Who has more baggage: Phil Mickelson or Alex Miceli?
After Phil Mickelson's second round at the PGA Championship, he did a quick live interview with the electronic media. And apparently having been bushwhacked by the folks in the press tent for years, he limited the sarcastic press-tent bums, including the giant ego of Morning Read’s Alex Miceli (“Phil Mickelson emerges as story of week, but too bad he doesn’t want to talk about it,” May 22).
Miceli has been on a rant for the past year. First, it was his daughter’s friends and him dishing on the president’s office, because they were not in the liberal mindset as required by the left-wing politics of the D.C. area. Miceli interjected hatred for President Donald Trump in many of his musings.
Let's be honest: Miceli has made his living off of others’ successes. If they were not very successful, then he would not have a living. I just hate folks who count other people's money. Mickelson has won the second-most prize money in PGA Tour history, behind only Tiger Woods. And the key to that statement is prize money. Unlike some other golf tours, there is no guaranteed money in the U.S. Everyone on the PGA Tour starts out the same on Thursday. Only about 50 percent of the players collect a check; the rest work for free.
Part of Miceli’s thesis is telling us about Mickelson's prize money and sponsor dollars that seems in Miceli's mind to entitle full access to that individual's time. If a golfer wants to limit his exposure time to the press-tent hawks, so be it. Three questions or 15 minutes of stupid repeated remarks with the stupid follow-up lines by people who really don't know how to conduct a good Q&A, often making a statement such as, “Can you speak to that?” Dumb and dumber press people.
I write this before the Saturday round, the story is just half way to a conclusion, there are many good players in the hunt, why not do some good press work and ferret through the contenders and find a good story instead of having the story come from the "tent" press. What more could Mickelson provide about his round after the hundreds of rounds he's played in majors and regular PGA Tour events? Maybe he does not want to be distracted by the wacko golf media and concentrate on golf and his family.
Just what great news questions did Alex Miceli have prepped that did not get answered? Mickelson said he putted poorly on the front side, got his stroke in check on the back side and that his brother/caddie Tim helped him think through the changing wind conditions and was a tremendous aid. That sounds like it sums up a very good day on the course. And the dozens of very good players who did not make the cut did not figure out the wind nor roll the rock well. End of press-tent interviews. If Mickelson wins on Sunday, maybe he'll show up ala Tony Lema, bearing champagne for the folks in the tent.
Patrick Scott
Lakewood Ranch, Fla.
Toss those green-reading books
An easy way to speed up play and add more skill on the PGA Tour would be to get rid of those green-reading books that the players are allowed to use (“PGA misses mark with its pace-of-play move,” May 19).
It just seems to me that some of the skill required to read greens is missing.
When Tiger Woods was winning everything during his long run, I don't recall him having to use one of those books, and he was clearly the best putter on the PGA Tour. It can be done without them and would speed up play.
Bob Anderson
Ottawa
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