Mickelson is the man with no shame . . .
PUTT THAT SICKENED GOLF
TWenTY-FOUR hours after dragging his sport through the mire with his puerile behaviour on Saturday, the man we now know to be The Untouchable returned to the scene of his shame.
Faced with a six-foot putt for par on the 13th hole in the final round of the US Open yesterday, Phil Mickelson rolled it into the centre and raised his arms in triumphant mock salute — as he did when he won the Masters three times and The Open at Muirfield.
Oh, what a card. What a wit. At least, that’s what the sycophants were saying on American television. Meanwhile, in a parallel universe, virtually everyone else who loves the Royal and Ancient game just felt physically sick.
The fact he had turned up on the first tee at all following his actions in the third round told us that Mickelson had no shame, but to make light of it? That’s what happens when you have a craven governing body too afraid to do the right thing. You have players who believe they’re above the rules.
A brief recap. Mickelson rapped a putt miles too hard on the 13th hole. Past the hole it went, towards its destiny off the front of the green. Mickelson jogged after it and knocked it back towards the hole while it was still moving. On his 48th birthday, he behaved like a two-year-old.
As the former USGA chief executive David Fay explained, there were grounds for thinking this was such a serious breach of the rules as to merit disqualification. ‘i would certainly have been lobbying for that course of action,’ he said. His old employers preferred to hide behind the semantics of rule 14-5 regarding striking a moving ball and handed out a two-shot penalty. Would they have done the same if it had been one of the lesser lights? i think we all know the answer to that one.
Mickelson claimed he knew the rule and opted for the twoshot penalty rather than ‘going back and forth’. Gradually, it dawned on people of the horrible can of worms the USGA’s appeasement has opened.
imagine at the Masters next year if the leader is on the back of the 15th green and hits his putt too hard towards the water? Does he run after it, knock it back towards the hole and take a twostroke penalty? On the first tee yesterday, Mickelson was given a warm reception. But one day, it will surely occur to The Untouchable that he can’t act any way he sees fit without consequences. This is the stain that will never be removed. Alongside his act of mutiny against Ryder Cup captain Tom Watson at Gleneagles in 2014, these are the asterisks that will for ever lie beside his name. On this day, however, he walked into the clubhouse and signed for a one-under-par score of 69. He then signed autographs for 30 minutes before walking past the media without a backward glance. One soul shouted: any regrets? ‘ The real question is what am i going to do next,’ answered Mickelson, cryptically. ‘i don’t know.’ it was a response in keeping with his unfathomable behaviour on Saturday.