PGA: 👍 for Phil Mickelson, 👎 for fans on 18
Note to Coach’s Box readers: This is my weekly column and the AP photo that ran in the Cincinnati Enquirer and on Cincinnati.com.
By Mike Bass
mbass@mikebasscoaching.com
Give it up for Phil Mickelson: 👍
He provided what we love about sports, what we missed the last year, seeing someone special do something special, in just the right setting, in just the right way.
That is why I keep showing up.
His dramatic walk up the 18th fairway also provided us a chance to reflect on what we can learn from sports, because I never want to be a part of what I just saw.
That is why I keep asking myself how I want to show up.
* * *
This is what we missed because of COVID-19: We want to watch sports. We want to be there. We want to see and hear other fans when we cannot be there. We want to feel part of this. We want to feel loved.
Mickelson made us feel loved.
Mickelson made us feel reconnected.
He was back, and we were back with him. He not only won the PGA Championship last weekend … and survived a dramatic final round … and became the oldest champion of a major … he was all 👍s in a likable and nostalgic sort of way, rewinding us to Siskel and Ebert, and Fonzie and Arnie, and, well, him.
And then he went on Twitter and took us along for the ride.
@ACLrecoveryCLUB: “Are you on a plane right now?”
@PhilMickelson: “Yes. Sipping wine, half lit, tweeting. Life is good 😊”
He started responding to tweets Sunday night and kept going through Monday morning, replying to congratulatory messages and good-natured barbs, from contemporaries and people like you and me.
@djvancourt: “Hey Phil, I hated you growing up for some reason. But... impossible to still hate, you’re an awesome dude and an even better golfer. Congrats!!!
@PhilMickelson: “I understand. I’m best taken in small doses.”
He knows how to poke fun at himself.
@RichLernerGC (of the Golf Channel): “@PhilMickelson joined @chambleebrandel @jlmountainman and me after his historic win. He was gracious, funny and demonstrated why one day he’ll be a phenomenal lead analyst. Suddenly, that day seems a long ways off.”
@dannykanell (quarterback-turned-analyst): “That was incredible TV...he was also incredibly cocky but still likable!”
@PhilMickelson: “It’s a fine line 😂"
He knows how to poke fun at his golf.
@Ag_08087: “@PhilMickelson about 11 years ago I was working as a sign holder at the Deutsche Bank Championship in MA. You almost hit me with a drive & came up to me & said “sorry about that” and gave me a fist bump. Always been a great guy for the golf community & today fired me up #Bombs"
@PhilMickelson: “Not to burst your bubble, but I almost hit a lot of people 😂”
And he knows how to enjoy a moment.
@rdenholm18: “@PhilMickelson probably the coolest major winner ever man even at 50”
@PhilMickelson: 😂 Probably 😎?
@rdenholm18: “Definitely”
@PhilMickelson: “Word”
This is why we love Phil Mickelson, even if it took some time for other players to love him, too. We can relate to a guy who would get a little too aggressive with his game but always seemed approachable to us.
Too approachable, last weekend.
* * *
What a view.
We spent so long following un-fanned sports that seeing and hearing all of those people in the gallery, people just like us, felt both strange and wonderful. This could happen because COVID-19 restrictions are easing and because this was Mickelson at 50 trying to win a major.
We could feel the 18-hole love-in from the other side of the screen, sense the energy building on the other side of the ropes, imagine being in the gallery and releasing our emotions and 15 months of social distancing for moments just like this. That made this special.
Then we watched the crowd engulf Mickelson as he walked up the 18th fairway while playing partner Brooks Koepka disappeared in the masses. That made this scary.
Mickelson told reporters the scene was “a little bit unnerving, but it was exceptionally awesome, too.” For Koepka, this was hardly awesome. He told reporters that his surgically repaired knee was “dinged a few times” because “no one really gave a (expletive), personally.”
PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh released a statement Monday that apologized to the players and said, “While we welcome enthusiastic fan engagement, we regret that a moment of high elation and pent-up emotion by spectators during the conclusion of yesterday's historic PGA Championship briefly overwhelmed security and made two players and their caddies feel vulnerable.”
Was this just fans being fans?
Would you have done the same thing if you were there?
Is that how you want to show up?
* * *
As I write this, I am about to return to a sporting event for the first time since the shutdown. I look forward to it, curious if it will feel different, thinking about how I want to show up.
Sure, I want to feel safe. We all want to feel safe. How will we show it? We can choose to respect each other, no matter our player or team alliances, no matter our stands on masks and vaccinations, no matter the age or experience of someone near us or playing, no matter the venue or sport. Or we can allow ourselves to get caught up in a moment, release our inhibitions, forget ourselves, lose control and surrender to a group mentality.
It happens. I try to learn from it.
It happens less if we know how to de-escalate, to see the bigger picture and our choices. We can passionately express our fandom, to cheer and boo, but we know enough not to cheer during a golf shot or boo during a golf tournament — and that is the point. We can choose to join a throng that engulfs and unnerves golfers heading to the 18th green, or we can consciously try to back away, even if it separates us from Mickelson.
Of course, there have been more dangerous scenes.
Wouldn’t it be better to think about that now, before it gets to that point?
Especially now, during this restart into live sports? Especially now, while we still bask in Mickelson showing us what we missed.
@BigJim2323: “Holy crap Phil! That was just plain AWESOME! … Reminds me of the time we came from 3 back with 8 to go to put away the Tuesday night fall league
@PhilMickelson: “Exactly.”
So here’s to Phil Mickelson:
@BeefGolf (golfer Andrew “Beef” Johnston): “Hey @PhilMickelson u absolute legend. Congrats. Get some treatment on that thumb mate.
@PhilMickelson: “Icing it now 👍”
Remember to email Bass at mbass@mikebasscoaching.com or reach out to him @SportsFanCoach1 on Twitter if you want to be included next week. His website is MikeBassCoaching.com.