SOURCE NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book was three decades in the making. I first began covering the PGA Tour in 1994, Phil Mickelson’s second full season. That was the era of Corey Pavin and Mark O’Meara and Lee Janzen; thank gawd we had Phil, who is many things, but never boring.
Even as I have shadowed Mickelson throughout his career, I’ve never been one of his boys. There are sportwriters with whom he’s played recreational rounds of golf or had long, discursive dinners—we’ve enjoyed neither together. I would characterize our relationship through the years as an amused wariness. At the 2020 Masters, after I had already told Phil this book was happening, he journeyed to the cavernous press building for a pretournament press conference. Given that he had won only one tournament in the preceding seven years, I commandeered the mic and said to Mickelson, “You don’t do many pretournament press conferences anymore—is it fun to come in here knowing that you have a big stage on which you can perform?”
He replied, live on Golf Channel, “I just don’t think my views are that much desired during this era, and it’s been easy to kind of just slide in and out. But I always love to come and see you, Alan.”
These little digs always make me laugh, just as it’s been undeniably fun (if occasionally combative) to chronicle Mickelson through the years. I remain upset that he impugned my professionalism by claiming his comments about Saudi Arabia and the Tour were off the record, but at some point in the future I hope we will bury the hatchet, just as we did after he wanted to brawl at Medinah all those years ago. We have spoken often in the past, including sitting down together for an hourlong podcast in 2015, taped in his secret lair within the clubhouse of the Madison Club in Palm Springs. While Phil and I had only that one fraught phone call for this book, I was in frequent touch with two of his lawyers, who offered their perspective on a variety of subjects. Over the years I have had many conversations with Amy, Bones, Steve Loy, Phil’s father and father-in-law, his trainer and sports psychologist and publicist and assorted swing and putting coaches. For this book I’ve drawn upon all of this previous reporting as well as the accompanying game stories and features I typed for the Fire Pit Collective, Sports Illustrated, GolfDigest.com and Golf Magazine. The material is used here with the permission of each outlet.
Researching a book during the COVID era had its advantages and drawbacks. Access to players was severely restricted at PGA Tour events but throughout the pandemic many folks were stuck at home, bored, and happy to entertain phone interviews. It was common for these chats to stretch for an hour or more. During a single day in December 2020, I interviewed Paul Azinger, Mark Calcavecchia, Luke Donald, Tom Kite, Hale Irwin, and Brendan Steele. (That’s four U.S. Opens, a British Open, a PGA Championship, 131 total victories across the PGA and Champions Tours, and more than $170 million in career earnings.) By the end of that day I was sipping tea with honey and lemon because my voice was failing. In all, I conducted nearly two hundred interviews for this book: players, caddies, swing coaches, Tour wives, ex-wives, nannies, Tour officials, tournament directors, corporate sponsors, agents, lawyers, federal investigators, reporters, broadcasters, civilians. Some would speak only on the condition of anonymity. (They are not listed below.) Others are not quoted in the book but informed my thinking. Except where noted in this chapter, every quote is from my own reporting or taken from press conferences or similarly public utterances. Among those I interviewed: Azinger, Mark Baldwin, Michael Bamberger (who also offered much helpful advice on the direction of the manuscript), Charles Barkley, Chip Beck, Ted Bishop, Keegan Bradley, Mark Brooks, Calcavecchia, Tom Candiotti, Paul Casey, Brandel Chamblee, Cam Champ, K. J. Choi, Stewart Cink, Roger Cleveland, Fred Couples, Ben Crenshaw, Julie Crenshaw, John Daly, Bryson DeChambeau, Jaime Diaz, Donald, Mike Donald, David Eger, Ernie Els, Harris English, Nick Faldo, David Fay, John Feinstein, Tony Finau, Tim Finchem, Steve Flesch, Jerry Foltz, Rickie Fowler, John Garrity, Brian Gay, Kimberly Gay, Matt Ginella, Paul Goydos, Hank Haney, Tim Herron, Harry Higgs, Charley Hoffman, J. B. Holmes, Steve Hulka, Irwin, Peter Jacobsen, Dustin Johnson, Zach Johnson, Christina Kim, Tom Kite, Peter Kostis, Bernhard Langer, Lehman, Amanda Leonard, Justin Leonard, Luke List, Davis Love, Sandy Lyle, Hunter Mahan, Casey Martin, Bob May, Scott McCarron, Gary McCord, Graeme McDowell, Paul McGinley, Shaun Micheel, Johnny Miller, Francesco Molinari, Jay Monahan, Jim Nantz, Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Andy North, Arron Oberholser, Sean O’Hair, Jose Maria Olazabal, Neil Oxman, Ryan Palmer, Gary Player, Tom Purtzer, Rick Reilly, Dean Reinmuth, Chris Riley, Jimmy Roberts, Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler, Webb Simpson, Vijay Singh, Rick Smith, Brandt Snedeker, Jordan Spieth, Steele, Dave Stockton, Kevin Streelman, Steve Stricker, Paul Tesori, Bo Van Pelt, Jimmy Walker, Bubba Watson, Matthew Wolff, John Wood, Gary Woodland, Ian Woosnam, and Manny Zerman.
