwich with a side of self-loathing. “I was on pins and needles, not really sure what to say about Winged Foot,” says Mangini. “Phil just sits down, and right off the bat he blurts out, ‘Can you believe I almost won that fucking golf tournament playing like that? This is bullshit. I have to get better.’ ” Mickelson was not yet aware of Johnny Miller’s lacerating commentary during his final hole meltdown, but when Mangini mentioned it, his lunch date demanded a replay be cued up by phone. “He was cracking up,” says Mangini. “He said, ‘It’s totally true. What a debacle.’ ”

Things were only going to get worse for Mickelson. Three weeks after Winged Foot, Tiger Woods summoned the most precise and disciplined golf of his career, picking apart Hoylake to win the Open Championship. He dissolved into sobs on the final green, which had more to do with missing his late father, Earl, than the catharsis of winning his eleventh major championship. This was the beginning of an almighty tear, as Woods would win his next five starts, including the PGA Championship. Two months earlier, as Phil arrived on the seventy-second tee at Winged Foot, it had been possible to delude ourselves into thinking he was nearly Tiger’s equal. Now there was once again a yawning chasm between the game’s two best players. A month after the PGA, Mickelson laid another egg at the Ryder Cup, going 0-4-1, as the U.S. got blown out for the third straight time.

All of this strife finally culminated in Rick Smith’s firing in April 2007, which had become inevitable even before the ball came to rest after doinking the tree on the final hole at Winged Foot. The stunner was the announced successor: Butch Harmon. Gruff, profane, old-school in the extreme, Harmon brought a very different personality than anybody else in Mickelson’s inner circle. “Apart from Amy, I don’t think Phil has ever been told in his life to do something and done it,” says Peter Kostis. “If you want to be hypercritical, he’s surrounded himself with yes-people.” Harmon had the credibility and the self-belief to tell Mickelson what he needed to hear.

Their immediate focus was improving Mickelson’s driving accuracy. “If we can get him to play out of the fairway, he can rival Tiger,” woofed Harmon. He shortened his pupil’s backswing, while moving his hands farther from his head at the top of the swing, creating more width. Harmon also wanted to, in his words, “clean up

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