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gw67
06-06-2007, 12:55 PM
PGATOUR.com has an interesting story on Phil Mickelson (see link). Vijay and many of his tour buddies love to put down Phil but at the PGA events I've attended, Mickelson has gone out of his way to be cordial with the fans and to sign autographs. I recall at the 2000 President's Cup, Mickelson, Furyk, Ellkington and a few other sticking around to sign autographs and interact with the fans while Singh, Norman, Duval and others didn't want to be bothered.

http://www.pgatour.com/2007/r/06/06/mickelson.dobler/index.html

gw67

DevilAlumna
06-06-2007, 01:16 PM
Suddenly, Tin Cup springs to mind.


"It's a well-known fact that if a camera's not on him, he treats old people and children like dirt."

"And dogs."

ehdg
06-06-2007, 10:43 PM
I've long been a Phil fan but damn after reading that article how can one not root for this guy. He's really a good decent man and giving too!!

OZZIE4DUKE
06-07-2007, 01:45 AM
If you are in the Triangle area this weekend, the Nationwide Tour (formerly the Nike Tour) stops in Raleigh at Wakefield Plantation Thursday through Sunday. You can see tomorrow's young stars and some of "yesterday's" too.

I'll be going today (Thursday) to watch my favorite Tour player, Neal Lancaster. He tees off at 12:20 p.m. on the 10th tee. He's playing with one of his buddies, Mike Springer. It should be a fun afternoon watching those two characters.

Here's a link to the tournament site http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/h048/ and driving directions (scroll down) http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/h048/local-info.html

See you there!

gw67
06-07-2007, 07:50 AM
Ozzie - The Nationwide held a tournament in suburban DC recently and the Post had a number of human interest stories of the young and veteran players. The tourney should be fun to watch, particularly, since you know a player.

Good luck to Neal! I suspect that you know this already, but PGATOUR.com had a nice article on Neal last month. It appears that he is a real character.

http://www.pgatour.com/2007/r/05/20/maginnes.sunday.att/index.html

gw67

OZZIE4DUKE
06-07-2007, 08:34 AM
Ozzie - The Nationwide held a tournament in suburban DC recently and the Post had a number of human interest stories of the young and veteran players. The tourney should be fun to watch, particularly, since you know a player.

Good luck to Neal! I suspect that you know this already, but PGATOUR.com had a nice article on Neal last month. It appears that he is a real character.

http://www.pgatour.com/2007/r/05/20/maginnes.sunday.att/index.html

gw67

I had not seen the article so thanks for linking it.

This quote
I will venture to say that Lancaster is the only player in TOUR history to ever have a wild bobcat as a pet. is either from his childhood, when I was not a Smithfield resident, or it is not true. He certainly hasn't had a bobcat in the last 20+ years.

Neal was holding court last night at the Country Club of Johnston County, with Mike Springer as his straight man. Funny stuff indeed. And yes, my ticket for today is courtesy of Neal.

SoCalDukeFan
06-07-2007, 02:12 PM
I was fortunate to play in 3 pro ams at the Mercedes Championships when it was held at La Costa in the mid 90s. The first year Mike Springer was my pro partner. At the Mercedes most of the pros stayed at La Costa and attended various dinners etc so through Mike I got to meet Neal Lancaster as well. They were very good guys. About 2 years ago I met up with Springer again when he was at a public driving range nearby.

Mickelson was very open and cordial to me. I did not spend as much with him as I did with Springer and Lancaster, but I thought he was a genuine nice guy. My brother played in his group in a pro-am and liked him very much.

Good luck to Mike and Neal at Wakefield.

SoCal

OZZIE4DUKE
06-07-2007, 07:35 PM
Neal started on the back 9 and promptly made a bogey on 10. He then played the next 8 holes 4 under and made the turn at -3. Neal is now playing Titleist clubs, a change recently from Cleveland (he couldn't hit their new Vijay driver, which they have forced EVERY one of their pros to play so they can say it is the most played driver on Tour, so he got a deal with Titleist.) He is absolutely killing the ball, hitting one drive 383 yards (40+ yards in front of Mike Springer and Chris Anderson) and stayed in front of them by that margin all day). Problem turned out to be he was getting horrible bounces on shots to the green on the front side - on one hole he landed his approach shot on the green 30 feet short of the pin and it ran off the back and down a hill. He thought he had hit a great shot until it stopped. Neal was 3 over on the front side, finishing even par.

I saw the longest drive I've ever seen hit by Mike Springer on hole #2, a 415 yard down hill par 4. Well, there are trees on the left side and a road beyond the trees, and Mike pulled his drive into and though the trees. With all of Neal's contingent helping to look for the missing ball, one of the young guys ran down the road to the bottom of the hill, and found the ball back in bounds, about 600 yards from the tee, and ~ 185 yards past the green! (Reminds me of the bet in Tin Cup when the Don Johnson character bets he can hit a shot longer than Costner, and after Costner hits a beautiful drive, Johnson Turns sideways and smacks the ball down the highway about 800 yards) But the ball was in bounds so Mike tried to play it. It was over woods and he tried to hit a draw back up the road and then over the trees. Would have worked too if not for the light post about 40 yards in front of him, which he somehow hit and the ball went clanging to parts unknown. A lost ball penalty, a drop, a decent shot and he was on in 5 and made a triple bogey 7. If he had just lost the tee ball (and would have without all the extra-ordinary help), a second tee shot could have led to a 5 or 6, but who knew. Sort of funny but it screwed up Neal's rhythm and perhaps caused some of the problems above.