Fore Play - Fore Play Digs - Phil Mickelson vs The United States Open

Episode Date: May 24, 2018

The collapse at Winged Foot. The heartbreak at Merion. The carnage at Shinnecock. Fore Play Digs takes you through the complicated relationship (6 second place finishes) between Phil Mickelson and the U.S. Open Championship! You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/foreplaypod

Hey, 4Play listeners, you can find us every Tuesday and Thursday on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Wingfoot Golf Club in Mamanick, New York, just north of Manhattan, was established in 1921. Its two courses, the West and East, were designed by renowned architect, A.W. Tillinghass, and opened for play in 1923. Tilling has also designed courses like Baltusroll, Bethpage Black. You're probably heard of these courses, so clearly Tillingham. He knew what he was doing.

Today, the two courses make up at Wingfoot, perhaps the best 36-hole facility property in the entire country. The West Course has hosted five U.S. Opens and is often ranked well inside the top 10 of all courses in America. It's also one of the toughest golf courses on Earth. In 1974, in the U.S. Open, Hill Irwin at Wingfoot on the West Course, won by posting a score of seven over par. And he won by two.

Wingfoot will next host the U.S. Open in 2020, but most recently, Wingfoot hosted the 2006 U.S. Open. That year, Phil Mickelson entered the event as the 2005 PGA champ, as the 2006 Masters champ, and had already finished runner-up three times in previous U.S. opens. Coming off back-to-back major wins, Phil was very clearly a strong favorite. After battling, after grinding, after sweating for four long days, Phil came to the 72nd hole, a very difficult, very tricky par 4 with a one-stroke lead. He was 4 over par. Now, some of the games all-time greats like Bobby Jones and even Billy Casper had come to this exact position in this exact spot.

They'd been in a position to close out a U.S. Open title and to do it at Wingfoot and they had done it. Despite driving it poorly all day, Phil did what, well, he did what Phil does and he pulled driver on a hole. where finding the fairway is paramount. Now, Ben Hogan is tied for the most U.S. Open wins of all time. He's got four. The most interesting broadcaster in the world, my man, Johnny Miller. He couldn't help but reference Ben Hogan, the ball striking, the course management genius that Ben Hogan was.

Johnny Miller could not help, but referenced Ben Hogan after what he witnessed Phil Mickelson do next. All right, T-shot for Mickelson. it's better be a forewood. Doesn't like this one. Going way left, way, way left. Oh, what a bounce out into the rocks and right? I don't think that will leave him much.

Off of the hospitality tent. I'll tell you what, right now, Ben Hogan is officially rolled over in his grave. The following is Phil Mickelson versus the United States Open. Phil Mickelson very well may be the second best golfer to have ever played the game of golf. Now, that might sound crazy.

You probably never heard that before or on your list, a list that you've seen, lists that you've read. Phil's never listed as the number two greatest player of all time. And I'm not saying that he's the second greatest player of all time. I'm saying that he very well, very well, very well may have been the second best player to have played the game. So hear me out. Phil, he doesn't have the most major championships.

He doesn't have the second most major championships. He's not even inside the top 10 in total major championships. crude. Phil's got five majors, which includes three masters, one open championship and a PGA championship. He's got 43 PGA Tour wins, which currently rank him ninth all time. So how does all this add up to perhaps the second best player to ever have played? Well, look, if you subscribe to the theory that each generation is better than the last, if you subscribe to the theory that the best players in this era are better than the best players from the last era, who were better than the best players from the era prior to theirs,

then you'd have to look at Phil Mickelson. You'd have to realize that Bill Mickelson in this era took down five major championships and 43 PGA tour events to this point during the Tiger Woods era. and you really can't draw any other conclusion that he's played the second best golf of anyone ever. Again, I wouldn't say that Phil's the second greatest player of all time. You kind of measure, you know, ranking players in terms of greatness of all time. You measure them and you rank them by how much they were able to dominate their competition. And Phil clearly didn't dominate his competition the way that many, many other players have done.

