Phil Mickelson

Major sporting events have certainly been rich in symbolic subtext lately. First there was New Orleans winning the Super Bowl; now there's family guy Phil Mickelson beating serial adulterer Tiger Woods (and everyone else) in the Master's. The scenario as it played out would not have lent itself to prediction. We knew that Tiger would be back and that there would be an enormous amount of attention because of that (television ratings skyrocketed). Guesses as to how he would do ranged from "a lock to win" (over-optimistic given his months off) to "won't make the cut" (over-pessimistic given that it's Tiger). In the event, he played very well, just not quite well enough to win, or to satisfy himself. It is fair to say that he did not seem to be in a great mood, and one of the messages he was clearly conveying was, I've already done the public apology thing; that's all you're going to get out of me. His profanity on the course, which is nothing new, was widely reported and occasionally captured on mike, and he was no more ingratiating with the crowd or the media than he has ever been. His tense, steely manner with CBS's Peter Kostis during the post-tournament interview made me feel sorry for poor Kostis, who looked as if he wished he was a thousand miles away.

Meanwhile, Mickelson appeared to be having a great time. I've seen him in person, at the 2004 PGA, and what you see on television is not misleading; he really does know how to work a crowd. Very few would have predicted him to contend coming into the tournament, because he has not been playing well this year and because of the well-known issues with his family's health; both his wife and his mother are being treated for breast cancer. But talk about rising to an occasion. The scores for his four rounds were 5 under, 1 under, 5 under, 5 under. The eagle-eagle-birdie streak in the third round was an amazement. As widely noted, he did not bogie a hole in the fourth round. And the birdie on the final hole was like the concluding chord of a great symphony. That his wife, who had been in town all week but unable to walk the course, was there to greet him on 18 was a moment that would make a stony cynic melt. Unlike the trumped-up "human interest" stories that you sometimes get at the Olympics, this was truly human and truly moving.

None of the TV announcers need have pointed out -- although many print columnists did later -- that Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren were the ghosts in that picture. It was obvious. What Phil and Amy Mickelson appear to have in the image of their embrace -- I say "appear" because you are bound to think of the similar situation with John Edwards, and look how that turned out -- can't help but contrast with what people now think of Tiger Woods, and always will. Tiger could get back together with his wife, could put on the right show from here to eternity, and no one will ever again think of him as a devoted husband and family man. That can't be gotten back. It's like a blown lead in the last round.

It all boils down to marriage. I'm not the biggest believer in marriage, but I will say this: If you're going to take that road, if you're going to make that promise, keep it! And if you should stray, which is human too, own up to the fact that in a weak moment your baser impulses got the better of you -- and it is important that it be a weak moment and an isolated moment, because that can be forgiven. A seemingly endless series of cheerful transgressions with porn actresses and that ilk doesn't show any impulse control, to put it mildly. If you're unmarried, it's just sowing wild oats, which civilized society has always allowed for. But when you make that marital promise, you put your untrammeled youth behind you, and if you can't, don't make it.

There is an odious, possibly fictional confessional piece from an anonymous adulterer's perspective in the current issue of Esquire, which I won't link to but which contains such specious self-justifications as "I feel the blood moving in me again. So it's the blood. That's who I am. That's why men cheat." Is it non-monogamous copulation that gets these guys off, or the act of cheating itself? If the former, then simple, just don't get married. If the latter, then they are as sick and as little deserving of respect as any media moralist could assert.

Phil Mickelson, by virtue of a constellation of circumstances not entirely within his control, now stands for the counter-argument: that loyalty and fidelity are sexy, too. You haven't noticed people making this argument much, but it's evident when you think about it. Phil is now the anti-Tiger in a way he would never have expected, and I hope he's up to it, but I suspect that he is: I've always liked and rooted for Lefty. He has been a phenomenally popular athlete, but that popularity is headed into a new dimension now. Arnie had an Army, but for the time being, at least, Lefty's Army is the world.

By the way, it is worth doing a little thought experiment with respect to the fickleness of sportswriters. If Mickelson's now famous "shot through the trees" on 13 had ricocheted off one of the trees and he had double-bogied, any number of columnists would have criticized him for taking an unnnecessary gamble, blowing his shot at winning the tournament, etc. Because the shot worked, he's a gutsy genius. You can't always take what people say very seriously, because it's so situational. But I do agree with golf writer Jay Busbee that Mickelson has now unquestionably staked his claim as one of the fifteen or so greatest male golfers of all time. What he does over the next ten years -- he turns 40 in June -- will determine his final standing among that crowd, but it's looking good.

POSTSCRIPT: Aaron Traister's response at Salon to the Esquire adulterer piece is hilarious, and I benefited from his ideas:

http://mobile.salon.com/mwt/feature/2010/03/19/why_men_cheat/index.html

UPDATE (4/13/2010): Jim Nantz of CBS gave an excellent interview about the tournament to Mike Francesca of WFAN, and he doesn't pull any punches about Tiger Woods or anything else. I admire Nantz; sharp guy.

http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/blog/devil_ball_golf/post/Jim-Nantz-criticizes-Tiger-Woods-vocal-tantrums?urn=golf,233852