Best of the Masters

[Lugnuts]

Can anybody recommend good Masters post stories? Got links?

The running thread over on Sports and News just isn't getting it done for me.

Particularly interested in Phil/Amy backstory and material relating to Tiger's petulance.

 

[Moderator1]

The Circus Is Over. Or is it?
Now that Tiger has emerged from his hole and played, does he become just another golfer again? Or does this hover over him for a lot longer?


Just a thought.

The shame of Tiger's misdeeds to me is this: You have to be VERY careful doing the "anti-Tiger Phil Mickelson" stories. While he appears to be a decent fellow and all that, suppose he isn't? Hell, maybe THAT is a story.

 

[Lugnuts]

The Circus Is Over. Or is it?
Now that Tiger has emerged from his hole and played, does he become just another golfer again? Or does this hover over him for a lot longer?


Just a thought.

The shame of Tiger's misdeeds to me is this: You have to be VERY careful doing the "anti-Tiger Phil Mickelson" stories. While he appears to be a decent fellow and all that, suppose he isn't? Hell, maybe THAT is a story.

You and I are sharing a brain - those are the EXACT two things I thought, Moddy.

I said to Mr. Lugs last night, "What if Tiger just became a good golfer now? Won one more major, maybe two? Contended regularly, but didn't win like he used to?"

The other thing I said was: Be careful making this a story about Good vs. Evil. Something about the look on Phil's face tells you ... this story isn't so simple.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

Don't believe Phil is demon-free, but his pale, compared to Eldrick's.

 

[imjustagirl]

The other thing I said was: Be careful making this a story about Good vs. Evil. Something about the look on Phil's face tells you ... this story isn't so simple.

And yet, it didn't stop anyone. "Phil won for his cancer-stricken wife! Tiger's wife didn't even show up!"

It wasn't even subtle in most of the stories I read. There were actual comparisons in single paragraphs.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I truly, truly hope Mickelson doesn't have any Tiger-like scandals in his past. I kind of felt like yesterday was good triumphing over evil, but all it takes is rumors of him cheating on his wife and she's battling cancer and he becomes a douchebag at the level of Tiger or John Edwards.

 

[Lugnuts]

The big comparison to me had less to do with the wives and more to do with parenting.

It comes out that Phil spends the night before his final round up 'til 1 a.m. with his daughter who fractured her arm roller skating.

Normally in that situation, I'm sure Amy would take care of it... but Nantz mentioned she was so sick, she had to stay in bed all week.

I thought: It doesn't matter how rich or famous you are, or how much help you have. If you are a parent, and you take that job seriously, not even the final round of the Masters can get in the way of your most important commitment.

That, to me, is the bigger contrast here between Phil and Tiger at this particular point-- bigger than their wives and their wives' actions.

 

[Azrael]

This is not good over evil.

This is the triumph of one lazy cliche over another lazy cliche.

 

[Lugnuts]

Then post some good links, Azrael! Surely somebody out there has written about the real story!

 

[Azrael]

Just follow Whitlock's twitter feed. He's in everybody's business this morning.

 

[Lugnuts]

I'd rather eat my own puke for breakfast, thanks.

OK - I'll post a good link. Here's Tom Rinaldi's sit down with Phil. I thought Rinaldi did a nice job asking open-ended SINGLE questions.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=5077262&categoryid=2630020

Still, I wished for some sort of diplomatically phrased something about Tiger.

 

[Small Town Guy]

The big comparison to me had less to do with the wives and more to do with parenting.

It comes out that Phil spends the night before his final round up 'til 1 a.m. with his daughter who fractured her arm roller skating.

Normally in that situation, I'm sure Amy would take care of it... but Nantz mentioned she was so sick, she had to stay in bed all week.

I thought: It doesn't matter how rich or famous you are, or how much help you have. If you are a parent, and you take that job seriously, not even the final round of the Masters can get in the way of your most important commitment.

That, to me, is the bigger contrast here between Phil and Tiger at this particular point-- bigger than their wives and their wives' actions.

How about some stories about the unsung nannies?

-husband of a semi-retired nanny.

There's definitely no shortage of morality play columns, completely heavy-handed.