at least, you know, five, ten, maybe fifteen players have done. But I think you could very well make an argument that no players, save for Tiger Woods, has played better golf than Phil Mickelson by the time that the game has advanced and the equipment and the technique and the skills and the golf ball and the things he was able to do with the golf ball that he's still able to do with the golf club to a golf club, to a golf ball. It's a very compelling argument that he's played the second best golf of anyone ever. Now, beyond the wins, beyond even, you know, on the golf course, Phil is one of the most magnetic

figures in the history of the game. He's unmatched in how meticulous he is with the press, with how thoughtful he is over his answers with the press, with the media. He has fun with it, but not in a disingenuous way. By all accounts, Phil is a goofy, quirky, maybe even encroaches on being just a straight up weird-ass guy, but also a fantastic guy, right? You don't hear enough good things about Phil. You can't hear enough good things about Phil.

And just to tell a quick story, I played out at Liberty National last year and last fall, and Phil's a member out there, the Liberty Nationals over in Jersey City, very close to New York City, very accessible by ferry. And there was a member who invited me out to play, and he was telling me about his encounters with Phil Mickelson. And he said he's only met Phil twice, both times on the ferry. The ferry runs from the golf course to Manhattan. The first time, this buddy of mine said that he and Phil were both on the ferry

with their wives and their small kids, and Phil wandered over with his kids. and he struck up a conversation as the children all kind of played together. He said Phil was very nice. He was very inquisitive. He was very engaging. He listened and reacted to the things that my buddy had to say. Then he went on his way.

And he says the second encounter was a little less than a year later. He said he was on the ferry. And it was basically just he and Phil on the ferry, no kids, no family, nothing. And Phil walked right up to him and asked him how his kids were doing by name. So, Phil is, by all accounts, an awesome guy. He's a family guy. And he's also, he's an all-time great player with a stunning resume that carries with it just one glaring hole. Now, only five players since the creation of Augusta National and the creation of the Masters tournament have won the career grand slam, have won all four major championships.

Those five players are Jack Nicholas, Tiger Woods, Ben Hogan, my close personal friend Gary Player, and Gene Saras. Now, many legendary players, many legendary players, failed to capture that career Grand Slam. It's incredibly difficult, right? You have to be able to play and to play at the highest level in all elements, all different types of golf. And there are obviously many different types of golf.

golf. There's, there's, there's links golf, there's classic American Parkland golf. There's even American Lynx golf. There's the, the way that they set up a PGA championship versus a U.S. Open championship, even if they're done on the same course 10 years apart, they're going to be very different tests. And it's just, you got to get lucky to win any golf tournament. You've got to get even luckier to win a major championship. And you've got to match that luck with playing phenomenal and having all. of the shots.

Only five guys. Only five have been able to win the career grand slam. These legends that haven't been able to do it. I mean Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, Byron Nelson, Sam Sneed, Lee Trevino, none of these guys were able to win all four major championships. Each and every one of them had one that they just couldn't quite get their hands on. Phil Mickelson without a U.S. Open is also awesome. that list. Phil's conquest of near misses at our national championship began at Pinehurst in 1999.

That open is vastly, vastly under-talked about. On the back night on Sunday, Payne Stewart, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, and Vijay Singh became the leaderboard. Those were the only names in contention. Those were the only names on the leaderboard, and those are four massive names. these four were absolutely battling it out. They were making birdies. They were grinding for pars. They were clawing each other's eyes out on the back nine of Pinehurst-famed number two courts, which, for the record, may be the best creation of one of the great,

one of the all-time great architect Donald Ross. The number two course at Pinehurst, famous for its turtle show, greens for winding through the North Carolina Hills and Pines. Uh, it wasn't necessarily punishing everybody on this day. It wasn't a, a super grindy carnage filled type Sunday. There were birdies being made and it was, it was even, even Johnny Miller himself couldn't help and say, hey, this is, this is some awesome golf we're seeing here. And like the leaderboard that I mentioned, it was, it was bringing out some awesome names. Now, Phil had a lot going on that week.

His wife Amy was deep into her pregnancy with their first child. They were expecting their first child within a week. Phil had vowed to leave the tournament if their child was born at any moment. Obviously, you know the media. You understand how the media works. They ate this story up. They loved that Phil played with a beeper in his bag to alert him if things got serious. And, I mean, they basically mentioned it every other sentence.

