The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Mickelson’s rolling putt becomes a punchline
— By the time George Lopez stepped to the first tee Wednesday, ready to rip an impressive drive at the Travelers Championship Celebrity Pro-Am, Phil Mickelson’s meltdown at the U.S. Open had become a national punchline.
“You’re never going to be good enough to play in the U.S. Open, but we’re all good enough to do that,” Lopez said. “Don’t be surprised if I hit a rolling putt somewhere today.”
The actor-comedian paused for a moment before posing for photographs with his playing partners Ken Duke, Boomer Esiason, Dan Orlovsky and a fellow from a nearby outdoor carving station holding a brisket. Yes, a brisket.
“I’ll even hit it off the tee rolling,” Lopez said. “I’ll even do that.”
Mickelson has become red meat for the sports world.
He had rolled a putt past the 13th hole last Saturday at Shinnecock Hills, jogged after it and banged it back uphill before the ball had a chance to come to stop off the green. After much conCROMWELL sternation and many calling for his disqualification, Mickelson was assessed a two-stroke penalty. Instead of admitting he lost his mind, he said afterward he knew it was a two-shot penalty. He said he had thought about doing it multiple times before and finally did it. He made it sound premeditated. He made it sound like a strategy.
Some believed it. Some thought he was a liar. Me? I’d say Lefty, Lefty, pants on fire.
“Oh, so now he’s Bill Belichick exploiting an esoteric loophole for a strategic advantage,” Esiason, NFL quarterback turned talk show host, had said on WFAN.
“Golf doesn’t work that way, Phil. And in many eyes, Mickelson has dishonored his sport.”
“Give him credit for knowing the rules,” UConn football coach Randy Edsall countered. “Obviously, he knew what he was doing. He knew it was a penalty. He paid the price. Everybody makes a big deal about that stuff. … Move on. I thought everybody was making a mountain out of a molehill.”
On Wednesday, with a mountain made, Mickelson issued a formal apology.
“I know this should’ve come sooner, but it’s taken me a few days to calm down,” Mickelson said. “My anger and frustration got the best of me last weekend. I’m embarrassed and disappointed by my actions. It was clearly not my finest moment and I’m sorry.”
Yet as the winds at Shinnecock calm and the terror of those third-round U.S. Open greens fade into the taillights of the golf world, the outrage certainly did not ring as loud from the celebrities at the Pro-Am at the next stop on the PGA Tour. Esiason’s on-radio words aside, I could not find one of the celebrity golfers claiming Mickelson should have been disqualified.
“I just started laughing when I saw it,” Jets wide receiver Jermaine Kearse said. “As an amateur golfer, hitting the ball back and forth here and there, man, I’ve done that a couple of times. I just thought it was really funny.”
Mickelson’s double-talk, golf’s ultra-obsession with rules, the counter-argument by a sports world that often winks at and sometimes celebrates rule-bending … it was nothing short of fascinating.
“Disqualification would have been a little bit extreme,” said Orlovsky, the former UConn great and long-time NFL quarterback. “I don’t think it was that big a deal and I’m an oldschool kind of guy. I can appreciate the integrity of the game and the gentleman’s aspect of it. I also am aware of the reality of the situation.
“He was nowhere close to the top of the leaders. I don’t think he ever would have done it if he was in the mix. Whether I’m 20 over or 18 over isn’t going to make matter. I think he was making a point in a way, kind of falling on his sword where it was, ‘Guys, this is ridiculous and let me show you how ridiculous.’ ”
The USGA, realizing it had lost the course late Saturday to marble greens and poor pin placement, huddled and re-emerged to cite Rule 14-5, a two-stroke rule for hitting a moving ball. Rule 1-2 should have been employed. When a player has an intent to influence the movement of a ball in play and gains a significant advantage, he can be disqualified. And don’t be a bit surprised if a Phil Rule emerges in the coming months that would DQ a player for a similar infraction.
Yet some of the howls were so loud from Long Island you would have thought Mickelson had hit a fan with his putter. Some call for perspective is needed. Still, what he did also violates all levels of golf ’s sportsmanship. Either he lost his mind or he purposely came up with a way to violate the spirit of the game.
“Either way, it doesn’t look good,” UConn women’s basketball associate coach Chris Dailey said. “But I can understand his frustration. I can tell you that. I’ll probably get a couple of 10s today so I’ll be right with him.”
“The fact he lost his cool for a minute, you know, there’s a lot worse things you could possibly do,” said Hall of Fame coach Jim Calhoun, a source authority on meltdowns. “The only thing I don’t understand is the rule because that thing was going off the green. Beyond that I don’t have any negative feelings toward the guy making a mistake. I can’t imagine myself blowing up. How many hundreds of thousands of times has he been a good guy, right? Did he do a bad thing? He did a stupid thing. I can relate.”
Chris Berman of ESPN knows Phil Mickelson well.
“I love Phil, we all love Phil,” Berman said. “The most amazing thing is he almost holed that thing. I don’t think we should overlook that he almost put it in the hole and had a six instead of 10 if he just practiced that shot a little more. Knowing Phil like I do, I’m sure he’s more disappointed now than anyone. Should he have been DQ’d? I leave it up to (the USGA). I don’t think so. They have their rule. If he had to do it over again, he also wouldn’t have done it.”
Had Berman ever hit a rolling putt?
“Miniature golf, when you miss the windmill,” he answered. “Otherwise no, I haven’t, but I might think about it today knowing it’s only two strokes. I didn’t know the rules. Phil actually opened the possibilities to us.”
“You’ve heard about guys who they whisper about, ‘He has a really good 3-iron, but he had a better pencil,’ ” Calhoun said. “Or he never had a ball get deep in the rough. I’m sure we’ve all done that. You play with your friends and the ball isn’t quite sitting quite the way you want. My excuse now is I don’t want to mess up my hip. I just don’t think he should be overly chastised. You say, ‘Phil, don’t do it again. You’re too classy a guy.’ ”