Tears and Cheers

There’s a distinct difference between the reaction of players who have won the Masters Tournament and those who have won golf’s other three major championships.

The summer grind of winning a U.S. Open or PGA Championship on long courses under rugged conditions and in brutal heat often results in looks of relief rather than triumph. It’s not so much a matter of winning those tournaments, but surviving them.

The same can be said for an Open Championship, as the winners battle the combination of equally difficult courses in unpredictable weather conditions that can range from hot and humid to windy, wet and cold. Again, the winner sometimes has the look of a man who has been rescued by a last-second call from the governor.

But the Masters?

Emotions run much stronger when a player has finished 72 holes in April with the low score at the Augusta National Golf Club. The thrill of winning the first major and the most coveted championship in golf pulls deeply from the reservoir of players’ hearts and souls. They’ve won the first big event of the year, therefore sealing a memorable season with seven months left and a legacy that will last beyond their lifetime.

And they also did it on Bobby Jones’s masterpiece and will join Nicklaus, Palmer, Hogan, Nelson, Snead, Woods and Sarazen among the past champions.Recall some of the most legendary finishes and the resulting emotions.  There was the sheer joy that moved Arnold Palmer to throw his visor, Larry Mize to run a victory lap around half the 11th green and Sandy Lyle to dance a little jig.

The stoic, stone-faced Nick Faldo gaped in stunned surprise when his monster putt at No. 11 disappeared into the darkness and the hole in the 1989 Masters during a playoff against Scott Hoch. Faldo’s outstretched arms and amazed look to the heavens exhibited more emotion in one moment than he had shown in some entire tournaments. Seven years later, Faldo’s heartfelt hug and kind words to Greg Norman after the Shark’s Sunday meltdown handed Faldo his third green jacket and created another enduring image.

And yes, tears have flowed in both victory and defeat. Ben Crenshaw’s body shuddered with uncontrollable sobs upon winning the 1995 Masters days after he buried his beloved teacher Harvey Pennick. Len Mattiace bared his soul after losing the 2003 Masters to Mike Weir in a playoff. Jose Maria Olazabal, recalling the kindness of fellow players and his family in seeing him through health issues to win his second Masters in 1999, broke down in the media center with heartfelt tears.

Strong men. Stronger emotions. It is a tournament and course that lays bare their flaws, accentuates their talents and brings almost every human emotion to the surface.The 2010 Masters was no different. With the possible exception of the image of winner Phil Mickelson lacing a 6-iron off pine straw and between two trees to the 13th green on Sunday, no image is as memorable as the single tear that trickled down Mickelson’s left cheek captured on TV when he came out of the scoring area behind the 18th green and found his wife Amy waiting for him.

By then, every golf fan and most casual sports fans knew the story: Amy Mickelson had been battling cancer for 11 months and the Masters was the first tournament to which she was able to accompany her husband. While she was seen at the tournament during the week, she didn’t come out for the final round. She wasn’t quite ready for an 18-hole trek up and down Augusta National’s hilly topography and was content with watching her husband on TV from their rented house.

But when Mickelson’s incredible shot at No. 13 set up an easy birdie that put him in command of the tournament (he would go on to birdie Nos. 15 and 18 to secure his third green jacket with a closing 67 and a 72-hole score of 16-under 272), she decided to go to the course to greet him when he was done.

Mickelson said he was never sure if his wife would be able to make it to the course. He also said it was the only time he was moved to tears after winning a tournament. “I knew she would be watching,” he said later. “I didn’t know if she would be behind No. 18. To walk off the green and share that with her is very emotional for us. I normally don’t shed tears over wins.”

And the emotion showed. Mickelson came out of the scoring trailer and his eyes lit up when he saw Amy. Her diminutive body nearly disappeared as she was enfolded in the gentle hug from her 6-foot-3 husband, and the TV cameras to Mickelson’s left caught the moment when the single tear slid down his face.

To be sure, it wasn’t the only tear, then and after they left the course. But it was one more iconic and emotional moment in Masters history—and a surprise that Mickelson said was the only thing that could have topped an already glorious day. “It was a very special day and a very special week,” he said in the Augusta National media center after the round. “To have Amy and my kids here to share it with, I can’t put into words. It just feels incredible, especially given what we’ve been through in the last year and to be able to share this kind of joy means a lot to us.”

Mickelson’s family ties are well-documented. The world has watched his three children grow up and Amy nearly lose her life in giving birth to the youngest, their only son, Evan, because of complications related to labor. Before her illness, there were few golf wives who walked more holes with their husbands than Amy. Ever-approachable, she charmed fans and media alike. The news that she was stricken with breast cancer in 2009 hit the golf world hard. But no one who knew Amy Mickelson doubted she would one day be back on a golf course with her husband. “I think Amy is going to beat this and she’s going to be an incredible advocate for cancer victims,” said Kristen Mattiace, the wife of Len. “She’s going to turn this around and make it a positive.”