Here's Phil's Caddy Bones, good old Jim Bones-McKye, and also young Phil himself describing the situation. The first thing he said to me when he got out of the car was, here's a beeper. If this goes off, I don't care if we're on the range for on the first tee or the 18th green any day this week. You let me know immediately because I'm leaving. Many of your thoughts are back home this week.

Is that maybe a good thing considering the size of the open? Sure, in a sense it's a nice distraction while off the course because, as you know, in major championships, anxiety and tension tends to build in between rounds. And it's nice to have a distraction like that, sure. You have to remember at this point in Phil's career, he was already becoming, he had already become the guy who just couldn't win a major championship. He had 13 PGA tour wins at this point. He'd won the U.S. Amateur.

He was the first lefty to have done so. U.S. Amateur, of course. I mean, if you ask Jack Nicholas, the U.S. Amateur is a major championship. He'd been the first lefty to win the U.S. Amateur. He had been just the sixth player ever to win a PGA tour event as an amateur. Interesting little side note when he did win that tour event as an amateur. Phil led by one on the back nine on Sunday that week.

He tripled the 14th hole, then birdied 16 and 18, watched the other guys flounder, and won by one. won. So the point is, the hype was there, but the majors just, I mean, they simply weren't. Tiger, who's five years younger than Phil, he had already won the Masters by 12 shots in 1997. So the question had already become, it was well-founded, when was Phil Mickelson going to win a major championship?

Now, speaking of Tiger, he made an absolute run at Pinehurst in 1999. birdied 14 and 16 on Sunday to get within one. Golf digests Alex Myers writing about rewatching the final round recently. I believe he wrote this a few years ago. He writes of how close Tiger was to winning the tournament. Woods had awful distance control. Three times he airmailed Greens from the center of the fairway with a wedge in his hand. He really should have won this thing, unquote.

Tiger would lip out a short parpot on 17 and just miss. missed a makeable birdie pot on 18 and he ended up finishing two strokes back. Phil and Payne Stewart played in the final group together. Payne teed off with a one-stroke lead, but the two traded leads down the back nine, trading punches, trading jabs. It was an all-time battle. On the very difficult, the very long 16th, both Phil and Payne Stewart came up just short in their approaches, and Payne Stewart hit a very uncharacteristically poor chip.

he would say afterwards that he, for whatever reason, he was convincing himself in his brain that he really needed to make that chip. That's how kind of straightforward the chip was and how stunning it was when he left himself a brutal 25-footer for par. But this was, I mean, this was Payne Stewart's Day. Without a doubt, the worst chip he hit all week long. I mean, he almost bellied it over the grain. It was just terrible. about 30 feet behind the hole. Tough put to read.

The puck that he had for par, you can't read it, much less make it. It was downhill. It broke at least two ways, and it was 25 feet on the 70th hole of the U.S. Open. After Phil missed an 8-foot par bid on 16, the two came to the par 317th, playing around 190 yards, tied for the lead. Now, they both hit phenomenal iron shots under that type of. pressure the 17th hole of the U.S. Open tied for the lead. I believe they're hitting somewhere around six irons into this green.

Phil pulls his putt, just a fraction, misses on the right-hand side. Payne Stewart rolls his in for Bertie, takes a one-stroke lead into the 18th hole. Now, on 18, Payne Stewart, misses a fairway, gets hung up in the rough, can't quite get it on the green and two. Has to hack something on in the green and he's got. about 18 feet for bar. Phil plays the whole beautifully, has about a 20-foot effort for Bertie,

just misses, taps in for par, and all I can do is watch, his Paine Stewart lines up, and then strikes his chance to win the 1999 U.S. Open. It's almost improbable to think you could hold two puts like this for par in the last three holes, isn't it? It is, and these uphill putts, We have to hit him so square and so perfect.

There's no help. Pretty much the history of the U.S. Open has been this. Nobody makes that hot. With that, Phil finished solo second at the 1999 U.S. Open. This would be his first runner-up finish at a U.S. Open. Payne Stewart, just four months later, would die suddenly in a plane crash. He was taken off from his Orlando home heading to the Tour Championship in Houston, in the small aircraft that he was flying in, failed to pressurize.

