WTG Lefty

Phil Mickelson, by his own admission said the 66 he shot in the final round of The British Open may have been his best round ever.  Making up five strokes on the field and winning without a playoff, he beat Henrick Stinson by three strokes.  Four birdies on the last six holes sealed the deal as he crushed a very evenly matched field until the back nine on Sunday.

I woke up this Sunday morning to some weekend sports guy teeing off on Tiger Woods.  Tiger Woods is still a great golfer.  Whether or not he ever wins another of golf’s major tournaments is sort of irrelevant.  Records are made and broken all the time in sports and at age 37 Woods will have lots of opportunities to break Big Jack’s record.  As the years go by it isn’t going to get easier, but a little bit of Zen magic might help.  Stop trying so hard!

Tiger draws a crowd, but more than a few are there to see if he will have a melt down, count the F bombs, and quietly pull for everybody else in the group.   I’ve seen Tiger and Phil up close as they  played at Doral.  Lefty has had more than his share of disappointments on the golf course and in its major tournaments.  He did not win his first major until 2004.

At this point I’m just going to just roll over into some really choice bits of golf wisdom that border on cliche but seem to fit.

Ben Hogan said “as you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, because you get only one round.”

Bobby Jones said “Golf is said to be a humbling game but it is surprising how many are unaware of their weaknesses or else reckless of their consequences”.

You get bad breaks from good shots and good breaks from bad shots – but you must play the ball where it lies.  Bobby Jones