Phil Chooses To Study Classic Club Course Changes From Safe Confines of Rancho Santa Fe

Larry Dorman reports:

Mickelson will be skipping the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, which starts Jan. 16, for the first time since 2001, and there is sure to be speculation that he is not happy with the change of courses at a tournament where he has won twice.

He has not played since winning the HSBC Champions in China in early November.

“Taking more than two months off sounds like a long time, but I’ll have to be fresh and ready to go when the 2008 season starts because I’ll play five in a row starting in San Diego,” Mickelson said on his Web site. "Plus, I just really, really hate the Classic Club."

Just wanted to make sure you were reading!

Larry Bohannan documents the changes to the Classic Club that Phil will not experience this year.

“People whose left hand has taken them to greatness.”

Elizabeth Olson of the New York Times reports that the Mickelson's will be able to put food on the table for another year thanks to Phil's new deal with Crowne Plaza hotels which, mercifully, should save us from another year of those roundtable ads with Trevino, Feherty, Gulbis, et. al.

The center of the promotion is a Web site, ameetingwithphil.com, where fans can submit a story or video by Feb. 2 in one of six categories: people who look like Mr. Mickelson; spectators who have been hit by one of his golf balls;

Glad we clarified which balls.

people who consider themselves his biggest fans;

There goes the PGA Tour membership.

those who have advice for his golf game;

Calling Rick Smith. 

amateurs who think they could be the next Phil Mickelson; and “people whose left hand has taken them to greatness.”

Uh...no, I won't touch that one either.

Mr. Mickelson is a lefty in a sport that favors righties.

Thanks.

After sorting through the online entries and several in-person auditions, Crowne Plaza, which is owned by InterContinental Hotels Group of London, plans to choose five people with compelling stories in each category and fly them to San Diego in late February. There the company will shoot six 30-second spots featuring unscripted conversations between Mr. Mickelson and the fans. The ads will be shown during the 2008 golf season, from mid-April through September.

Hmmm...we may regret the loss of those Crowne Plaza ads after all.

“This is a chance for fans, who used to be on the fairways until ropes were put up, to interact with Phil, who is known for being approachable,” said Michael S. Craig, group account director at the agency that created the campaign, Fallon Minneapolis, a division of Fallon Worldwide, a part of Publicis Groupe.

Original!

This is fun. 

Mr. Mickelson, 37, who was not made available for comment, has appeared in ads for Rolex, Exxon Mobil and Ford, among others. He is one of a string of golf greats to lend his name to a brand. Arnold Palmer led the way more than four decades ago and was soon followed by Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player. These days, Tiger Woods appears regularly for Nike.

Although things can go sour in a sponsorship deal if the athlete gets in trouble, Crowne Plaza says it sees no cause for concern with Mr. Mickelson, who is known for his devotion to his family and P.G.A. charity work. “When you think about athletes as endorsers, you are at little risk with a golfer,” said Mr. Craig of Fallon.

Well...most golfers.

"It is nice to win a tournament that Tiger has tried to win the last couple of years unsuccessfully"

This wire story reports on the wacky finish to the HSBC event, where Phil Mickelson

Lefty overcame six penalty strokes in the final round, blew a three-shot lead with seven to play, and still won Sunday's HSBC Champions tournament on the second hole of a three-way playoff with Englishmen Ross Fisher and Lee Westwood.

And James Corrigan explains Ross Fisher's Van de Veldeian finish.

But best of all, Nick Mulvenney reports on the latest stupid thing Phil has said:

"It is nice to win a tournament that Tiger has tried to win the last couple of years unsuccessfully," he added.

But at least has his priorities straight...

"Now that my family is older, my kids are older, eight, six and four, I will try to play more tournaments overseas and use those trips as educational weeks for my family," he said.

HSBC Champions Photo Caption Fun

From the GolfChannel.com, a Ross Kinnaird image taken at "preview day" of the H$BC Champions Trophy meet and greet. What's Phil hearing?

 

Mickelson Family Safari Makes Up For Otherwise Miserable Week In Singapore

Grant Clark reports that Phil Mickelson had his highest round in 3 years and is on antibiotics after inhaling California's ashen air.

