Phil Mickelson could have been Arnold Palmer. He chose another way

Oakmont, without. – It was Phil, standing in the back of Thursday, high on a hill, as far as the club could be as a fellow. No fan returns there, only three winners of British Open and their cadets and some marshals. The day was hot and the round was slow and the buzzing factor was zero. The man with six career diplomas was four more than the 15 holes he had played. All that remained was (rounding) a par-4 with 500 yards, a par-3-yard, a stroll on a bridge over an inattentive turn, no.9 in the club, the rest of his life. Phil Mickelson Returns 55 Monday.

Like Phil Mickelson, Arnold Palmer played in an open in the SH.BA Oakmont as a virgin man in his 50s. For Arnold, this was in 1983, at the age of 53. He was the royal champion of Senior Open. He made the cut in all four diplomas in ’83. He was the most popular figure in the game. Even Tom Watson, at the height of his game powers then, and Jack Nicklaus, with the 17 main titles he had then, would accept this.

In the sports sections of American newspapers, Seve ballsterosThen it was “Arnold Palmer of Europe”. When Phil Mickelson won the PGA championship at the age of 50 on the island of Kiawah in 2021, it was all for him, to be Arnold II. Do you remember the crowds that include it? He, with his golf dinner, had declared the end of the pandemia. You can breathe again. You can take your mask and destroy it.

This can win in the ocean course took Phil a five-year exception in the US Open. He covered the US Open 2021 in Torrey Pines, the public course Mickelson played hundreds of times as a child. (Jon Rahm won; Phil had a T61.) Also ’22 (MC), ’23 (MC), ’24 (MC). . . and ’25.

Here we are.

We will see.

Golf would never have a second arnold. But at the age of 50, Phil Mickelson, with his raised finger and marathon autography and stable game sessions, was the closest thing the game had for man.

It didn’t happen. Phil went liv and that changed everything. He took PIF money and thus helped open a door to Liv Golf for Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson Dechambeau, Jon Rahm, Cam Smith and others. Phil helped to make Liv Legit. On the way, he was interned by the tournament in which he came out, the tournament that Arnold did so much to do. PGA Tour has been weaker for him.

And there he was in the 7th Tee, about a mile from the club, grinding it. If this is His last last openHe doesn’t want her to end up an evening Friday. Four over 15 holes. Not terrible.

Will he ever wear another Ryder Cup uniform? Will he ever be an honorary beginner in Augusta National? Will he be invited to Jay Monahan’s retirement party?

Time, as always, will show.

My Guiea said the next day That only one person has gone deep with him how to build a YouTube channel – Phil, of course. Mickelson, in the middle of the 50s, is not looking back. He made his first wealth playing PGA Tour and having accessories with yonex and title and Callaway and Workday. He made his second wealth with his Liv contract. If there is a third asset in his future, Youtube will be in it.

Arnold’s stock shares were one-in-one experiences. His favorite payment was pre-in-Fuci. Mickelson’s instinct is an entrepreneur. Arnold was the last figure of the Golf foundation. There was a certain carelessness to his golf who was extremely loved, as he was always for Phil. But outside the course, he was just as blue blazer (and sometimes green) as it could be. Phil is not.

In golf, you are either an interior or a stranger. When Phil went liv, he made himself a stranger. He seems to be happy there. But pro-member in SeminaThe latest establishment tournament, there were no liv players in it. Masters are finding ways to live with Liv, of course not embracing it. USA, the same thing. NBC Sports (Arnold TV partner) and CBS Sports, both in the main stream as the main flow, have distanced themselves from Liv Golf. It’s no wonder Mickelson is asking Dechambeau about the high art of being a feeling on youtube.

Lucas Glover It was in the group ahead of Mickelson, Thursday in Oakmont. One of the six Mickelson races of the US Open Open came when Glover won in Bethpage in 2009. Mike Davis, former USA and a Western Pennsylvania boy, has been all over Oakmont this week. It was Davis with whom Mickelson withdrew Sunday at the US Open 2013 in Merion over the course setting, when Mickelson had another of his second -place open ends. Scott O’Neil, who replaced Greg Norman as CEO of Liv Golf in January, met Mike Who, CEO of USGA, at Oakmont club this week. Norman would not have been able to get Livin from the land without Mickelson, but Liv Golf would not exist without the obligatory Norman’s wish to make him happen. Phil’s tentacles are everywhere in this game.

None of them mattered on Thursday afternoon, as Mickelson and Brian Harman and Cam Smith made their way around the Oakmont course. Phil did some maintenance work as he waited on a ninth in front, collecting all the broken and dumped teas and gathering them near a tee marker. He brought to his cadet, Jonathan Yarbrough, for some readings. He was the first to play and the last to put in the crazy precious PAR-3 hole, always a good sign. He was grinding, grinding, grinding.

His golf gifts are funny. You probably saw her backward Greenside goal over-the-top, he withdrew last week at the Liv event. But less appreciated and less well known is how difficult he has worked on his golf. His mother’s grandfather was a commercial fisherman and Phil has the same type of large muscle construction. He’s not a lot of time like him, but he can continue, easily, with Cam Smith and Brian Harman, Lefthander of Phil’s friend. Three pars with two two putt he made in the last three holes were a study in the way you play Golf Golf in a difficult course. He never removed his shadows.

“Phil’s Phil,” Harman said when the round, nearly six hours, is over. Mickelson had shot 74. “As a lefthander, I grew up idolizing it. Among the players, he will always be Phil. He will always be recognized as one of the best players ever. He will always be remembered to play some of the most entertaining golf ever.

However, a third act is coming. Will not be Arnold. It won’t be Jack’s. It will not be Norman. Will be Phil’s. Meanwhile, it was his Thursday 74.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments in Michael.bamberger@golf.com