DORAL, Fla. — Phil Mickelson outplayed Brooks Koepka at the 2021 PGA Championship not even 30 months ago, but it feels like another era entirely.
Back then, Mickelson rode an unprecedented wave of goodwill and good fortune, basking in the love of vast galleries among the dunes at Kiawah Island as he became the oldest major winner in the sport’s history.
Viewed from 40,000 feet above the fray, golf occupies a strange space in the American sports landscape. It’s a niche sport; only Tiger Woods and, on occasion, Mickelson have broken through to the culture at large. Along with tennis, it’s the only high-level professional sport that amateurs still play regularly after high school.
According to the Official World Golf Rankings, Koepka is the 18th best player in the world. According to common sense, he’s so much better than that, the defending PGA champion nearing the same Godzilla-stomp level he was when he won four majors in less than two years from 2017 to 2019. He’s moved through this week with alpha-dog confidence, the only of LIV’s 12 team captains to favor Nike instead of his own team’s logo on his clothing.
Of course, as anyone who’s tried to sell an old baseball card knows, estimated value is one thing, purchase price is quite another. Bubba Watson, captain of the Range Goats Golf Club , raised a few eyebrows earlier in the week when he claimed that he’d heard from “10 to 20” potential investors interested in buying a piece of the Goats.
So Mickelson is doing what he does best: setting up camp in his rival’s head. Slow play disgusts Koepka; he griped about it in Augusta earlier this year, and he barely even sets his feet before swinging at his shots today. Out on the course, the Koepka-Mickelson match has drawn the vast majority of golf bros on the property at Trump Doral. One group in particular has an odd fascination with both players’ calves, commenting on them after every hole. They’re pounding adult beverages, they’re hooting at every shot, and every once in a while they duck under the ropes to see how close they can get to the players. Again, you can decide for yourself if this environment is right for you; we’re just laying out the facts.
Maybe LIV is trying to distance itself from Trump, his ongoing presidential campaign and his many legal challenges. Maybe LIV got better offers to play at other courses. Either way, Trump’s absence is a notable shift for a league that had tied itself so closely to him in 2022 that LIV’s Bedminster event turned into a de facto Trump rally.By the 11th hole, the end is in sight; Koepka is up five, and it’s now just a matter of playing out the string.
As it turns out, Mickelson’s HyFlyers will end up defeating Koepka’s Smashers when the other two matches turn the HyFlyers’ way. Mickelson makes his way down to a crowd of a couple dozen waiting on the rope line, signing autographs for kids and a disturbingly large number of sweaty men looming over them. He refuses to sign several Masters items, but he does pose for selfies, and keeps signing until everyone goes away with an autograph.
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