The simple awareness of her condition has helped the Tour raise millions through its charity program, beginning with the Colonial National Invitation, the tournament held after she was diagnosed. The sight of players, caddies, family, volunteers and fans wearing pink that Saturday in May inspired the Mickelson family and showed them how much support they had. As Amy began to respond well to treatment, public support continued to grow. The Mickelsons, already noted for their charitable endeavors, inspired even more donations of items and money to cancer-related charities.

Amy’s initial ordeal took its toll on her husband’s game—not that he was caring a whole lot about birdies and bogeys at the time. Mickelson missed a total of about two months on the Tour in 2009 after winning two early events, but ended on a high note when he won the season-ending Tour Championship.

When Mickelson checked into Augusta National last year, he had yet to win that season. More importantly to him, he had not won a major championship since the 2006 Masters, a total of 14 starts in those events since he had won his first three in a combined nine starts between 2004 and 2006.

But the combination of Amy’s presence—at least when he finished practicing or playing through Saturday’s third round—and his comfort level at Augusta was like a mental balm.
Mickelson began the tournament with a 67, which included an eagle at No. 13, and he was one shot behind surprise leader Fred Couples. A second-round 71 put Mickelson in a tie for third through 36 holes, two shots behind co-leaders Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter.
Mickelson then electrified the patrons on Saturday with an eagle at No. 13 and an eagle-two at No. 14 from the fairway, on his way to a 67 that put him 11-under, one shot behind Westwood.

Westwood didn’t play poorly on the weekend. Indeed, his 5-under in the final two rounds was the best showing by a 36-hole leader or co-leader in decades. But after a pedestrian 1-under 35 on the front, Mickelson seized the tournament and passed Westwood with his back-nine 32, making birdies at Nos. 12, 13, 15 and 18.

Everything seemed aligned for Mickelson’s victory. At Augusta, some things seem preordained. For example, Mickelson tried to hit a cut shot into the eighth green and the ball got away from him and turned into an outright slice. The ball hit a tree and caromed back into the fairway, coming to rest in the fairway 84 yards from the hole. As it turns out, that number is Mickelson’s perfect yardage with a 64-degree wedge. He hit it to within three feet and made his first birdie of the day.

Three holes later, Mickelson hooked his drive at No. 11 into the trees. The ball would have gone even deeper had it not hit a fan and stayed reasonably close to the tree line. Mickelson was able to spot an opening in the trees and knocked the ball onto the green and safely two-putted for par.

Mickelson guessed right on his tee shot at No. 12, resisting the urge to hit a wedge because of the breeze and took something off a 9-iron. The ball ended up near the back of the green and he drained a 20-footer for birdie.The 12th hole was significant for another reason: It was after that birdie that Amy made the decision to start heading for the golf course, changing earlier plans to stay at the house to watch on TV and wait for her husband there. “I didn’t want Phil to worry about me,” she told the media after the tournament. “I just wanted him to focus on golf and not worry if I was sick or not feeling well.”

Amy said the birdie putt on No. 12 started the tears for her. “I started crying on 12,” she said. “That’s when I saw him take control. We were in the car on 14.”

That meant she didn’t see what happened at No. 13. But that’s what highlight shows are for and unless Mickelson conjures up more Masters magic in the future, his second stroke on that hole could end up being his signature shot at Augusta National.

Mickelson’s drive went too far to the right and came to rest on the pine straw, 207 yards from the hole. That put him between a 5-iron and a 6-iron. He selected the 6-iron because Mickelson said shots off pine needles tend to come out “a little slow,” and he wanted to use the club he would have to hit the hardest. The gap in the trees, he said, would have been something with which he had to contend if he had chosen to lay up or go for the green in two shots.

Truth be told, Mickelson had taken more daring chances in the past. He hit a near-miraculous shot in the 2007 Players Championship through a gap in the trees much smaller at the 10th hole of the TPC Sawgrass Players Stadium Course that was such a risk he didn’t even tell caddie Bones McKay that he was about to try it.

For those rushing to judgment about his shot at the 13th hole at Augusta, Mickelson pulled his aw-shucks routine. “[The gap] wasn’t huge,” he said. “It was big enough.”

The ball shot off the pine straw, over Rae’s Creek and nestled softly onto the green, four feet from the hole. Making the putt would have made it an even more memorable shot, but Mickelson admitted to a lapse of concentration and he missed it, settling for birdie. “That’s the one time I kind of slacked off,” he said.

He made up for that miss by making birdies at No. 15 and 18. It was on the latter putt, a 10-footer, that the tears started flowing for McKay. That was unusual because McKay is normally able to rattle off every minute detail of a round for the media. But one of the most outgoing and gregarious caddies on the PGA Tour was unable to speak until long after the round because of his personal feelings for the Mickelsons.

Phil Mickelson didn’t even need to birdie the closing hole, but it rolled in from 10 feet away—the same way he ended his 2004 Masters victory.And a few moments later, he saw Amy. More tears began to flow and another emotional Masters was in the books.