Phil Mickelson was out of line with Twitter tantrum and more bits and bites from the golf world

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/07/2021 (1888 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bits, Bites and Barbs from around the world of golf:

Bits

So: 13 playoff holes contested over the last two PGA Tour events. Hey, that’s more playoff games than the Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers played this year combined! . . . Cruel game, this golf. Joaquin Niemann doesn’t make a bogey over 72 holes at the Rocket Mortgage Classic but then cards one on the first extra hole to lose the tournament. Just sit back and contemplate how crazy it is to not make a single bogey over four rounds of golf and leave the course as loser . . . There were no top-10 finishes by a Canadian on a major tour on the weekend, something that has become a rarity, but a tip of the hat to Manitoba’s Aaron Cockerill for a tie for 28th at the Irish Open, a top-notch European Tour event. Cockerill rose 14 spots to 133rd on the circuit’s Race to Dubai ranking. He’ll need to finish in the top 115 to retain full status next season. He’s currently the second alternate for this week’s Scottish Open . . . If you haven’t yet, please take the time to read SCOREGolf’s June Issue cover story on the relationship Canada’s Indigenous Peoples have with golf and the important role the game could play in bridging cultural divides. A timely, compelling piece of journalism by Curtis Gillespie. Special thanks to Steve Tooshkenig, who is quoted in the piece several times, for his advice during the process.

Bites

On Sunday, I was on a family outing near a Toronto-area golf course that was hosting a Canadian Junior Golf Association event. I watched two kids, maybe 10 years old, hit approach shots. Both were over the ball for at least 15 seconds before taking the club back. This, more than anything, is why the PGA Tour needs to take slow play seriously . . . On the flip side, seeing a golf course full of kids is always awesome . . . There are two kinds of golfers: The one who organizes and books games and the one who waits for others to organize and books games. I’ve become the latter. Don’t be that guy . . . Did you know Volvik makes golf balls with the faces of Marvel superheroes on them? How is a father of a three-year-old boy supposed to get out of Golf Town without buying one of them? Positioned right at the checkout counter too. Savage . . . Loved seeing Australian Cameron Davis get his first PGA Tour win Sunday. Every time I see his name I think back to interviewing him in Barrie, Ont., during a Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada stop. He was playing a practice round on his own, remarked that he didn’t anticipate the bugs being so bad in Canada, and admitted that life on the road so far from home was difficult. You leave those interviews thinking about how long the odds are against a guy like that breaking through. Four years later that guy is cashing a $1.35 million (US) cheque.

Barbs

Phil Mickelson is one of golf’s all-time most popular players. Even those who rolled their eyes at some of his antics and revelled in his follies over the years — myself included — have come around on him. He’s gone from goofy to hilarious and he deserves all the credit in the world for playing great golf into his 50s and for becoming the oldest major champion in the history of the game at the PGA Championship in May. That was an awesome spectacle. Just don’t cross him. That narrative emerged once again at the Rocket Mortgage in Detroit where Mickelson took issue with a local columnist who wrote a story about the left-hander not being paid out the $500,000 he won in a bet years ago with a local bookie who had ties to organized crime. A story that Mickelson didn’t refute and that his lawyer verified as accurate. A story that accurately stated that Mickelson had done nothing wrong or illegal. But the piece — old news but relevant with Mickelson back in town — placed Mickelson in an unfavourable light so he lashed out on social media, threatening to never return to the tournament. Which was absurd. If he didn’t like the story — and why would he, really? — then he had every right to address it and slam it and be angry about it. But to cite it as the reason for potentially boycotting the event in the future? Thereby penalizing the city, the sponsor and the hard-working folks who conduct the tournament and were no doubt thrilled to have the Hall of Famer there to play? That was a childish Twitter tantrum. Easy to do on that medium. Not surprisingly, Mickelson later softened his stance and cozied up to the folks in Detroit, who certainly showed him tremendous love during the week. So the storm will blow over, as all storms do, but it wouldn’t have become one if Mickelson hadn’t reacted the way he did in the first place.

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Obscure thought of the week: Can we all agree that houseflies can detect when we’ve armed ourselves with a flyswatter?

Jason Logan is the editor of SCOREGolf Magazine and is based in Toronto. He is a contributor to the Star’s Sports section. Follow him on Twitter: @jasonSCOREGolf