But at least the kids had fun on the Singapore safari.

Mickelson Home OK; Entire Family Heads To China On Human Rights Fact Finding Mission

Tim Rosaforte reports the good news and a heartwarming tidbit:

Phil Mickelson's home in Rancho Santa Fe (Calif.) has escaped fire damage, a source told Golf World on Wednesday, but five homes in the same neighborhood, including one across the street, have burned to the ground. Mickelson, whose family evacuated the home Monday, was able to gain access to his property Wednesday, and he's planning to leave Sunday for a two-week trip to Asia, where he's scheduled to play the Singapore Open and HSBC Champions.

Mickelson's family will accompany him; they're planning to turn it into an educational trip with a visit planned to the Great Wall of China, among other historical landmarks.

Oh I smell a children's book in the making. 

Meanwhile Rex Hoggard reports on the fire's impact on others in the golf industry. 

"Just giving him the respect he deserves is really all it would take for Finchem to carve out a relationship with the No. 2 draw in golf."

In this week's "Quiet Please" column, Golf World's Tim Rosaforte writes:

Tim Finchem might learn a lesson from Phil Mickelson's appearance at this week's Fry's Electronics Open.  Mickelson is playing at Grayhawk GC for no other reason than he's a loyal guy. He's carried the club logo on his bag without re-upping his contract since 1994, has the grillroom named after him and is the front man and course designer at Whisper Rock, just north on Scottsdale Road. It's his way of paying back a community that has been supporting him since his days at Arizona State. The lesson: Phil is good to people who are good to him. Just giving him the respect he deserves is really all it would take for Finchem to carve out a relationship with the No. 2 draw in golf.

Now, off the top of my head, I can think of one embarrassment Finchem saved Mickelson from this year.

So I'm struggling to understand what it is that the Commissioner is supposed to do that he's not doing now for Mickelson? 

While we're on the subject of Whisper Rock, Tom Dellner profiles it for the current issue of Links. 

Some Bearing...?

Due to my travels, I've only had a brief chance to glance over the Tour Championship stories this week and feel like I've missed...so little.

Far more interesting for largely selfish reasons was Thomas Bonk's LA Times story on Bearing Point taking over for Nissan as host of what most of us will continue to call the L.A. Open.

Just typing out loud here, but this move would seem to have several ramifications beyond the most obvious: Phil Mickelson should become a Riviera regular since his great showing there this year and his lucrative deal with Bearing Point.

And Bonk noted in his golf column today that this virtually guarantees that Phil will not return to the Bob Hope where the rotation has been weakened and everyone's insensitivity to golf architecture has deservedly caught up to the folks running the event.  

But again, just typing out loud here, Bearing Point's sponsorship could mean a couple of more things:

- Is Phil Mickelson going to be the host of the LA Open ala Tiger at Washington D.C. and the AT&T National? It seems unlikely since the L.A. Open has been an open event since 1926 and it's hard to imagine the Junior Chamber of Commerce or a sponsor daring to impact that tradition. Then again, if the Western Open is gone, anything's possible.

- Could it be that Phil's current gripe with the Commissioner has something to do with the Bearing Point Open...oh that hurt to type...and a possible denial by Ponte Vedra of Phil serving as the "host" ala Tiger in Washington D.C.? 

- With the traffic, apparently bumpy greens, the Target World Challenge locked into Sherwood and Phil/Bearing Point dominating the scene at Riviera, have we seen the last of Tiger Woods at Riviera?

Anyway, just a few thoughts. I guess we'll find out more when the official announcement is made. 

"He came off like a spoiled brat who took his bat and ball and went home. Ask anybody on Tour — Phil is very into Phil."

Thanks to reader NRH for noticing SI's posting of an updated FedEx Cup/Phil blasting from their anonymous PGA Tour pro. This ought to be interesting reading.

Phil Speaks!

...about his various neurotic club tinkering tendecies exclusively to Mark Lamport Stokes scores an exclusive with Phil to talk about his various neurotic club tinkering tendencies.

