After tearing it apart, Phil Mickelson lifts U.S. team to Ryder Cup
CHASKA, Minn. — Phil Mickelson didn’t win his singles match on Sunday afternoon and he didn’t have to. But as Lefty poured champagne down his own throat on the Hazeltine balcony then sprayed it over the jubilant crowd below, he did so safe in the knowledge that no one did more to make the United States’ long-awaited Ryder Cup revival possible.
Mickelson celebrated like a man who knows how much it hurts to lose this event, and lose it over and over. He has lost it eight times, including the previous three. He wasn’t prepared to lose it again.
He was bruised by the gloom of Gleneagles two years ago, utterly sick of being on one vanquished team after another, and determined to do something about it.
It began with an impassioned speech on the final afternoon in Scotland and ended here, with smiles on faces, red splashed all over the scoreboard, and yes, all that champagne.
It stings the eyes, the bubbly stuff, but it’s better than tears and Mickelson’s actions made sure there were none of those, unless you count Bubba Watson weeping for joy.
“I’ve been a part of 10 successful Presidents’ Cup teams and eight losing Ryder Cup teams,” Mickelson said. “It is easy to see what difference is. These guys are incredible players and put in the right environment they play amazing golf. We are bringing home the Ryder Cup because of it. I’ve known they had it within them for a long time.”
It would have been easy to forget it amid the joy of this sunny Sunday, but the last time the Cup was lifted, by Europe’s Paul McGinley in 2014, there were some things that were starting to be repeated so often they were in danger of being considered fact.
The Europeans had a closeness that could not be matched, popular wisdom said. Its players cared more, supposedly, and had temperaments better suited to the event’s cauldron-like atmosphere.
Mickelson didn’t buy it. He felt that rather than being more motivated, more familial or just better, the Euros had a better system in place that enabled them to excel.
He felt 2014 U.S. captain Tom Watson had been too heavy-handed and believed the structure needed to be changed to prevent such autocracy.
He pushed hard, loudly and vehemently, calling for a task force to be put in place and becoming a member of that 11-strong group himself.
The meeting of minds scripted for change and Mickelson was not shy about expressing his views. Some of it was technical. He strongly thought that the Fall Series of PGA Tour events should not count toward Ryder Cup qualification, because those tournaments are often lacking the leading lights. There was a revamp of the selection policy that enabled the most in-form performer to be picked. On Sunday, the winning point was clinched by that very man, Ryan Moore, whose spot was earned as a result of his efforts at the Tour Championship last week.
Mickelson is 46 but forget about his new role primarily being that of an administrator. He won twice in three outings in the pairs, not always consistent but permanently competitive, and saved his best for last, on Sunday.
Patrick Reed’s slugfest with Rory McIlroy was the most entertaining match of the day, but Mickelson’s duel with Sergio Garcia was comfortably the highest-quality. The pair poured in 19 birdies between them with just one hole won by a par, when Mickelson notched his sole bogey on 11.
His putter was electric. Sometimes it saved him, other times it turned the screw on Garcia, who compiled a majestic round of his own in a matchup where, in truth, neither man has much time for the other.
On 18 Mickelson rapped one in from 20 feet to guarantee at least a share of the match, before producing the same two-footed leap that he executed when winning the Masters for the first time in 2004. He didn’t jump very high back then either, and there were a few laughs when the move was later replayed, but it didn’t matter.
Over two years, he had already risen enough. To the balcony reserved for those who won. Before that, to the forefront of America’s Ryder Cup planning. And most of all, to the occasion.
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