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06/20/2006: "Piling On Phil"
Leave it to two of golf's legends to be far from a TV set during Phil Mickelson's now-famous meltdown on Sunday. Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson were at a salmon camp in Canada, of all things, and got to hear about it second-hand. As befits the number of major tournament wins between the two of them, they had a similar opinion regarding Phil's decision-making on the 18th hole ...
"He had an easy option to get back into play? Really?" Watson asked.
"Put the ball in play. Go play golf," Nicklaus added.
It's amazing, sometimes, how things can go so wrong so quickly. One minute, Phil was on his way to a third consecutive major victory and a shot at the Grand Slam. The next, he's a permanent member of a group that includes Greg Norman, Bill Buckner, Chris Webber, Donnie Moore and Jean Van de Velde - all memorable for the wrong reasons.
Hopefully, he'll find the way to put this into some kind of perspective and move on. I just don't know how.