Butch Reveals The Tiger Secret And It's Really Not That Interesting

Brian Hewitt has the scoop on what Phil was watching for last week:

Specifically, Harmon told Mickelson to note how Tiger slows down his central nervous system simply by walking more slowly in the heat of battle. Harmon told Phil to watch how Woods putts out when he has the opportunity rather than wait around and let his opponent finish.

That made Phil laugh?  Wow, he's easy.

Flashback: "Woods and Mickelson didn't draw up the plan, they simply were the strongest voices."

Just in case Phil Mickelson or Tiger Woods try to put all of the blame on Commissioner Tim Finchem for the shortened season, they might want to read Doug Ferguson's July, 2006 column on how the shortened season came about. It was originally posted here.

"I think for us to compete against football, and for us to continue our season after the PGA Championship as long as it does, I just think it kind of loses its luster," Mickelson said at La Costa in February 2005. "It's just not exciting. I'd love to see a lot less tournaments on tour, so the top players play in a greater percentage of those events."

Woods and Mickelson are not the best of friends, but it sounded as though they were in cahoots on this one. For it was only two days later that Woods also argued for a shorter season.

"End it Labor Day," he said.

A week later at Doral, Woods was more expansive on his wish for an early end to the regular season, which would allow top players to compete against each more often besides the eight biggest events — four majors, The Players Championship and three World Golf Championships.

"It would be more exciting for the fans, and I'm sure the sponsors and TV and everybody, if we did play more often together," Woods said. "The only way you could do that is if we shortened the season, which I've really been trying to get into Finchem's ear about."

And Ferguson ended with this....

Woods and Mickelson didn't draw up the plan, they simply were the strongest voices.

And until the PGA Tour goes through its first season under the revamped schedule, no one can be sure it's a bad idea.

If it is, blame them.

Larry Craig Stealing Phil and Tiger's Line!

Apparently it was his merely intent to resign, just as it was Tiger's intent to play all four playoff events and Phil's intent to play each week of the FedEx Cup finish.

Phil Refuses To Let Nanny Take The Kids To School, Will Skip BMW

It's official...

Deutsche Bank Wrap Up

Paul Kenyon and Kevin McNamara on reaction to the TPC Boston changes and the possibility of more work to come, with this from Deutsche Bank's Seth Waugh:

“Some of the holes, you look at them and half the hole has been changed. That side has, but this side doesn’t have the same look,” Waugh said. “The course plays differently, more strategically because of Gil’s work.”

The fourth hole, which went from a dogleg 435-yarder to a 298-yard par-4, was the hole the players least liked, Waugh reported. The new hole, driveable for virtually all of the players, was much better received.

Among others, Phil Mickelson went 2, 3, 5, 3 on the hole, picking up three strokes on Tiger Woods, who went 6, 2, 4, 4. Because it provides wild swings in scoring, officials are discussing the possibility of setting up new stands behind the green and making it one of the focus holes.

The hope is to continue to modify the course, although now it becomes merely fine-tuning.

“Gil is an artist. Brad is, too. You just let them go paint the picture,” Waugh said.

Jim McCabe has more from a jubiliant Waugh, comments from Waugh that make it quite clear how little schedule tinkering will go on for 2008, and this update on the much talked about fourth hole:

When all was said and done, the much talked-about par-4 fourth - a 298-yarder that had plenty of skeptics - held its own. No doubt, players took aim and plenty drove the green - 134 of them in four days. Five players made eagles as the hole played to a field average of 3.714 to rank 16th. But as a testament to the devilish nature of the hole, of the top eight players on the leaderboard at the start of the day, only Mickelson made birdie in the final round. Crunching some numbers after 374 scores had been recorded over four days:

Woods never did birdie it. He had a three-putt par yesterday, a par in Round 3, an eagle Saturday, and that unforgettable double bogey thanks to three bunker shots Friday.

Tom Pernice was the only player of the 75 who made the cut to play the hole over par. He made the championship's only triple bogey, then followed with three pars.

Mickelson played it in 3 under.

Sergio Garcia had four pars.

Cameron Morfit says the Mickelson issue is simple: he hasn't played well at Cog Hill.