Phil/Lefty's Appeal

To those "inside the ropes" and outside, it has always been my feeling that a great deal of Lefty's appeal came from the fact that he was the anti-Tiger; the only frankly WASP who had a reasonable opportunity to challenge Tiger, the minority. Now throughout the years, I've come to respect Phil for his charitable giving, and he's certainly given more than Tiger. However, his comments about California are distasteful to someone who does not mind paying my taxes to live in one of the best places in the world. What's your perception of him?

 

John Feinstein once described him as Eddie Haskell. Still the best way of putting it.

 

He has nice tits.

 

Always been a big Phil fan. Don't know if I can put a finger on why.

 

If he's paying 68% in taxes on his income, he should drown his accountant in a bucket.

 

It's the tits, right?

 

That caboose is slammin', too.

 

The first golf event I ever covered was won by Mickelson. He was great to deal with. His wife was standing among the media when Phil was putting to win the event and she said, "Oh, I can't look..." and put her head on my shoulder as he hit the putt and then ran to him... She was just delightful...

I haven't covered a ton of golf. I covered one Masters, one US Open and a handful of other tournaments and Mickelson was always pleasant. He was always good to the fans and just seemed like a great guy. I don't really follow golf, but if someone said, "Who do you root for?" my answer is always Mickelson.

Whether you agree or disagree with the comments he made, it probably was not the smartest thing to say publicly.

 

When I heard that number, I wondered if he was counting what he paid his agent, manager, publicist and his taxes and if he's only taking home 32 percent of his winnings and earnings, that wouldn't stun me.

But he's not paying 68 percent in taxes.

 

That's just an offshoot of people making $250K who are fond of saying "half of it goes to taxes, dammit!"

Nowhere does that happen. Phil just exaggerated his tale of woe proportionally to his income.

 

Mickelson has fans for the same reason Arnold Palmer did -- because he goes for broke. He has that same he's-one-of-us vibe Arnie had, mostly in the sense that he plays the way a hacker does: When he's in the pine straw or in deep rough or buried in a bunker, he's not going to God-damn lay up, he's firing for the flag, or at least as close to it as he can get. He gains more fans every time he takes an illogical risk on the course and it backfires on him.

Again, it's the reason Palmer was way more popular than Nicklaus in the '60s. The perception was Jack was perfect, a machine, while Arnie was just a regular guy working his butt off to get to the top.

 

Old news, Mizzou.

Back to Phil ... he's every bit the demanding prick Tiger is behind the scenes, but he is smilier and chummier when the cameras are on. Not unlike a lot of athletes who have learned to play that game. Connects with fans and I suppose that's really all that counts.

I have also heard that Phil's wife is the real deal even for people who roll their eyes at Lefty.