Golf World - February 18, 2013

same. It’s how you can carry two drivers, or none. It’s how you can throw a hissy fit over cellphones but stare down cancer in the people you love. It’s how you can complain about taxes and apologize for having a high-class problem. And all the while wielding the needle like a tattoo artist.

“Phil’s all over the place,” said CBS announcer Gary
McCord. “He’s been consistently serendipitous. Over here,
over there, around there and brilliant. I’ll tell you the first
time I dealt with Phil. This will tell you everything you need
to know. We were playing in Tucson, a practice round, I
don’t know if that was the year he won or not, but he was
an amateur. We ended up playing late, nine holes. We come
into the seventh hole. It’s pitch dark. On a bet, he played my
clubs right-handed and I played his clubs left-handed, in the
dark. He absolutely killed me. I’ve been hustled by every
shot he’s got, and he’s got a lot of them.”
The 42-year-old Mickelson has embraced elder states-
manship the same way he embraces fans. He doesn’t sign
thousands of autographs because he likes writing his name
over and over again. He does it because he believes, deeply,
it’s in the job description. Mickelson admitted to a case of
nerves on the back nine at TPC Scottsdale. He had to hold
off the man Mackay said is, “arguably the best American
player right now,” Snedeker. Just like with the fans, Mickel-
son gets as much back from the young guys as he gives.

“Phil was wanting me to play my best because he wanted
me to push him, and I was making sure every time I did
something good that he knew that I knew that I was coming
after him,” said Snedeker. “It’s like when you play a Wednesday
match when you’re playing with your buddies at home and you
make a putt and you say, ‘I can’t see it, where’d it go?’ You give
’em crap. Phil and I were doing that all day with each other.”
Snedeker, who shot 19 under par to beat Chris Kirk by two
shots at the AT&T, put on a veritable clinic on how to play
Pebble. He missed one fairway Sunday by about the length of
an iPhone. He took advantage of the scoring holes, going out
five under through seven, then switched to “smart” mode.
When he stood on the 18th tee, Snedeker briefly had a three-
shot lead, though Kirk cut into that with a birdie at the last.
“There’s no better place to be on the planet with a two-shot
lead than that tee box,” said Snedeker.

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