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Phil Mickelson Lets The US Open Slip
Away
The
stage was set. Pro golfer Phil Mickelson had the
U.S. Open in his golf bag. All he needed was par on
the 72nd hole. But then, in a dramatic
turn of events, Mickelson’s bag was torn open, and
the championship fell with a flutter into 29 year
old Geoff Ogilvy’s bag. Phil went to the last golf
hole with a one-stroke lead. Ogilvy had already
finished his play, and with a par Phil would be
named the U.S. Open Champion. Ogilvy watched on
television, fingers crossed, as Mickelson’s win
slowly trickled through his fingers, like a dream,
he was trying to remember. The harder he tried to
hold on, the faster it slipped away.
Mickelson not only surprised the world, but he
surprised himself, saying, "I am still in shock that
I did that. I just can't believe that I did that. I
am such an idiot."
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On hole 17, he managed to save par after a bad
tee-off, but on 18 his aim was too bad to save. "I
tried to just go to my bread-and-butter golf shot, a
baby-carve slice on 18 and just get it in the
fairway, and I missed it left," he said. The golf
ball hit a hospitality tent, but bounced to the
right and landed in a decent place, all things
considered. "I had a good lie. I had to hit a big,
carving slice around the tree and I over-cut it,"
Mickelson said. That over-cut slice was what ripped
Mickelson’s golf bag, what pulled the dream from his
golf grip. |
The ball bounced off of a tree and came back to him,
a similar lie as before, except now he lay 2. On his
swing of the golf club he managed to make it out of
the trees, but into a greenside bunker.
On his wedge shot, he cleared the bunker, but rolled
over and off the green. Every time he tried to save
himself, he went from bad to worse.
"This
one hurts more than any tournament because I had it
won," Mickelson said. "I came out here a week or two
ago in the evenings, just spending the evenings on
the last four holes, thinking that I would just need
to make four pars. ... So it hurts because I had it
in my grasp and just let it go.”
He
let it go. Just let it go. Well, next time maybe
he’ll prepare a stronger golf bag….. |
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