When the manuscript was completed, I emailed Phil a series of questions requesting comment. He never responded, instead referring me to one of his lawyers, who spoke to me only off the record.
CHAPTER 1
This chapter could have been a book unto itself. I felt strongly that every story should be exclusive to me but Harry Higgs’s tale about the “nasty” drive was simply too good to leave out. It’s from the Fore Play podcast on November 23, 2021.
CHAPTER 2
The Al Santos backstory owes much to Bamberger’s excellent feature on Nunu, which posted on golf.com on June 6, 2019. I borrowed the quote about pirates shooting at the fishing boat and Santos’s maxim regarding the silver dollar.
The Steinbeck quote is, of course, from Cannery Row, first published by Viking in 1945.
Following his win at the 2004 Masters, Mickelson wrote (with Donald T. Phillips) a quickie autobiography entitled One Magical Sunday (But Winning Isn’t Everything), published by Warner Books in 2005. It has the gee-whiz tone of a Leave It to Beaver episode but is a useful document for a biographer. I pulled from there the wording of Mickelson’s birth announcement and his father recounting Phil’s first swings as a toddler and the subsequent reconfiguring of his first golf club.
My research included reading two dozen books, hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles, and even more press conference transcripts. I also listened to easily fifty hours of podcasts that were even tangentially related to Phil. Interesting material popped up in unexpected places; from what I can tell, the best explanation Mickelson has ever given on the benefits of a right-hander playing lefty came in a short video with Tron Carter on the “No Laying Up” YouTube feed on March 11, 2021. That quote is used here.
CHAPTER 3
The quotes “Rainy days were my favorite time…” and “After a while, I began to notice…” are from One Magical Sunday. I love the parallels between Phil’s golfing education and the natural way Seve Ballesteros learned the game. The book I quote from is Seve: The Official Biography, published by Yellow Jersey Press in 2007.
Part of the fun of research is revisiting old friends. I haven’t seen the great old-timey sportswriter Bob Verdi in a while but loved rereading his 2009 Golf Digest Q&A with Mickelson, which included the quote, “Problem was, you could always get bumped…”
Other quotes used in this chapter:
“You don’t realize at the time”: Karen Crouse, “Fortune Smiles on Phil Mickelson on Way to Hall of Fame,” New York Times, May 5, 2012.
“That’s going to help the team immensely”: Dennis Brown, “The Fairways Are Greener: South African Manny Zerman Moves to United States for Golf Opportunities,” Los Angeles Times, April 3, 1988.
“I was impressed with him”: Chris Ello, “Mickelson Follows His Hero and Nearly Catches Him,” Los Angeles Times, Feb. 19, 1988.
“I don’t really know what happened”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 4
This is one of my favorite chapters in the book, a cross between Animal House and Follow the Sun. Mickelson’s former Arizona State teammates are great talkers but I supplemented their tales with various other sources:
“Hi, Phil. I’m Steve Loy”: Mickelson with Phillips, One Magical Sunday, 42.
