The American Spectator

“I don’t think I have ever hit a shot in competition where I couldn’t pull it off 40% of the time.” br> Phil Mickelson said that to explain away the 4-iron-to-the-island-green-from-behind-the-trees-that-ended-in-the-water at Bay Hill. I think this is the key difference between Phil and Tiger. Phil may try only shots that have a 40% or greater chance of succeeding, but he thinks he can make ANY shot 40% of the time. This is a guy who, with his back to the hole, can flop a wedge backwards over his shoulder onto the green. There are shots even Tiger Woods can’t make 40% of the time. The only difference is that Tiger knows that. /p>

Tiger struggles. He hits shots that end up on pine needles, behind trees, and well behind water hazards. Remember the last hole of his playoff with Bob May at the 2000 PGA Championship? He knows how to stop the bleeding with conservative shots. He’ll lay up, he’ll pitch and run, he’ll chip out. Then he tries to get up and down for par from the middle of the fairway, something that Tiger can do far more than 40% of the time.

When Tiger yells “be the number,” he is expressing the end result of a careful calculation, a calculation that not only includes the shot in the air, but the shots that got him to that spot.

But don’t be too harsh on Phil. The people who don’t like Clinton probably don’t like Phil — a big guy with a big chin, standing over you making crazy excuses and just daring you not to believe him. Golfers are more accessible to the media than any other athletes and probably any other public figures. At the same time as they try to be brutally honest and confront questions — were the NBA superstars choking on Michael Jordan’s exhaust year after year that gracious with the press? — they play a game with so many mental elements that even focusing on some of these questions is dangerous. Also, he plays an exciting game. That’s Palmer’s game, and Greg Norman’s game. Palmer was eclipsed by Nicklaus, a phenomenal golfing robot (just like Woods). Norman was fun to watch, but Nick Faldo mowed him down in methodical style. Faldo won the British Open one year with eighteen pars on Sunday.

Mickelson is a great golfer and a great entertainer. He’s just not a good enough investor or poker player. He’s not a methodical, boring, calculating guy who plays the percentages. A guy like Tiger Woods.