Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods have their date with destiny in late November at the Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas where they’ll be playing for a winner-take-all $10 million prize.
But there’s a lot of golf to be played between now and then.
We’ve got the PGA Championship at Bellerive Country Club beginning today in St.
Louis. The TOUR Championship at Atlanta’s East Lake GC. Then there’s the Ryder Cup in September where it’s widely believed Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will be paired together as Captain’s Picks (if necessary) on the team.Why would Team USA Captain Jim Furyk pick Phil Mickelson as a captain’s pick for his 2018 Ryder Cup team? Well, besides having a ton of Ryder Cup experience and currently ranking 10th on the PGA Tour money list, Phil Mickelson’s one hell of a competitor.
Phil’s already earned over $4.1 million on the golf course this season. He’s earned more than $87 million throughout his career (43 PGA Tour wins).
There’s no telling how much $$$$ Phil’s earned gambling over the years but we’re willing to wager that IT’S A LOT because he has a reputation for betting on anything and everything. And he’ll do anything to win a bet.
Case in point, the story below which was relayed on the latest episode of the ‘The Action Network Golf Podcast‘.
It’s a story about PGA Tour veteran Colt Knost playing with Phil, Ben Crane, and some unnamed TV writer who has a high handicap. The writer was spotted 24 strokes and was able to play from a different tee box.
Phil, being the degenerate gambler he allegedly is, wanted to level the playing field. Here’s how it all went down according to the podcast:
Let me set the stage. Knost, Mickelson, Ben Crane and an anonymous TV writer were playing at the Madison Club in La Quinta, California. And let’s just say this writer wasn’t exactly a scratch golfer.
Lefty insisted on playing with Crane, leaving Knost and the high-handicap writer to pair up in a money match, with the latter getting 24 strokes. As Knost puts it, this writer was only driving the ball 200 yards, so they wanted him to be able to play a tee up. Can’t have an amateur playing from the 7,400-yard back tees at the Madison Club against tour pros.
Phil was reluctant at first, but eventually agreed. They teed off the first hole, with the writer getting about a 30-yard advantage. The second hole comes around, and the gap between the tee boxes is not quite as far.
By the fourth or fifth hole, the tee boxes were just a few yards apart, and Phil shot Colt a look.
It was at that point, Colt realized what was going on.
“This son of a bitch …”
Phil had called the pro shop and had them move all of the next-to-back tees closer to the tips, taking away the slight advantage Knost and his teammate thought they were getting. (via)
You can hate Phil Mickelson all you want but you HAVE to respect this move. He recognized that the rules were stacked against him so he thought outside of the (tee) box to level the playing field.
Did he really need to level the field when the golfer was so shitty he needed to be spotted 22 strokes AND play from a different tee box? Absolutely not.
Furthermore, I don’t know how you can hate Phil Mickelson these days. Especially after his latest Mizzen + Main commercial that has him dancing to 80s-style Synth Pop.
If you haven’t seen that latest commercial from Mizzen + Main yet (I’m not sure how you could’ve missed this) then check it out here:
You’d be hard-pressed to find a bigger Mizzen + Main fan than me. I love the shirts and have for years.
Their first-ever TV commercial just proves that this brand’s playing checkers while the other men’s dress shirt brands are playing checkers.
You can check out that full podcast on the Action Network with the story about Phil moving the tee boxes by following that link!