Deadspin has quite a few links.

http://deadspin.com/5515055/family-values-win-the-weekend

 

[Double Down]

I suspect Phil isn't the husband some are portraying him to be because "the look on his face?"

Really?

 

[Lugnuts]

"Isn't" ? No. More "Hasn't been."

Call it women's intuition. Call it being around pro athletes for awhile. Call it a guess based on percentages.

If I were a betting woman in Vegas (irony intended), I'd put my money on the marriage not being picture perfect all these years.

My point is simply that I wouldn't make the statement that Rick Reilly made in his column today. "Phil has stayed true to his wife." I mean, how does he know? Just don't go there, one way or the other.

But, by all accounts, Phil seems really devoted now. And maybe that's all that's important.

Amy must have been going through hell this past year. From the little I know about breast cancer treatment, if she's still in bed all day 11 months after diagnosis......... This hasn't been an easy fix treatment.

God be with her and all who are going through this.

 

[dooley_womack1]

I'd rather eat my own puke for breakfast, thanks.

OK - I'll post a good link. Here's Tom Rinaldi's sit down with Phil. I thought Rinaldi did a nice job asking open-ended SINGLE questions.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=5077262&categoryid=2630020

Still, I wished for some sort of diplomatically phrased something about Tiger.

Of course, it depends on what you had the night before, I suppose.

Anyhoo, Mickelson has always been portrayed as man, Woods as machine. Now, it's Mickelson as Superman, Woods as human

 

[playthrough]

"Isn't" ? No. More "Hasn't been."

Call it women's intuition. Call it being around pro athletes for awhile. Call it a guess based on percentages.

If I were a betting woman in Vegas (irony intended), I'd put my money on the marriage not being picture perfect all these years.

My point is simply that I wouldn't make the statement that Rick Reilly made in his column today. "Phil has stayed true to his wife." I mean, how does he know? Just don't go there, one way or the other.

But, by all accounts, Phil seems really devoted now. And maybe that's all that's important.

Amy must have been going through hell this past year. From the little I know about breast cancer treatment, if she's still in bed all day 11 months after diagnosis......... This hasn't been an easy fix treatment.

God be with her and all who are going through this.

Whose marriage, after a decade or more, is picture perfect? Is infidelity the only measure?

I do agree, a blanket statement like Reilly's is too vague. Tremendous story, Phil and Amy. But you can't make a comparison across marriages, though everyone thinks both fit into their own different categories.

Though I'd still be curious who Tiger would have hugged first had he won yesterday. Coach? Agent?

 

[imjustagirl]

Stevie.

 

[Lugnuts]

Whose marriage, after a decade or more, is picture perfect? Is infidelity the only measure?

Nobody's and no.

When I read Reilly's statement and Mo Dowd's as well (a few months ago), I was immediately reminded of some of the statements baseball writers have made about PEDs. "At least A-Rod is clean," etc.

 

[Double Down]

Reilly has been friends with the Mickelsons for years, so it doesn't surprise me that he went so far as to make that statement. (He's the journalist, after all, who went so far as to write that Phil wore a green jacket to bed with her in 2004 after he won his first major, so obviously they like and trust him.) I don't known that I believe it's true that they have the perfect marriage, but who really does? I think they have a normal marriage, filled with good times and rough patches, and I don't think "intuition" and "rumors" that people have had over the years about Mickelson (without a shred of proof) have ever risen to the level beyond that. People don't want the Mickelsons' marriage to be a good one because it would be so delicious if it wasn't, if he really did turn out to be a fake.

I agree that it's naive to believe their marriage is the complete opposite of the Woods' marriage. But I think a lot of the desire to have Mickelson be a fake is just that -- desire to unmask a fraud because it's too nauseating for some people if it's real.

As much as Reilly and others want Phil to be Father and Husband of the Year, some people seem to really, really want him to be revealed as Phony Mickelson.

I suspect the reality of it is they might have a pretty normal marriage, not so much idyllic as full of ups and downs and ultimately a commitment to one another.

 

[playthrough]

Stevie.

Well, yeah.

Then he might have told Stevie to walk ahead so he could also hug him near the scorer's shack. Full-service caddie.