All the passengers on board were incapacitated, and the plane drifted on autopilot before eventually running out of fuel and going down in South Dakota. In 2000, the PGA Tour established the Payne Stewart Award, given each year to the player who shows respect for the traditions of the game, commitment to uphold the game's heritage of charitable support, and professional and meticulous presentation of himself and the sport through his dress and conduct.

A bronze statue of Payne Stewart, celebrating his winning putt, overlooks the 18th Green at Pinehurst No.2 course. At Bethpage State Park, on the Black course in 2002, Phil Mickelson had still not won a major championship, despite racking up to this point, 20 PGA tour victories. Now look, I love Bethpage Black. I mean, it's $75 during peak hours for New York residents,

and in my opinion it's one of the finest courses on planet earth. I would love to sit here. I'd love nothing more than to sit here and talk about Beth Page Black all day, every day, whole by hole, shot by shot. It's spectacular. But we're not here to talk about Bethpage. We're not here to talk about Tiger. And if we're being honest with ourselves, which I believe we should be, the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black was never not Tiger Woods' tournament.

Tiger led by three after two rounds. He led by four after three rounds, and despite his slow start on Sunday, a couple three putts, a little bit of sloppiness. Tiger was able to bogey 16 and 18 and still win by a comfortable three shots. Tiger was the only player to finish under par at the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage, and Phil finished a solo second coming in an even par. It was his second second place finish at the U.S. Open.

In 2004, the U.S. Open returned to Shinnecock Hills on Long Island for the fifth time. Shinnecock is the oldest golf club in America, and while the 2004 U.S. Open in Shinnecock, it was a very juicy, very juicy affair. Players, they complain about the golf course that basically every U.S. Open that there's ever been. I mean, when you're golf's toughest test, that's just, that's what you're going to get. Guys like me, I love it, right?

I love the carnage. I love the chaos. I love the struggle. We love watching the guys struggle. We love seeing the best players in the world being completely humbled by a game, by the game, that on a day-to-day basis just humbles the hell out of the rest of us. We love it. It's awesome.

But 2004, it was different. The 2004 U.S. Open, it's infamous. It always will be very infamous for what happened to the grass at Shinnock. I mean, it just died. The grass, it was dead. It was just dead. As of the recording of this podcast, we're about three weeks away right now from the 118th U.S. Open, which will be the tournament's first return to Shinnock since 2004.

USGA CEO Mike Davis said quite recently, very recently, of what happened there in 2004. Quote, it was certainly a bogey last time, probably a double bogey. It's great to be able to go back to one of the greatest courses on the planet, and I think that if you can't tell, we are incredibly excited to be back. We as an organization learned from it, we learned from 2004, When you set up a U.S. Open, it is golf's ultimate test. It's probably set up as close to the edge as any other event in golf. I think the difference then versus now is that we have a lot more technology, a lot more data, end quote.

Look, when you're the U.S.GA, when you're putting on a U.S. Open, you are looking for firm and fast. You don't want a luscious, overly green, soft, slow golf course. You want a firm, a fast test to really, really to do that. You have to flirt a little bit with disaster. And the USGA in 2004, they flirted and clearly they went too far. Mike Davis, again, recently, he went on, he said, quote, frankly what really happened then was just a lack of water put in the grass went dormant and there wasn't enough friction on the greens nowadays we have everything from firmness meters we've got moisture meters in the greens obviously we can tell how fast the greens are running the technology is better unquote on the seventh hole part three famous part three known as the radan for its front to back pitched green guys literally could not hold the green I mean, golf balls just could not stay on the green.

They're bouncing in the air. They're hitting eight irons, seven irons, very high up in the air, landing them on the front part of the green. Massive bounces flying over the green. I mean, not even close to staying on the green. It was so burnt out. I mean, approach shots, chips, even short putts. You can go watch some of these videos. Even short putts with trundle and trundle and trundle to spots.

incredibly far away from holes that they had no place trundling away from. Shout out to trundling. NESPN article from that week wrote, quote, The 7th Green at Shinnecock Hills was so hard to play for the first two groups Sunday and morning that the U.S. officials decided to water it between every pairing for the final round of the U.S. Open, unquote. Major champ Mark Kalkovecia said, quote, I don't even think the water began to seep into the ground. I think it just kind of beads up and rolls off like a waxed car, unquote.