“If I play the way I’ve been playing”: Gary Baines, “Phil Being Phil, 1990 Edition,” colorodagolf.org, August 24, 2020.
“I’ll never forget the look he gave me”: Dave Shedloski, “After a series of close calls, the ASU All-American beat friend, fellow San Diego native Zerman, 5 and 4, in final at Cherry Hills C.C.,” usga.org, July 31, 2012.
I didn’t quote from it but Amy Ellis Nutt’s feature on Jeff Thomas (“The Natural Who Self-Destructed”), from an August 2003 edition of the Newark Star Ledger, was indispensable background. It is archived on her personal website, amynutt.com.
“No thanks, Coach”: Mickelson with Phillips, One Magical Sunday, 41.
I interviewed both Manny Zerman and Arizona coach Rick LaRose about the denied drop/hole-out for eagle but Gene Wojciechowski, in the Los Angeles Times, had the cleanest quote on the subject, in his 1991 story that ran under the memorable headline, “His Dirty-Ball Trick Leaves Opponent with Egg on Face.”
Imagine the young Amy McBride lives an apartment above your friend’s place and he is trying to set you up with her, but you’d prefer to work on your flop shot—is that madness or genius? Phil’s quote on the matter (“I never took the time…”) is from One Magical Sunday.
CHAPTER 5
As the golf writer at the San Diego Union-Tribune, T. R. Reinman was the O. B. Keeler to the young Mickelson’s Jones. Reinman parted ways with the Union-Trib as the newspaper industry contracted, and eventually Mickelson hired him as his PR guy. It seemed like an act of friendship as much as a business decision, and it certainly didn’t hurt Mickelson’s standing in the press room that he took care of one of our lodge brothers. The details about Mickelson’s first victory as a pro are from Reinman’s newspaper account on February 22, 1993.
I love the story about Phil’s awkward phone call to Amy’s father. She told me one version of it years ago but the Gary McBride quote is from One Magical Sunday.
Verdi was such an avuncular presence in Mickelson’s life that his kids referred to him as “Uncle Bob.” That intimacy helped him land one of the first big features on Jim Mackay, for ESPN.com in March 2006, from which I used the funny details about Bones’s college match versus Florida and James Blanchard still waiting for him to report to work.
CHAPTER 7
Steve Williams is on the short list of people I regret not getting to interview, as he politely declined my overtures. His play-by-play from the 2001 Masters is drawn from the HBO Sports documentary Tiger.
“You know how it is”: Mickelson with Phillips, One Magical Sunday, 95.
“In my mind”: “A Conversation with Lefty,” Golf Magazine, March 2003.
“Philip, this is your year”: Mickelson with Phillips, One Magical Sunday, 128.
CHAPTER 8
Before the internet changed everything, one of the best assignments on the golf beat was to write the “game story” for Sports Illustrated. Like playing center field for the Yankees, it came with a legacy: the game story was handed down from Herbert Warren Wind to Dan Jenkins to Rick Reilly. In the late ’90s, when Reilly took over the magazine’s back-page column, I got a few at-bats on the game story, but in 2002 and 2003 I worked as an editor out of SI’s Manhattan offices. I returned to the golf beat as a typist in 2004. At that year’s Masters, I had a strong premonition Mickelson would win and started walking with his group during the first round, filling my notebook by chatting with Amy, Phil’s father, and swing coach Rick Smith. When Mickelson made his triumphant walk-off birdie I was ready to write the best game story of my life. Only one problem: Reilly. He wanted to make Phil the centerpiece of his column, too. I love Rick, and he has many talents, but sharing isn’t one of them. We were staying in neighboring houses (on Medinah Lane!) and late that Sunday night we met on one of the front lawns for a freighted negotiation:
“You can have the dead grandpa but I get the kid almost croaking in the delivery room.”
“Fine, you can have the victory party but I get the scene around the last putt at 18.”
