On rest and excuses...

Ryder Cup may mark end of Lefty's season By DOUG FERGUSON, AP Golf Writer Tue Sep 12, 12:26 AM Phil Mickelson headed home from Ireland a few weeks ago in dire need of some rest. Lefty has finally figured out what works best him in the major championships, and no one can argue with the results. He has won a major each of the last three seasons - only Tiger Woods has a longer streak over the last 20 years - by pouring so much effort into his preparation that he is out of gas when the PGA Championship ends in August. One problem. The Ryder Cup is played in September. Mickelson is the only player on the American team who has not played a PGA Tour event since the practice session Aug. 28-29 in Ireland, choosing instead to take the last two weeks off and work privately this week to get his game in shape. The Ryder Cup likely will be his last event of the year. Unless he changes his mind, his next tournament will be the Bob Hope Classic in January.

I support his right to do this, by the way. I just think it's lame that he DOES do it this way. Guess he AGAIN won't be there for the Tour Championship.

Guess he AGAIN won't be there for the Tour Championship.

There are so many other tournaments during the year then just majors, and there are fans out there that want to see him play in these tournaments. I personally think its selfish.

Thrash, at least you didnt disagree that he looks like crap with his weight and in those shirts that he wears. lol.

The Ten Most Hated Athletes Who are the most roundly despised men in pro sports? We asked their peers—and they came out swinging 8. Phil Mickelson Last August at the PGA Championship at Baltusrol, in New Jersey, a reporter turned to a golfer on the tour and said of Phil Mickelson, “Man, the fans here love Phil.” The golfer replied, “They don’t know him the way we do.” It blew our minds a little when we heard this, since Mickelson ranks among the most admired golfers in America. But today the same reporter makes his case bluntly: “Phil Mickelson literally has no friends out there. He annoys everybody.” Mickelson has earned many nicknames on the Tour, but our favorite is FIGJAM (Fuck, I’m good—just ask me). “There are a bunch of pros who think he and his whole smiley, happy face are a fraud,” another reporter says. “They think he’s preening and insincere.” Mickelson has aggressively pursued a family-man image that is crucial to his success as an endorser. In 1999, when he nearly won the U.S. Open, Mickelson wore a beeper onto the fairway to alert him when his wife went into labor. If the beeper went off during the final round, he announced, he would simply walk off the course. Some of Mickelson’s peers, smelling a PR stunt, badly wanted to call his bluff. “Everybody’s saying, ‘Oh God, I want that beeper to go off,’ ” recalls one writer. (It didn’t.) In 2003, Mickelson violated multiple taboos when he told a reporter that Tiger Woods was playing with “inferior equipment” and that he envied Mickelson’s longer drives from the tee. Woods was infuriated. “You just don’t say shit like that in golf,” says a reporter. (To be fair, another reporter says, “Phil was right.”) Shortly before the 2004 Ryder Cup, though, Mickelson abruptly switched from Titleist to Callaway equipment. He left himself little time to get used to the new balls and clubs. “It wasn’t in the best interest of the team,” says a reporter. “The only thing that it was in the best interest of was his financial gain.” The contract paid a reported $7 million to $10 million annually. “What it did was set up a bull’s-eye on him if he played poorly,” says a different reporter. “Which he did.” Most recently, Mickelson blew off the 2005 Tour Championship, though the PGA was in the midst of negotiating its new TV contract. One reporter says, “The Tour was trying to come up with a plan that would make the networks happy, so it wouldn’t have to give back a lot of money, and here’s the number three player in the world skipping the premier season-ending event. Other players said, ‘How about helping the rest of us who aren’t as rich?’ ” Adds another reporter: “It’s like not showing up for somebody’s wedding.”