Kevin Stadler and J.J. Henry, both in the first group that came through that day, they both made triple bogey on the part 3.7th, and Stadler said after, quote, I had two feet per bar and ended up with a six. Then they water the green after we went through. I don't know what the hell is going on, unquote. The point is the greens were firm, the greens were fast, and the greens were dry. I mean, the whole golf course was dry. On Sunday, Phil Teed off in the second to last group, in a tie for second with Ernie L.

It was two strokes back of 2001 U.S. Open champ Reteef Kusen, who was 5 under bar. As the tournament weighed its way to the back night, it became very clearly a two-man race, a two-horse race between Phil and Reteef Kusan. Goosen was putting absolutely lights out. In total, he had just 24 putts and he had 11-1 putts on the day. As they made their way through the back nine, Phil birdie the 13th, then pared the 14th, and after Goosan made a bogey on 14, Phil stood over a short birdie look on the par 415th hole. Phil would go on to Bertie the par 5-16th hole to take the outright lead with just two holes left.

On the par 317th hole, Phil hit his T-shot into a greenside bunker, then splashed out to about five feet. From there, it didn't go as planned. From five feet, Phil three putted on the 17th for a double bogey five. Goosing would go on to par 17 and 18 and win by two shots. Phil finished alone in second place, one of just two players to break par for the entire week. This was Phil's third runner-up finish at the U.S. Open. The U.S. Open returned to Wingfoot for the first time in 22 years in 2006, and the strong favorite going in was none other than Phil Mickelson.

Phil had won the 2005 PGA Championship and the 2006 Masters, entering with a ton, I mean a ton of momentum. If you factor in that Tiger Woods has, had to take time off between the Masters and the U.S. Open to grieve the death of his father, Earl. Well, I mean, that just made Phil even more of a favorite in many people's eyes. Wingfoot is one of the toughest golf courses on Earth. The 1974 U.S. Open was won there at 7 over par. The 1972 Women's U.S. Open was won at 11 over par.

The 1959 U.S. Open was won at 2 over par. 1929 U.S. Open, Bobby Jones, the great Bobby Jones, won it at six over par. Wingfoot plays tough in 2006 would be no exception. After three grueling rounds, Phil Teeth off in the final group on Sunday with England's Kenneth Ferry. Two were tied two over par. Jeff Ogilvie was just one shot back and a group including Colin Montgomery, V.J. Singh, and Ian Polter sat just three shots back. things got very, very interesting down the stretch. Phil Birdyed the par 4th 14th hole to get to three over,

and with wing foot playing incredibly tricky, incredibly demanding, he sat alone in the lead. Ian Poulter faded beautifully and was never a factor. Colin Montgomery, Jim Furek, Padra Carrington, and Jeff Ogovey all sat right there as things came down to the wire. A few groups ahead of Phil on the 17th green, Colin Montgomery was just one stroke behind and faced a 75-foot putt for birdie.

Up at 17, Montgomery with a lengthy birdie putt. Ball moved pretty hard to the right at the end. How about this one for Colin Montgomery? My goodness, what a birdie. That's the put of the championship right there, Gary. He might be tied for the championship in just a couple of moments with Nicholson's position over at 16, Gary. He's thinking about crying right now.

I'm serious. He looks very emotional, Johnny. After the put, Phil and Colin Montgomery sat at four over par, which at this point looked about like that would be the number to win it, or at least get somebody into a playoff. After a great drive on 18, right down the middle, right down kind of the middle, right side of the fairway, exactly what to be.

Colin Montgomery was 171 yards out tied for the lead. He's been waiting down there, Johnny, but he's been waiting. waiting nearly two decades for a major championship. So what's another minute or two here? I'm surprised he just switched clubs when you've had 10 minutes to figure it out. This one is just a little right of the flag and short, pretty short. He said, what kind of shot is that? Right when it left his club, he knew it was off.

