That’s Wet! a Golf blog in West Palm Beach Florida

A tough pill to swallow

Father’s Day

This is not how it’s supposed to work on Father’s day.  I’m sure that’s what Phil was thinking.  Like Phil  I am also a Dad, a father of four to be exact. I’ve even earned some stripes by breaking out of the ‘normal’ daddy role of sole provider that I played for 14 years by playing Mr. Mom for the last year as my two youngest’s kids full time caregiver. So, I’m a dad, I change diapers, pick up the house (pretty much all day), buy the groceries, do the wash, and try to start my own business in my spare time. I’m also insane about golf.

These days there’s not a lot of time or money for golf so this blog is a bit of an outlet for my golfing angst. It’s father’s day and also the final day of the U.S. Open. So, today seems like the one day of the year I might get away with sitting in front of the TV for six plus hours of riveting golf, especially because in this household my wife is equally insane about golf and there’s none of the typical guilt issues associated with wanting to watch golf since Shannon is right there with me.So what do we do?

Well due to the realities of life (and I’m not complaining here) it’s also the day that my wife’s step Dad wants to have the Father’s day picnic and my mother-in-law wants to have our combo Father’s day/celebrate my sister-in-laws birthday breakfast. Did I throw in there that my two oldest sons are flying into town for the summer and I’m picking them up at 8AM? And that I’ll drive back and forth from West Palm to Ft. Lauderdale three times before the day is over. So, they’ll be no sitting in front of the TV today watching my favorite game. I think, no problem, this is why some wonderful human invented Tivo!

Of course, this also means you need to go into media blackout mode where you don’t have the TV on, don’t listen to the radio and where every conversation you have with someone is laced with the risk that perhaps, just perhaps they’ll bring up the golf results in conversation and rip your heart out by doing do.

So Shannon and I finally get finished up with myriad events and chores and collapse into bed at 10:30. We’re ready to watch some golf on Tivo. I choose play with the remote and promptly begin nodding off. We wake up this morning and I part ask, part comment to Shannon “When in our lifetime are we going to find 6 1/2 hours of spare time to watch The Open today?” She smiles wryly and turns to the computer for the reveal, knowing full well that there’s no way we’re ever going to get that chance.

Shannon types in:

CNN.com
Hits Enter
We hold our breath.
Nothing. The front page of CNN’s sports section doesn’t even have a picture of the champion. CNN, you are so incredibly lame.

We both scour the screen frantically looking for a headline. When we see it our hearts sink. The headline reads something like “Phil Mickelson: ‘I’m so stupid.’”

Me: “I guess Phil must have blown up.”
Shannon: “Oh god.” as she’s clicking on the link to the story.
There it is. Phil blows the lead on the 72nd hole.

I’m just stunned. We’re both so annoyed and sad at the same time that we can’t really read much more. I’ve tried to go read more once or twice today but I’m still smarting and I can’t take it yet. I HATE it when people throw away a championship, never mind one that is so important and never mind that Shannon and I are both huge fans of Lefty. I know when I go read the stories that it will be because he hit it in the rough and didn’t take his medicine. He almost never can. Let me guess, he tried to reach the green and save par even if he didn’t have to in order to win? Am I in the right neighborhood? And that’s one of the reasons we love Phil of course. It’s also one of the reasons that we still think of Phil as an underdog. You can say that he’s number two in the world rankings but with the risks that Phil takes, even the ‘new’ Phil, you know you’re never far away from a spectacular blow up. If it’s not the risks then it’s his vulnerable side, like the one we’ve seen on many occasions before. How about all those simply horrible putts he made on the final round of The Open at Shinnecock when Retief couldn’t miss a 40 footer?

To be a fan of Phils is to marvel at his skills and revel in his smiling demeanor and be petrified to watch as he brings it home on Sunday. He’s improved but yesterday’s closing of the U.S. Open reminded me of the old adage, ‘The more things change, the more they stay the same.’I certainly can’t watch the ending on Tivo yet and it will probably be a couple of days before I can read the hundreds of articles on his demise.

Oh and congratulations to Geoff. A major win IS incredible but I’m sorry your first major had to be soured a little like this!