PINEHURST, N.C. — Twenty-five years ago, on the 18th green at Pinehurst, Phil Mickelson was surrounded by love and admiration and witnessed one of the most beautiful and moving moments in golf history. On Friday afternoon, in that same spot, he was alone and tapped in for a double bogey in near-total silence.
As Mickelson turned in 12-over for the tournament and walked to the first tee for his second ninth hole of the day, some yells of “Go, Phil!” and “Thumbs up, Phil!” were heard, but they were not as loud or frequent as the cheers for Mickelson’s partner, Rickie Fowler. As he teed off and walked down the first fairway, you could count the number of fans who were with him along the course on two hands.
Step back and consider this: it’s a staggering decline from even a few years ago. Mickelson was once a crowd favorite at the U.S. Open. Everyone, from the wine-sipping sponsor tent dwellers to the beer-swilling, sunscreen-laden rope liners, saw a bit of themselves in Phil. He played the way the crowd wanted to believe. Swing it around and don’t care about the resultsThe fact that Mickelson has been runner-up at the U.S. Open six (six!) times is less important than the fact that he continued to tee it up the following year, ready to try again.
A telltale sign of Mickelson’s downfall can be seen in a clever organizational ploy: In the old days, before LIV, Mickelson and Tiger Woods were always on opposite sides of the draw: If Woods teed off in the morning, Woods would tee off in the afternoon and vice versa.
It made sense to split them up, since both were big draws for TV and on-course spectators. But now Mickelson goes where he likes: just two groups behind Woods this year. Mickelson teed off 22 minutes after Woods. Woods, of course, still draws a fanbase that rivals the ocean currents.
At this point, Mickelson’s fall from U.S. Open darling to forgotten is hardly newsworthy or even shocking. He’s not the only star to fade from the public eye after joining LIV; Dustin Johnson also dropped out of the tournament, while Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Graeme McDowell all fell a long way short in North Carolina. But Mickelson’s fate is somehow sadder, more serious. To be honest, the way he lit the match and started the fire that consumed all the fame he’d built over a 30-plus year career is almost Shakespearean.
The simple, inescapable truth is that Mickelson did all of this with his own hands. He teamed up with LIV Golf and its Saudi backers to undermine the PGA Tour and change the face of professional golf. The fact that he accomplished exactly what he set out to do doesn’t endear him to many golf fans. Some oppose LIV Golf on moral or political grounds, while others just want to see the best players in the world play the same course more than four times a year.
The U.S. Open is the only major Mickelson has yet to win, keeping him from completing the career Grand Slam. Barring a miracle that overshadows his 2021 PGA Championship win, he will finish his career with that unfinished feat. Thanks to his PGA win at Kiawah, he has one more year of exemption.
So next year’s U.S. Open in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, will be Mickelson’s last tournament, and will set off a new symphony of emotions and opinions, as the spectators gather to watch, if only to catch one more glimpse of Lefty, and wonder what might have happened.
