Greetings -
Watching the British Open right now - and my favorite golfer (after Jack) is Phil Mickelson. He has had a bad year until last week when he won the Scottish Open. Then this week he came from behind today and shot a 66, 5 under par, and, right now, leads by 3 and nobody can catch him. He will win the British Open for the first time. What a guy, what a family guy, what a great person. He has always put his family first, not second, to golf. Golf has always been a job (a great job) and a way to provide for his family.
I am sure that a lot of guys would swap places today with him but I am not so sure that they would swap places when he has had to go to bed at 7:00 in the evening or get up at 4:00 in the morning or when he had to drive five hours to get to the next tournament and then practice three hours before he could play that day. And his wife could not join him that week because he was just starting the tour and finances were short. Now, today, he has his own plane and he can get there and back to see his daughter graduate and then on to the next tournament and get four hours sleep before the first day of practice. But it has been a long journey and he has worked hard without sacrificing his family to get there. And he has been a perfect gentleman doing it.
Lee Westwood led going into today's round. He would have been the first Englishman in many a year to have won the British Open and, after Andy Murray (the first Scotsman EVER to win Wimbledon, BTW) won the British Tennis Open, it would have been nice for England if he had won, all of the USA is celebrating for Phil. If Zach Johnson had won, well, that would have been great for the USA as well but Zach had already won the Masters earlier this year so I was really pulling for Mick. Sorry Lee, but, after all, Mick is one of ours. Maybe next year.
So, congratulations Phil Mickelson for a job well done!
<updated Wednesday, 23 July 2013>
Just re-read USA Today from Monday, page 3C: "Victory thrilling, fulfilling" - "With skill and class, Mickelson wins one for the good guys" Christine Brennan wrote up an article on Phil that pointed that while other golfers (who are not named here but were named there) cursed openly when making bad shots, Phil not only maintained his cool but blamed only himself for poor shots. Even on the 16th par-3 when his shot hit the green and rolled back down and off the green several feet (about 15 or 20 feet to be exact) onto the fairway and he said, "Wow! That's as good as I got!" Meaning that he had hit everything that he had in the shot and it still did not go far enough. But he did not swear nor blame anyone else. And he still made par on the hole. And went on to make birdie on the 17th and again on the 18th. Then he tearfully fell into the arms of his wife and three children. Even his big old 6'6" caddie was crying. Shoot! Lots of folks were crying for joy with him. I know I was! Phil had won Number Five!! And I was there to see it.
Maybe I will be there next year for the U.S. Open when he wins Number Six and does the real "Number Six": The sixth golfer to win all four major golf events; the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open and the PGA. Only Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Gary Player, Gene Sarazen and Ben Hogan have done it so far. Right now only 19 players have EVER won five or more major championships so that in itself is pretty rare company. Tiger has 14 majors and ranks number two in the category. Jack has the all-time record at 18 but he has retired so that record is set in concrete and is not going anywhere. Only Tiger or Phil would have a chance at Jack's record and Phil is 43. But Tiger is getting on up in years as well - he is 37 now so he has to hurry if he is going to catch Jack. Jack won his 15th major at 38 so Tiger is right on track if he wins one this year or next.
Shalom,
Yaakov On
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