"I would say 18 is the worst on tour, except it's not the worst on this golf course, 12 is..."

This is fun on so many levels.

First you have Phil Mickelson, who bypassed this week's mandatory players meeting in which the commissioner pleaded for no controversial comments from players, choosing to criticize a tour venue's design rather strongly.

Second, the course in question was modified by Tom Fazio's designer at the time, Beau Welling, now Tiger Woods' in-house designer.

And third, the course desperately wants to host a major and this probably isn't going to help.

Steve Elling reports:

"For as beautifully designed as this golf course is from tee to green, the greens are some of the worst designed greens that we have on tour, and 18 is one of them," he said of the final green. "I would say 18 is the worst on tour, except it's not the worst on this golf course, 12 is, and we have some ridiculous putts here that you just can't keep on."

And as Elling suggests, Mickelson made sure to make his point by risking a penalty on 18:

Theatrically, Mickelson tried to make his point clear on the 18th green when he hit his approach shot over the flagstick and had a sloping, 60-footer for birdie that he could not get anywhere near the flag. At least. not without using a pitching wedge and hitting the flagstick with the lob shot.

He ordered caddie Jim Mackay to leave the flagstick in the hole as he putted away from the hole. It was shocking to see, to be sure, and nobody could recall ever witnessing it before in a tour event. If he'd made the putt, which he insisted was an impossibility, he would have been assessed a two-shot penalty.