And he's buried. Amazingly, Manti flubbed it right, hacked it to about 40 feet, then three putted for a double bogey six, he would pose six over par in the clubhouse. Jeff Ogilvie faced about a 30-foot chip on 17 for par, and sitting at five over and just one back of fill, he hold that chip, a chip that was buzzing, it was motoring, but it hit the flag, and it went straight in,

and then he found himself in the fairway on 18. Unfortunately, Jeff Ogilvie would get a couple terrible breaks. his ball, which he had, again, he had found the fairway. He'd hit a great drive. His ball found kind of the front end of a Sanfield divot. To his credit afterwards, he said, you know, the ball was in the front of the divot. It didn't affect the flight at all. He was very much willing to say, hey, look, my lie was fine.

Everything was fine. He hit a phenomenal shot out of this lie. It's going right where you need to hit it, sort of in the middle. right part of the green. The pin is tucked on the right, almost in the small little bowl, things sort of funneled towards it if you catch the right slope. His shots on the perfect line to catch the slope comes up, I don't know, a foot short, maybe two feet short, catches a huge false front,

rolls all the way back down into the fairway. From there, he hit a great chip, made a gutsy four, five, six foot putts, something like that, gets in the clubhouse at five over the bar. Jim Furring. Got to love Jim Furring. also in the fairway on 18. Yanks his approach into a left green side bunker, misses a short par putt.

He ends up posting six over. I believe Jim Furik's ball. He hit a great T-shot in 18. I think he got a little unlucky. His ball ended up dribbling just barely into the first cut, sort of affected him a little bit, sort of rattled him a little bit. His lie pulls into the bunker,

ends up getting into the clubhouse at six over par. again he missed a short put to get to five over. Patrick Harrington, bogeed 16, 17, and 18 to go from 4 over to 7 over. Wingfoot down the stretch. Wingfoot, God bless wingfoot, was just delivering the carnage that guys like me like to see. And we haven't even gotten to our guy Phil Nicholson yet. Phil down the back nine, birdied the 14th hole, but then bogeed 16 to get the four-over par and by the time he came to the 18th tee the leaderboard was all set everything was very clear phil knew

exactly what he needed to do par wins it bogey forces a playoff double or worse and it's over he loses at this point in his career phil mickleson had already finished runner up three times in the u.s open the heartbreak at shinnock the heartbreak at pinehurst coming up short to top Tiger to his generational rival Tiger at Bethpage in 2002. And here he is on the 18th T at Wingfoot, famed Wingfoot, playing incredibly difficult. He just needs to find a way to make a four, and he's won three majors in a row. He's finally won his U.S. Open. All of this is going into it.

With Tiger missing the cut, I mean, Phil is one par away from becoming the new top dog in golf. Phil did what Phil does. He pulled driver and well, let's hear it again. All right. T-shot for Mickelson. It's better be a forward. Doesn't like this one going way left, way, way left. Oh, what a bounce out into the left and right. I don't think that will leave him much off of the hospitality tent. I'll tell you what, right now Ben Hogan is officially rolled over in his grave. Here's Phil describing the decision to pull driver on the 18th T. I just tried to go to that little, you know,

bread and brother kind of carved slice that I use at like 13 at Augusta and some other holes and overcut that. After the T shot, Phil was, of course, way left in the rough behind a tree. He walked around for a few minutes. He walked up almost to the green, then back to his ball, and eventually pulled a three iron.

Well, here he has to be. describing the shot that he faced. I had a good lie. I had to hit a big carving slice around the tree. If I hit it in the gallery and it doesn't cut, I'm fine. I can still make bogey baby apart. And I ended up hitting the tree. After everyone had plenty of time to adjust to and comprehend the stage, Phil finally pulled the trigger.

And, of course, he hits a tree. It bounces backwards. And from there, Phil tried to hit a sweeping hook three iron up and over and around the trees. and kind of hung it out to the left and into this left green side bunker. And from there, he just got really unlucky and ended up with a completely dead fried egg, a complete plugged lie from which on these greens, these wing foot green, they're firm, they're fast, that position, the whole green's running away from you as well.