We went our separate ways to grind, and a couple days later shared billing on the cover. (The headline to my story and my byline were above Rick’s in slightly larger font, and it gives me joy to know that it surely still bothers him.) The quotes “Honey, I miss you lately…” and “I don’t mean to be disrespectful…” are from Rick’s typically excellent column.
CHAPTER 9
Credit to Dave Shedloski for his enterprise on the story about the pebble in the Shinnecock bunker that complicated Mickelson’s bid at the 2004 U.S. Open. It ran on golfdigest.com in June 2018 and the quotes on that subject are taken from Shed’s story. Hal Sutton’s kvetching about the 2004 Ryder Cup is from the No Laying Up podcast on April 3, 2020.
CHAPTER 10
When I sit next to a middle-aged dude on an airplane and he asks what I do for a living I always say, “Commercial real estate.” (The two times that a seatmate responded “Me, too!” I mumbled that I was transitioning out of it.) But inevitably I’m drawn into conversations about golf with strangers, and across the last three decades the most common question has been, “Who’s the biggest asshole on Tour?” This tells you something about human nature. I shit you not, the second-most asked question has always been, “Is Phil Mickelson a phony?” It was fun to dig into that question. Hunter Mahan’s quotes on the topic are from Teddy Greenstein’s 2010 story that appeared in the Los Angeles Times under the headline, “The Real Truth About Phil Mickelson?… He’s a Good Guy.”
“It’s pitch-black dark out there”: No Laying Up podcast, March 28, 2018.
“A semi-shank, half-flier”: Dan Jenkins, “It Ain’t Over ’Til It’s Over,” Sports Illustrated, July 30, 1984.
“I had a very bad flight home”: Colin Montgomerie, Monty: An Autobiography, Orion Publishing, 2012, 187.
“There was never even a consideration”: Mark Cannizzaro, “Mickelson’s Caddy: Driver Was Only Choice,” New York Post, June 20, 2006.
CHAPTER 11
I was blessed to have a fantastic editor on this project, Jofie Ferrari-Adler. Our only disagreement concerned the passages in this chapter about Phil’s philanthropy; Jofie thought it went on a bit too long but ultimately deferred to my wishes to keep all the material, which I find touching and compelling. If you were at all bored in that section, know that Jofie is on your side.
“If we can get him to play out of the fairway”: Doug Ferguson, “Mickelson Spectacular in Victory,” golfchannel.com, May 13, 2007.
“It’s hard for me to interpret”: Doug Ferguson, “Mickelson a Man of Mystery On and Off the Course,” golfchannel.com, September 4, 2007.
“An angel without wings”: Dave Shedloski, “For former NFL star, Mickelson ‘an angel without wings,’ ” pgatour.com, June 6, 2007.
“I wouldn’t call Mickelson a great player”: Murray Hills, “Stevie on Phil: ‘I Hate the Prick,’ ” stuff.co.nz, December 12, 2008.
“It’s a small locker room”: Fore Play podcast, March 9, 2021.
CHAPTER 12
Across a very public life, Mickelson has done a remarkable job bottling up his emotions. The only time I’ve ever seen him shed a tear was behind the final green at the 2010 Masters. What a scene.
In my recounting of Phil’s epic shot out of the tree on the 13th hole, Bones’s quotes are from the No Laying Up podcast on April 5, 2021.
CHAPTER 13
Billy Walters did not want to be interviewed for this book. Actually, he did want to—he has quite a bit to say about Phil Mickelson. But Walters is working on his autobiography (with Armen Keteyian as a cowriter) and they are saving Billy’s words for their own book. But Walters allowed a surrogate to express Billy’s views to me and provide fact-checking.
“I was born a gambler”: Mike Fish, “Billy Walters on His Conviction, Gambling—and Ex-Friend Lefty,” ESPN.com, March 28, 2018.
“money laundering of funds”: Mike Fish and David Purdum, “Millions from Phil Mickelson Tied to Money Laundering, Gambling Case,” ESPN.com, June 29, 2015.
“owed similar debts to Mr. Walters”: Jeffrey Toobin, “Phil’s Insider-Trading Escape,” golfdigest.com, June 27, 2017.
