Love him or just barely tolerate him, there’s simply no debate: Phil Mickelson is the best talker in golf history. He’s honed his jabber into a spear capable of piercing even the thickest emotional armour during the years, but if you talk a lot, eventually you’re going to have to eat your words. Phil learned that the hard way yesterday at the Rocket Mortgage Classic’s Delta Dental Pro-Am, where he could be heard jawing at Bryson DeChambeau about out-driving him. First mistake, last mistake, as they say.
Needless to say, if you’re going to sledge your playing partner about out-driving them, you better be damn well sure you did, especially if that playing partner is Bryson Do-you-even-lift-bro. In a theme consistent with some of the more colourful moments of Phil’s career, however, he looked before he leapt and as he approached his ball, he realised the enormity of that error.
“Oh is that not yours here?” Phil asked Bryson, approaching the shorter of the two tee shots. Upon confirmation that it was, in fact, his ball, Phil was forced to quickly concede defeat. “OK, see, that’s just my problem,” he said. “I speak too soon.”
From there, the indignities only got worse.
“And I mis-hit mine too, sooo…” Bryson replied, making his way to his ball some 15 paces beyond Phil’s.
“Oh my goodness,” Phil said, staring down at his ball. “I hammered that too.” By that point Bryson had arrived at his ball, far out of ear shot.
Lesson learned? Probably not.
