Mickelson Roundup: Let It Rain, No. 5 Review, Amy in '99

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Actually, his analysis is deeper than superstition about rain at the Open's he's contended at and this bit was very interesting about the green surrounds.

Alex Myers reports on Phil’s presser.

"See, as the edges of the greens roll, they're also -- the grain is also going into you. So when it's dry, it's very sticky and it grabs the ball and it makes it very difficult to get the ball close when you're having to kind of drive those chips through the grain. But when it's wet, the ball skids that first bounce, gets up on top of the hill, and then checks, very easy to get by the hole the little bump chip that I like to hit."

There was also this from the press conference about the 5th hole, now a par-5 but too long on Phil’s mind at the current yardage. Too long, at least, to be interesting.

I don't think that the experience of playing in the U.S. Open here in the past years is very
helpful, other than knowing how to play the golf course, where to miss it and what places you need to be careful of, because those are pretty similar around the greens. The notes I took from 2005 were identical.

Places you want to play from, places you don't want to play from. I will say one thing, I can't -- because I've been raving about how great this place is, I will say the one knock that I have, when they made No.5 a par-5, I thought it was the greatest decision because that green is the most difficult green out here and I thought it sure would be exciting to see us hitting long iron shots in par-5 trying to make birdies and eagles.

But when the tee boxes were moved so far back to where it's not reachable, now the shot we're hitting into that green is a 50-yard pitch shot. That's just not exciting, challenging, and won't have the same type of drama that it would have if those back tees were removed and the green was reachable in two.

Now there's some guys like Bubba and Dustin and those guys that can reach it, but for the most part, it's two good shots to about 40, 50 yards short and then you wedge on. But that green is exciting when you're hitting a 4- or 5-iron into it. But unless the tees are moved forward, we won't see that.

Gene Wojciechowski on Jim “Bones” Mackay, who doesn’t get enough credit in the success of Phil Mickelson.

It was Mickelson -- the then-21-year-old amateur who had won the PGA Tour's Northern Telecom Open in 1991, won the U.S. Amateur in 1990 and had dominated NCAA golf. If there was a Next Big Thing, Mickelson was it.

"Hey, how are you?" said Mackay, as Mickelson glanced back at him. "My name's Jim. I caddie on the tour. Would you mind if I watched you hit balls for 15 minutes or so? I'll just sit over here on this bench."

"No, go ahead," said Mickelson.

Mackay watched -- and he instantly knew. He knew he was watching a golf savant. The ball sounded so stunningly different coming off his clubface. Mickelson hit the ball so hard. His swing had so much speed, so many gears.

At the end of the 15 minutes, Mackay got up from the bench, nodded to Mickelson, and Mickelson nodded back.

James B. Stewart of the New York Times draws from past Mickelson quotes and comments and concludes that a love of risk-taking will be his undoing, though he appears to be only working off of no new evidence leaks.

Helen Ross on Amy Mickelson 15 years after the infamous 1999 U.S. Open here. I’m not quite sure her side of things has ever been told in this kind of depth (thanks reader Chicago John).

Across the country, Amy was crying. Actually, she had been crying since the 15th hole, the combination of her pregnancy and her husband being in contention down the stretch leaving her unable to contain her emotions.

"It was very, very emotional watching it," Amy recalled. "Payne makes this big putt at the end and it was kind of surreal. It never occurred to me that Phil wasn't going to win. So that was hard.

"But as we all know, Payne was the epitome of class at that moment. He walked over and said all those beautiful things to Phil about being a father at the same moment he was winning a major championship. It was incredible."