CHAPTER 14
Mickelson’s triumph at Muirfield still feels overlooked, perhaps because many Americans were asleep when he was making all of those birdies. To me, that three-week stretch in the summer of 2013 perfectly captures who Phil is as a player: bitching at Mike Davis at Merion; blowing that U.S. Open with a series of sloppy mistakes; rallying to conquer one of the best courses in the world with one of the most dazzling final rounds in major championship history. The guy is so maddening/exhilarating.
“I’ll tell you about these Opens”: Matt Long, “Lessons from Merion,” podiumsportsjournal.com, July 6, 2013.
CHAPTER 15
I had so much material on Mickelson from covering him for so many years it wasn’t a big deal that he didn’t want to sit for interviews for this book. But of all the things I wished I could have pressed him on, the numerology/astrology business is near the top of the list. Hopefully I’ll get to do it in future. Maybe Phil can predict that for me? The quotes from Ted Bishop on the subject are from his book, Unfriended: The Power Brokers, Political Correctness and Hypocrisy in Golf, published by Classics of Golf in 2016. So are the Tom Watson quotes “When are one of you guys…” and “You guys suck at foursomes…”
CHAPTER 16
“We talked for about two hours”: Tim Rosaforte, “Phil Mickelson flew to Las Vegas to break up with Butch Harmon in person,” golfdigest.com, November 4, 2015.
“The FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission”: Matthew Goldstein and Ben Protess, “Golfer Mickelson’s Role Said to Be Overstated in Insider Inquiry,” New York Times, June 11, 2014.
“In July 2012, Walters called Mickelson”: “SEC Announces Insider Trading Charges in Case Involving Sports Gambler and Board Member,” SEC.gov/news/pressrelease, May 19, 2016.
“I just lost the biggest bet of my life”: Mike Fish, “Billy Walters on His Conviction, Gambling—and Ex-Friend Lefty,” ESPN.com, March 28, 2018.
“It was clear from the pleadings”: Ibid.
“Here is a guy that all he had to do was come forward”: Ibid.
“Held that recipients of inside information”: Toobin, “Phil’s Insider-Trading Escape.”
“Oi, Darren, it’s the end of the Ryder Cup”: Martin Rogers, “European players take aim at Phil Mickelson, but all in good fun,” USA Today, October 2, 2016.
CHAPTER 17
Jim Mackay declined to comment for this book. His views were conveyed, and the details about his time with Mickelson were fact-checked, by sources close to him.
CHAPTER 18
I still can’t believe Mickelson won the PGA Championship. Unreal. Just a few weeks before that, I had told Ferrari-Adler that, overwhelmed by helping to launch the Fire Pit Collective, I needed more time to finish this book and perhaps we should bump the publication to 2023, or even ’24. Then Phil pulled a Phil. Thanks to my bulldog agent David Black for helping me keep my eyes on the prize.
“Thanks for bringing me some luck”: Bamberger, “How this small gesture from Phil Mickelson made a lasting impact,” golf.com, October 31, 2021.
“Now this was salty”: “Live From the 2021 PGA Championship,” Golf Channel, May 23, 2021.
“A great example of gamesmanship”: Matt Rudy, “Brooks Koepka doesn’t hold back in our exclusive poolside interview,” golfdigest.com, September 14, 2021.
CHAPTER 19
“According to the trial transcript”: Rob Snell, “Lefty and Dandy Don: How a Gross Pointe bookie allegedly cheated Phil Mickelson,” Detroit News, June 20, 2021.
“There’s a morality to it”: “McIlroy not interested in Saudi event: Doesn’t excite me,” golfchannel.com, December 9, 2019.
“a money grab”: Ewan Murray, “ ‘A money grab’: Rory McIlroy denounces Saudi-backed breakaway golf tour,” theguardian.com, May 5, 2021.
The first sentence of Mickelson’s autobiography goes, “As in life, golf is a game of circles.” This brings us back to Phil’s central statement in this book, from the Introduction: “You think you know me, but you don’t.” If you’ve come this far, gentle reader, hopefully you know him a little better now.