Backlash Against Phil Gains Momentum
In case you might have missed it last week, Phil Mickelson was allowed to play in last week’s PGA tournament, while missing the pro-am, and the backlash against the PGA blue-suits for allowing this is gaining momentum. It’s a PGA rule that if a player misses the pro-am on Wednesday, he is automatically disqualified for the remainder of the tournament. This is a good rule because amateurs (or their companies) pay big money to participate in the pro-ams and these outings grease the financial wheels of the PGA tour.
Rod Pampling has already spoke against the PGA tour and now Shaun Micheel has come forward with his feelings about the incident. Here’s what happened: Mickelson was supposed to leave Little Rock, Arkansas on Tuesday evening for Dallas, but the weather kept his private jet on the ground for “hours”, so he decided to just stay the night in Little Rock and leave on Wednesday. Obviously, if the airport was closed because of bad weather than there’ s not much he can do about it. However, he could have left at zero-dark-hundred on Wednesday morning and would have made the pro-am in time (Dallas is an hour away from Little Rock by private jet).
However, what’s raising the hackles of many players is the perceived double-standard being applied here. In 2006, Shaun Micheel was literally vomiting in the locker room before the pro-am because of sickness and eventually missed the pro-am that day. To Micheeel’s surprise, the PGA actually let him play in the tournament because of extenuating circumstances. Wow. What good guys they are! But wait, the story doesn’t end there. Sometime later, the “good guys” at the PGA tour docked his retirement fund $7600 for missing the pro-am anyway. Micheel, obviously was hot over this matter, and he should have been. Had he only played one hole in the pro-am, he would have met the minimum requirements to play in the tournament and he wouldn’t have had his retirement fund docked.
I don’t know what answer is because tournaments like the Byron Nelson need marquee players liked Mickelson and Woods and I doubt that Woods or Els would have bee disqualified either.