For Phil Mickelson, Masters brilliance is a reminder of what he lost with LIV defection | Politi

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Phil Mickelson pumped his fist once, then twice, as he walked to retrieve his ball from the cup on the 18th green. He had just birdied for the fifth time in seven holes. The gallery rose to its feet to give him the kind of ovation he used to always hear at Augusta National — and, until he turned back the clock on this wonderful afternoon, the kind he hadn’t heard at all this week.

Mickelson lifted his left thumb and nodded his head to the fans, then stepped back to look up at the massive leaderboard. A red “8″ was about to slide into the slot next to his name. It was 5:08 p.m. on Sunday at the Masters, and only one golfer had a better score.

“I’m hesitant to say too much right now,” Mickelson said in a brief interview. He was, after all, the leader in the clubhouse. He has seen enough golf in the tournament to know that it was unlikely — highly so — that leader Jon Rahm, the No. 3 player in the world, would give back two strokes. Still: Rahm had to play the 12th hole, didn’t he? He had to clear Raes Creek.

Stranger things have happened.

It did not happen. But, in some ways, Rahm was irrelevant. Mickelson was carrying himself like a man who had won another green jacket. He accepted congratulations from Augusta National members on the clubhouse porch. He hugged his wife, Amy, who sneaked into the room where he was signing his scorecard for a 7-under par 65. It felt like 2010 here again.

And then you looked closer. Then you saw the “HyFlyers” logo on his hat and shirt, the one that looks like it might be the symbol for an alien confederation on a Star Trek reboot. Then you remember that he is representing LIV Golf, the upstart tour that exists only to sportswash the Saudi royal family. Then everything felt different.

“This is so much fun,” Mickelson said, and it certainly was. On an afternoon that became a coronation for Rahm instead of a duel with Brooks Koepka that everyone expected, it was Mickelson, the three-time Masters winner, providing the thrills.

He traded birdies with his playing partner/spirit animal Jordan Spieth, with both players climbing up the leaderboard as others tumbled. For Mickelson, it was his first relevant round of golf since he won the 2021 PGA Championship. Even on the LIV tour, with its 54-hole, no-cut format, Mickelson hasn’t finished better than eight in his last 10 events.

Then again, who would even know if he did? That, really, is the shame of Mickelson’s brilliant play on Sunday afternoon. He demonstrated that when the golf matters, he can still summon some of the resolve that made him one of the greatest golfers of this generation. And, other than four weeks a year now at the majors, it no longer matters.

“Today is hopefully a stepping stone to really kick start the rest of the year and continue some great play because I have a unique opportunity,” Mickelson said. “At 52, no physical injuries, no physical problems, being able to swing a club the way I want to, to do things in the game that not many people have had a chance to do later in life.”

He’s right. But now he gets to do it in Singapore and Spain, in London and (yes) Bedminster. At the LIV event at Trump National year ago was only notable for three things: 1. Tickets that sold for a buck on StubHub. 2. Donald Trump blowing kisses to the crowd. 2. A heckler screaming “DO IT FOR THE SAUDI ROYAL FAMILY” as Mickelson prepared to hit his first tee shot on Thursday.

Mickelson threw away much of his good-guy image for $200 million from the Saudis, the same people called “scary to get involved with” and that have a “horrible record on human rights.” But it wasn’t just a chunk of his soul that he lost. He also lost the opportunity to stare down a top play like Jordan Spieth and, as he did on Sunday, beat him.

“I was trying, honestly, to make Phil shot for shot coming in,” said Spieth, the 2015 Masters winner. He was a stroke ahead in their head-to-head matchup but bogeyed the final hole, then watched Mickelson calmly curve a birdie putt into the cup to leapfrog him. A day earlier, Mickelson cockily promised he was “going to go on a tear here real soon,” but even he couldn’t have imagined it would be this soon.

And now he disappears.

Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley refused to invite LIV czar Greg Norman here this week in an attempt to keep the “focus on golf,” but the new tour had an eventful week. Koepka might have collapsed on Sunday, but he was the story of the tournament for three days. Even as Rahm confirmed that he is the one of the best players in the world with his first green jacket, the two closest competitors were LIV golfers, ensuring that the renegade tour will have a much-coveted presence in the majors for years to come.

The one honest LIV defector, Harold Varner III, made headlines when he told the Washington Post that the LIV’s mission to grow the game was nonsense. “I don’t care what anyone says. It’s about the damn money,” Varner said, and no one has taken more than Mickelson.

This week was a reminder of what that decision cost. Mickelson will leave Augusta and go back to playing for microscopic audiences on the CW. He’ll have three more majors this year to chase the adrenaline rush he felt on Sunday afternoon. He better have enjoyed that ovation on the 18th green, because he might not hear anything like it for a long, long time.

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Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.