There's just nothing Phil could do. he would end up blasting it out of the bunker about as good as he could have done it rolls over the green into the rough he fails to hold that out actually makes a sneaky sneaky good like eight footer for double

finish his second place here's Johnny Miller taking us very carefully through his opinions on Phil's shot choices absolutely you couldn't have worse decisions than he's had, I think, on this hole. I don't care who you are.

I know you all love Phil, but come on. You just got to make par on this hole. He could hit it 200, 3 iron off the tee, another long iron onto the green, two-putts and say, see you later. In perfect Johnny Miller fashion, as soon as the camera begins to show Jeff Ogilvie, the winner, hugging his wife in the locker room. Johnny, oh, you got to love Johnny.

He puts the whole thing very bluntly. and to be honest with it, one of the worst collapses in U.S. Open history by Phil Mickelson. It's not very often in golf that you get one of the biggest, one of the most popular, one of these most successful stars in the entire game, to have a monumental meltdown on the game's biggest stage. But this day, I'll never forget watching it. We got exactly that. afterwards Phil as Phil always is

Phil is incredibly candid in his own assessment of his own finish I still am in shock that I did that I just I just can't believe that I did that I'm such an idiot interestingly Tiger Woods would go on to win the next two major championships in 2006 Phil has never won a US Open to this point and he wouldn't win another major until the 2010 Masters. The U.S. Open returned to Bethpage Black in 2009. Unfortunately, a very

rain-soaked week took a lot of the fire out of the golf course, but yet again, Phil Mickelson found himself in the mix during the final round. Although he was six shots back teeing off on Sunday, leader Ricky Barnes would shoot

a 76 that brought Phil right back into the mix. And when he reached the green on the the par 5th hole, Phil actually had a put to tie the lead. However, in all too familiar scene, bogeys on 15 and 17 out on the black course with do Phil in. He ultimately finished two under par, two shots behind winner Lucas Glover,

in a tie for second place. This was Phil's fifth runner-up finish at the U.S. Open. As Phil crept into his 40s, many people wondered, they questioned if the U.S. Open just wasn't meant to be for Phil, basically. They wondered if he'd missed his shots. How many chances can you really get to win a U.S. Open? How can you get there six, five, four times,

and get that close and expect to continue to get that close? If you're never going to get over the hump in it, sort of became almost accepted that, well, Phil's just not really going to win a U.S. Open. But the sub-7,000-yard U.S. Open classic of Marion in 2013 would provide Phil yet another chance, another hope of capturing that elusive U.S. Open. Phil fired a three under par 67 to take the outright lead on Thursday. On Friday, he fell back to one under, but the course was playing so difficult, despite the rain, despite some pretty wet conditions, that Phil, After two rounds remained tied for the lead.

He then posted an even par 70 on Saturday to somehow take a one-shot lead into the final round on Sunday. Playing in the final group, Phil amazingly, stunningly, doubled the third and fifth holes on the front nine to fall to two-over par for the week. He turned in a three-over-par-par-39 on the front, And when he came to the short part 410, he was trailing Justin Rose by two shots. Nicholas got a 10.

Playing very quickly, Roger. 76 yards. The whole out Eagle on 10 brought Phil back into the tournament. The whole out made it feel like, well, it made it feel like one of those turning points, one of those memorable moments where you might say, hey, today could be different. Today could be unique. today for Phil could be that special day

that he's never been able to quite have at the U.S. Open. Unfortunately, it wasn't that day. Phil went on to airmail the green on the very short, very burdial par 3-13th hole

out at Marion and made bogey. He would also bogey the par 415th hole and after par's on the very difficult 16th and 17th. With Justin Rose already in the clubhouse, Phil came to the incredibly difficult, incredibly iconic par four 18th hole, needing a birdie to force a playoff with Justin Rose. Phil hit his tee shot into some left rough.

