US Open golf preview – Father’s Day, Phil, and Payne

Welcome to one of my favorite times of the year!  It’s Father’s Day weekend, and, to make it even better, it’s also time for  the 2017 US Open Golf Championship.  I am 100% sure that it was the genius of another like-minded guy who came up the idea of putting the final day of the US Open Championship on Father’s Day every year.  I am forever indebted to that person and to the USGA for maintaining this brilliant annual scheme.

Back in 1999, in one of the greatest US Open finishes ever, Phil Mickelson was contending for the lead at Pinehurst #2 in North Carolina on the final day while his wife was in California and, as it turned out, less than 24 hours away from giving birth to their first child.  Mickelson said that he was prepared to leave the event, even during Sunday’s final round, whenever his wife went into labor.  Talk about high drama!

The late Payne Stewart battled Mickelson all day and drained a clutch putt on the 18th hole to snatch the title away from Phil.  When the two players congratulated each other after Stewart’s winning putt, Payne consoled Phil with the words, “Good luck with the baby.  There’s nothing like being a father”!

Phil Mickelson has been a big winner on the PGA tour (42 wins – good for 9th place all-time) and has nabbed three of the four golf majors (The Masters, British Open, and the PGA Championship).  Mickelson is missing just one elusive trophy to complete golf’s major slam – the US Open.  Alas, Phil has finished second in the US Open a record six times.  The first was in 1999 with Payne Stewart’s win.  More heartbreak arrived in 2002, 2004, 2006, 2009, and 2013.

For die-hard golf fans like me, every Father’s Day weekend has become the annual “Phil watch”.  Hoping that somehow, some way, the 48-year old Phil Mickelson will finally break through and win this event to complete the career Grand Slam.

Fast forward to 2017.  Phil Mickelson’s daughter born in 1999 (Amy) has become part of the story again this year.  Amy will graduate from high school in California on Thursday morning and speak at the commencement.  Her proud dad, Phil Mickelson, will be there.  But Phil’s tee time at the US Open in Wisconsin is at 2:20 PM!  Barring a weather delay in Wisconsin or the sudden invention of Star Trek’s teleportation device, Phil Mickelson is unlikely to be able to make his first-round tee time on Thursday, so an alternate, Roberto Diaz, is poised to take his spot.

But wait!  This is Phil “The Thrill” Mickelson we’re talking about.  He is the king of US Open drama over the past 18 years, right?  As of this writing, the National Weather Service called for a 40% of showers and thunderstorms for Thursday morning at Erin Hills, Wisconsin with partial clearing expected later in the day.

Based on his amazing history in this event, I am not betting against Phil getting his chance to play in this year’s US Open just yet.  Wouldn’t it be fitting for his old friend, Payne Stewart, to pull a few strings with the weather gods to conjure up a half-day rain delay on Thursday?  It would make for another Father’s Day weekend filled with the kind of US Open drama we’ve come to expect when Phil Mickelson is involved.