Today's post comes from an email that I wanted to share. Thanks Ree.
AUGUSTA, Ga. -- It's not often women win the Masters, but
they did Sunday.
Actually, Phil Mickelson won, but for millions of women
around the country, it must feel like a lipstick-sized victory. Mickelson,
in case you forgot, is the guy who stayed true to his wife. He's the guy
who's been missing tournaments the last 11 months while he flies her back
and forth to a breast cancer specialist in Houston . He's the guy who didn't
need reminding that women are not disposable.
Mani-pedis for everybody!
Also winning Sunday: karma, which proved to be alive and
well. And guys who never had a temper in the first place. And endings that
make you wipe your tears on the couch pillows.
Mickelson is the guy whose heavy head on the bed pillow
lately wasn't self-inflicted. Both his wife, Amy, and his mother, Mary, have
breast cancer. Usually, those two are at every tournament he's in, but for
the last year they've been fighting, resting, and fighting again at home.
And Mickelson has gone back to his rented homes alone.
So when Amy turned up on the 18th green Sunday at Augusta
National for the first time in 11 months and Mickelson practically fell into
her outstretched arms, you wanted to hug somebody yourself. Mickelson hugged
and cried. And his wife hugged and cried. And his coach and his caddy hugged
and cried. And 10 minutes later, the caddy was still crying.
"This is way beyond golf," said caddy Jim "Bones" Mackay,
who's been with Mickelson for 19 years. "This is about a guy who loves his
wife. This is about a guy who had a really hard year. Twenty years from now,
nothing will compare with this. This is his greatest win, by far. Because of
Amy, because of his mom, everything. God bless all those women that go
through what Amy and Phil's mom have gone through. Because I've seen it and
it ain't easy."
"Of all the majors I've been involved in," said
Mickelson's coach, Butch Harmon, "be they with Tiger, Phil, anybody, this is
the most emotional by far. This year has been a big, big strain on him. His
game has suffered. What he really wanted was to be home with his family."
You figured a guy who came into this Masters having played
only seven tournaments this year -- and never placing better than eighth in
any of them -- would have a snowball's chance. But something melted in him
when his wife and three kids showed up for the first time in nearly a year
on Tuesday.
"He just had this peace to him that I haven't seen in
awhile," said Bones.
Amy was still hurting, so she wasn't able to come to the
golf course, but it was close enough. Each morning, Mickelson would take his
oldest, Sophie, to a local coffee shop and play chess for an hour. At night,
the whole brood would watch dumb movies. Mickelson came through that door
each night after work like it was Christmas morning. You don't know how
dispiriting it is to come home after a long day to a strange, empty house.
Come to think of it, maybe Tiger knows.
"It's been tough," Mickelson said. "The meds that she's
been taking have been very difficult and she didn't feel well and she
doesn't have energy and she's not just up for a lot. But to have her here,
man "
Amy Mickelson is the kind of walking rainbow that could
put a smile on a mortician's face, so when she showed up, everything started
looking up. The golf gods started raining favors down on Mickelson's curly
hair. On Saturday, golf balls started going into tiny little cups from great
distances. Sunday, it got even better:
At 9: ball hits tree, bounces back into fairway. Par.
At 10: ball hits tree, bounces back into playable
territory. Par.
At 11: ball hits fan, bounces into short, happy grass.
Par.
"Got an assist there," Mickelson said.
Did the guy say anything?
"Ouch?" Mickelson guessed.
The big lefty took it from there.
At 12: looked into his "book of reads" for the 20-foot
putt -- the green-studying book that Bones and he spent "days and days"
putting together on a trip this year to Augusta -- and buried it. Birdie.
At 13: pulled off the most audacious, swashbuckling shot
of his life at 13 -- from the right woods, off pine straw, through two trees
(4 feet apart), over Rae's Creek, from 207 yards, to 3 feet. Two-putt
birdie.
At 15: smashed an 8-iron from 205 yards -- yes, 8-iron to
15 feet for a 2-putt birdie.
Suddenly, the guy who'd spent a career being eaten alive
by Woods had left him 5 shots behind. It was only a matter of lag for par,
lag for par, 10-foot birdie and get the Kleenex ready.
"I saw Amy just before I putted," Mickelson said. "That
was so great. I mean, I didn't know if she would be there. To walk off the
green and share that with her is just very, very emotional. We'll remember
this [for] the rest of our lives."
Contrast that with Woods, who spent the week reverting to
form -- acerbic answers, sprayed swear words, and curt interviews. He
finished fourth, which shows that the golf game is very close. The
personality makeover, though, looks like it needs some work.
Soon enough, though, Woods will win tournaments like this,
pass Nicklaus, and order will be restored in the universe. But for this one
Sunday in a flower-stuffed pocket of Georgia, the good husband, the good
son, the good man actually got rewarded.
