Phil blaming the weather

[mdbuschsr]

All I'll say to that is, I wish I had 1/64th the talent, use half of that and make a better living than I currently do.

I do think he is occasionally a whiner, but is he a great golfer? IMO, yes.

[GaijinGolfer]

I dont think anyone can honestly question Phil's greatness. He's a great player, he's just no Tiger or Jack. He's easily a top 10 though. Im personally not a Phil fan (cant stand the guy, actually) but Id love to have even 1/10 the talent he has.
Phil is just a trainwreck. When he's on, he is amazing player and is fun to watch. He can pull off shots that youd look at and be like, "no way will make this work". He does though.
When Phil is just a little off though, look out because its going to be ugly.
In some ways, thats what makes Phil so entertaining to watch.

[jamo]

I dont think anyone can honestly question Phil's greatness. He's a great player, he's just no Tiger or Jack. He's easily a top 10 though. Im personally not a Phil fan (cant stand the guy, actually) but Id love to have even 1/10 the talent he has.

I bet I can find 10 players all time better than Phil.

[laconic517]

I bet I can find 10 players all time better than Phil.

Me too.

Phil is good, but not top 10 resume good (yet)

[B-Con]

I bet I can find 10 players all time better than Phil.

Are the Official World Golf Rankings a poor system?

[laconic517]

Are the Official World Golf Rankings a poor system?

yes when debating top 10 all time. Phil would be lucky to be top 15 at this moment credential wise.

[B-Con]

yes when debating top 10 all time. Phil would be lucky to be top 15 at this moment credential wise.

Ah, I mis-parsed jamo's sentence. I thought he meant "I can find 10 players at all points in time better than Phil", meaning that Phil was never in the top 10 current ranking, a claim I found surprising. Thanks for clarifying.

Back on topic: This interview with Phil seems very reasonable, he takes the blame for his bad play. He was also straight-forward about the wind:

“I’m frustrated, but today to me was just a great day on St. Andrews, because the wind was challenging but fair. The pins were challenging but fair. And there was some good scoring out there. There were some birdies out there, and also there’s some bogeys. “I thought that this was a fun day to play this championship under these conditions.”

I've heard many complaints about players "making excuses" when all the players do, as far as I can tell, is point out a couple obvious facts. There's a difference between discussing facts that seem to tip against your favor and making excuses. I didn't see the original interview the OP mentioned, but I until I do I'll take everything with a grain of salt. I'm not saying that players don't whine sometimes, but just because someone perceives facts to not be in their favor doesn't mean they should be bared from speaking about them. I mean, it's an interview, they're supposed to talk about things that, from their perspective, they find interesting or odd.

[kafka01]

Phil is a great golfer, no question. But he sucks at The Open Championship - just look at his lifetime results http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Mi..._championships . He just cant handle links golf - he just should acknowledge this fact and move on.

[zeg]

To me it's a good sign that he doesn't just acknowledge it and move on. He wants to win there, and that means getting yourself pumped and going out to win, no matter how often you've failed. It seems that his natural high-risk strategy doesn't play out so well there, but I'm sure he'll be back next year to try, perhaps with a different approach.

[GaijinGolfer]

The fact that Phil gets down on himself so easily doesnt help him with links golf either. I dont think it would be fair to say that Phil lacks mental toughness, I think sometimes he just lets his emotions get the best of him.