Tiger Woods – Memphis Flyer

With Tiger Woods now battling midlife demons, no player on the PGA Tour fills a gallery like Phil Mickelson. And the biggest galleries Mickelson sees this month, it turns out, will be right here in Memphis at the FedEx St. Jude Classic. The 46-year-old Hall of Famer will skip next week’s U.S. Open so he can attend his daughter Amanda’s high school graduation. (As class president, Amanda will speak at the ceremony.) With the Open concluding on Father’s Day, as it does every year, Mickelson is sharing some perspective on family and career that goes well beyond fairway-splitting drives or a smooth putting stroke.

Don’t forget, the U.S. Open is Mickelson’s white whale. He’s won each of golf’s other three majors, but has never been crowned this country’s national champion. He’s come tantalizingly close, finishing second on Father’s Day six times (first in 1999, most recently in 2013).

And Mickelson is 46. The oldest man to win the U.S. Open? Hale Irwin, who did so at age 45 in 1990.

All this is to say: relish Phil Mickelson’s visit to the TPC Southwind course this week. This winner of five majors has become a regular in recent years at the FESJC, and is an eye-popping example of how superstars sell tickets. I’ve walked the Southwind course with groups ahead of Mickelson’s in which you can listen to the conversation between a player and his caddie. I’ve stopped to wait for Mickelson to arrive and it’s like an organized march ensues, younger fans sprinting ahead for a prime viewpoint along the rope or near the next green. Mickelson is a one-man brand in a sport lacking the built-in marketing tool that is a team nickname. He earns every dime he’s paid by sponsors, every check he cashes at the end of a tournament.

Mickelson tied for second at last year’s FESJC, three strokes behind first-time winner Daniel Berger. Here’s hoping he takes the winner’s check home this Sunday. It would be a nice graduation gift for Amanda.

• This week’s tournament marks the 60th consecutive year the PGA has called Memphis home for a week. Among the FESJC’s 10-year anniversaries, which tournament is most memorable? Curtis Strange won the 30th event (then the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic) in 1987. Ten years later, the Shark himself, Greg Norman, took the winner’s check. But I’d have to go with the 1977 event, in which Al Geiberger won by virtue of the first 59 in PGA Tour history. Geiberger didn’t break 70 in any of his other three rounds, but that epic Friday at Colonial Country Club made him a Memphis sports deity.

• This will be the first FESJC since longtime tournament director Phil Cannon died last October. If you’re among the thousands who enjoy the comforts of TPC Southwind this week, remember Phil and the impact he made over his four decades of involvement with the event. A convenient concession stand on the back nine? That’s Phil. A volunteer handing out free lip balm as the mercury rises? That’s Phil. Proximity to the best golfers in the world while feeling right at home? That’s Phil Cannon.

Eldrick Woods (you know him better as “Tiger”) will not be playing in this year’s Stanford St. Jude Classic. For the 11th consecutive year since he turned pro, the greatest golfer of this generation has, in golf terms, given the shaft to Memphis.

Tournament director Phil Cannon takes a dignified stance each year — no surprise there — when asked about the absence of Woods. He tells anyone within earshot that the greatest golfers in the world “playing golf” this weekend will, indeed, be playing in Memphis. And he’s spot on. But Cannon, his professional colleagues, and the legion of volunteers who make the tournament hum deserve better from the preeminent personality in their sport.

As a journalist, I find myself objectively rationalizing Eldrick’s continued absence. He has more money than anyone outside of Bill Gates’ accountant could manage. He’s all about winning majors, having won 12 before his 32nd birthday and chasing Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 like Ahab did that pale whale. Eldrick’s handlers would tell you their moneymaker is “resting up” for the U.S. Open (to be played next week in Oakmont, Pennsylvania), which is like the Cleveland Cavaliers coming to town and LeBron James staying home to “rest up” for the Cavs’ next game in Detroit. When the spotlight is brightest, says Eldrick Woods, I’ll show up. And when convenient.

What Woods is forsaking in his continued dismissal of our local tournament is the very heritage — golf’s heritage, mind you — that makes him so famous and wealthy today. There would be no “major” PGA event were it not for the weekly tournaments that gave the tour weight in the middle of the last century.

The rise of Arnold Palmer’s “army” made golf a sport that could be embraced (and played!) by hoi polloi. As public courses sprouted across the country, no longer was a country club membership a prerequisite to swinging a two-iron with all your unrefined might. (Palmer, by the way, played in Memphis five times between 1958 and 1972.)

Growth in popularity, Woods well knows, means growth in sponsorships, television coverage, and yes, money. When the Memphis Open was first played in 1958, the total purse was $20,000. This week, the field at Southwind will split a cool $6 million. Find me another enterprise that — even allowing for inflation — grows 300-fold in a half-century. Tiger is cashing the check that tournaments like ours in Memphis have made possible. And he can’t make one appearance per decade to say thanks?

In a city with as large an African-American presence as Memphis, you think Woods spending a weekend here wouldn’t have some impact? When Venus Williams came to town last February and stormed to victory in the Cellular South Cup, she had the entire city wrapped around her media-friendly finger. It was an exchange of affection that will last years, whether or not Williams returns to the Racquet Club on an annual basis.

Woods, alas, is too culturally blind to see the impact — off the golf course — he might have in the Mid-South. If it’s not mere blindness, I’d argue, the annual snub is that much more damning.

Nicklaus won two majors the first year he played in Memphis (1963). He won his second Masters the same year he won the Memphis Invitational Open (1965). He won two more majors in 1966 and picked up $4,650 for finishing 4th in Memphis. However many majors Woods eventually accumulates, for Memphis fans he’ll never be able to match the Golden Bear. Matter of fact, he’s not even on the same course.

As Cannon would remind us, there will be some great golf played in Memphis this week by the likes of Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen, Sergio Garcia, David Toms, Justin Leonard, and defending champ Jeff Maggert. Whether following them on the course or watching on TV in your living room, find one — or many — of these players to cheer.

Just remember, Memphis golf fans, to cheer them the following week, too. And the week after that. Until Woods pays Memphis a visit, I’ll be cheering his competition along. And the only Tigers I’ll be backing are those wearing blue and gray.

Go to MemphisFlyer.com for Frank Murtaugh’s weekly sports column,”From My Seat.”