He hit a heroic effort from there to get it just short of the green. He had to hole out for Bertie to force a playoff. Naturally, Phil did what Phil always does. He did a very Phil-esque type move. He sent bones up there to tend the flag. Phil finished with a bogey, a final round 74, and finished in a tie for second place. This was Phil's sixth runner-up finish

in our national championship. Phil's six second-place finishes at the U.S. Open are a record. Now, Phil will turn 48 years old on June 16th, the Saturday of this year's U.S. Open in Shinnock Hills. Can he win a U.S. Open? That is the question. When he was on Faradie last year in his cool leather jacket, he discussed at length his history with the U.S. Open, he said very firmly, he believes he will win a U.S. Open. He laid out very clearly that the fact that he was a U.

He can finish runner-up six times at the U.S. Open. Very clearly means that he can win. He's capable of winning the U.S. Open. Now, he's going to be 48. That's old. In athletic terms, that's getting pretty old. Tom Watson did nearly, as we discussed, on this week's foreplay episode with Stewart Sink himself.

Tom Watson nearly won the 2009 Open Championship at Turnberry as a 59-year-old now. That golf course, if you will watch any documentary about that event, Tom Watson talks about how there are certain golf courses that when you get older, you can't compete at. That was one of them. He knew the wins. He understood how the golf course played when the wins switched.

They switched from how they were playing in practice rounds very differently during the competition rounds. He understood that. He anticipated that. He was able to sort of outthink and execute certain shaft that didn't necessarily require these distances. A U.S. Open test is significantly different. However, Phil Mickelson even he's 47 years old now. He still moves the ball out there in pretty good ways. He has, since he turned 40, he's talked a lot about how much more he focuses on his fitness, on his health, on his body.

so that he can compete. He's got that long, fluid swing. If you look at the future venues, we've got this year, Shinnecock Hills. We already talked about his history there. Next year, we've got Pebble Beach. Phil Mickelson won the AT&T Pebble Beach Proam four times,

so he clearly knows how to win. He clearly likes Pebble Beach. The following year, 2020, Wingfoot. We already talked about Wingfoot. The year after that, 2021, Tory Pines. He's a California guy. He's won at Tori Pines before he loves that place.

And then if you go all the way to 2024, we go back to Pinehurst. Again, we already talked about his history there against Payne Stewart. So the question remains, can Phil Nicholson actually win a U.S. Open? It's one of those things where you look at it and you look at age and you look at everything that we've talked about and you think there's no way this guy at this age can overcome that, the mental block that must be there, or at least the demons that are going to pop in, and you mix that with sort of his, you know,

he's on the back nine of his career, the metaphor that people love to talk about on the world of golf, factor all those things in, and you think there's no chance this guy can do it, but you look at those venues, you look at Tom Watson, you look at the fact that Phil won just earlier this year in 2018 at the WGC, Mexico, and you think, well, I'm really not that sure.

When you watch the U.S. Open this year, the 2018 U.S. Open, and you look at all these upcoming venues, and you should realize that this tournament, it just has a very serious, a very meaningful amount of history and a very meaningful impact on one of the games. greats on on one of two guys in this era who stand out way above the others and that's of course Phil Mickelson and when he's announced on the T at the U.S. Open just remember that as much as we love the U.S. Open and Golf's ultimate test watching these guys battle out there it means infinitely more to Phil Millson. Okay, folks, this is Riggs-Z.

Thank you very much for taking the time to listen to the second episode of Diggs. We're just getting this off the ground. This is the first time I have ever done anything like this. If you haven't checked it out yet, episode one, the 2008 U.S. open a deep dive into a deep reliving of the, perhaps

number one achievement of Tiger Woods most impressive achievement the one that means the most to him was winning the 2008 U.S. Open with a torn ACL with a broken leg

if you haven't listened to that go listen to that one the reviews were fantastic anybody out there who's got any recommendations you've got an event or a story or a history of

something, a collection of things that you think should be aggregated and investigated and relived in one podcast, in one show. Hit me up. Riggs at barstoolsports.com. Let me know we're going to be doing these as frequently as we can. Again, I think it'll be about two weeks spaced out to begin here. I'm going to make these topical. So when we get into Open Championship time we're going to get into some history at Carnusti and when we get into the PGA championship we're going to get into history surrounding that tournament and so on and so forth it's a Ryder Cup year a lot of exciting things to get to remember to follow us it's at 4 play pod on Twitter and Instagram again we appreciate all of your feedback thank you

very much for listening