Mack Brown on His Friendship, and Trip to Mexico, With Phil Mickelson

Coach, golfer both agreed to go to Mexico when they won "big one"

When Phil Mickelson and Mack Brown teamed up in the pro-am prior to the Byron Nelson Championship in 2003, they had something in common.

Mickelson was the best golfer never to have won a major, and Brown, then at Texas, was the best coach never to have won a national title.

Over the 18 holes they played together, the pair made a deal. When they each got the respective monkeys on their backs, they would celebrate with a trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

“He and I do have history over our story about Augusta,” Brown said. “If he wins the Masters and we win the national title, we go to Cabo. It’s a fun time for me to watch him play.”

Mickelson did his part the following year, winning the 2004 Masters.

“It seems like yesterday,” Brown said. “I call it the six-inch vertical jump that he took on (hole) 18, when he made the putt to win. He did call me right after he got through with all the media and signing for fans and signing his card, and he said, ‘Okay, I’ve done my part of the deal. Now you’ve got to go win the national championship for us to get to Cabo.”

Two years later, Brown held up his end of the deal as Texas beat USC in the Rose Bowl to clinch the title.

“He was at the national championship game,” Brown said. “After we won, he did come into the dressing room and said, ‘We’ve got a problem.’ I said, ‘What’s our problem?’ He said, ‘We’ve got a lot more than 25 friends that want to go to Cabo now.’ Because when we first started, both of us were struggling and he said, ‘We’ll take our 25 best friends to Cabo.’”

Three months after Brown’s win with Texas, Mickelson won the Masters again, and two weeks after that the pair headed off to Mexico.

“I love Phil Mickelson,” Brown said. “He’s a dear friend. I’ve had a lot of joy in my life with him and wish him luck I told him, ‘Time for the old guys to step up.’”