You think the USGA embarrassed Tiger and Phil enough?
Here’s an idea, now that Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods proved they will never win another major golf tournament unless it’s played on a putt-putt course. Get $50 million of sponsors to start the Phil and Tiger tour, where the former No. 1 players in the world take on all comers who try to win some prize money.
That’s the only way these two guys are going to be back playing on Sunday for something meaningful after what happened at Shinnecock Hills over the weekend at the U.S. Open.
First, kudos to hunky Brooks Koepka, the former Florida State golfer who came back from a career-threatening wrist injury to win his second straight Open. If you think that’s easy, the last man to do it was Curtis Strange — and that was 29 years ago.
Koepka battled his buddy Dustin Johnson, the current No. 1-ranked player, on Sunday and won handily, long after Woods had missed the cut Friday and Mickelson slinked off Long Island after a morning round he offered to skip for taking a two-stroke penalty on Saturday by hitting his putt that was sill rolling.
That Tiger couldn’t even hang with half the field and that Mickelson made a 10 on a hole were just as embarrassing to the USGA as it was to them. After Koepka won the 2017 Open at Erin Hills when the course played like a no-name PGA event, the USGA – which runs the U.S. Amateur, U.S. Open and U.S. Senior Open events – purposely made Shinnecock unmanageable for mere mortals. And that’s what Phil and Tiger are at 48 and 42.
Mickelson is only two years away from the senior tour, where he might play a few events to pad his pockets and keep his private jet fueled up. Woods will probably retire from the game now that he’s declared himself healthy again but still can’t cut it with the younger generation of golfers he helped create.
The combination of the wind swirling in off Long Island, roughs that swallowed up balls that missed the fairway and diabolical pin placements on greens that looked like they were burning out made the course almost unplayable for everyone but 20-somethings who hit it 350 yards on a dime and still have steely nerves with the putter. The USGA proved that just anyone can’t win the U.S. Open. Good for them.
Koepka wasn’t just anyone, while Phil and Tiger, sadly, showed they are now barely somebody on Sunday.
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