Brandel: Arnold Would Never Have Done What Phil Did
/Brandel Chamblee's year in review focuses on the turmoil in 2014 golf and he feels the R&A's vote to finally take women to the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews will be the story history looks back on as the defining one for 2014.
I'd suggest history will mock that it took so long even in the face of obvious candidates, and even more obvious hypocrisy of operating as a governing body while blatantly discriminating. Oh, and jacking around with the Old Course too.
Anyway, Chamblee is still upset with Phil Mickelson's Ryder Cup press conference performance, which, like it or not, produced results in the form of coming reforms. And I'm not sure this is the barometer we want for all golfers to live their lives by...
First, let me say that I have lost track of the number of times I have said Phil Mickelson is a gift to golf - he is. He wins often and plays with a recklessness that is a throwback to Arnold Palmer, and in dealing with crowds and the media he once again gets compared with the King. But what he did in the media center on Sunday night of the Ryder Cup, implying it was Tom Watson’s fault the U.S. lost, was something Arnold Palmer never would've done. It made the American side look even worse, which I didn’t think was possible.
Maybe temporarily but in hindsight, it had to be done and Mickelson gets points for taking out the trash.
Chamblee goes on to make one more case for Larry Nelson and suggests that the USA struggles may be tied to karma, a theory I wholeheartedly endorse.
The last thing I am going to say about the Ryder Cup is this: Larry Nelson was promised the captaincy in 1995, didn’t get it and then got stepped over by lesser major winners. What does one typically need to be a Ryder Cup captain? To have won the PGA Championship? Check. He won that twice. How about the national open? Check. How about success in the Ryder Cup? In his first nine matches in the Ryder Cup, he was 9-0. Check. Respect of your peers? Check. For added measure, he served his country on the front lines of battle, willing to put his life on the line for the freedoms we all enjoy. Find those credentials in a player today; go ahead and look. Good luck. Larry Nelson has them all and to those of you who say he's out of touch with today’s players, well, I say to you: How have all those captains who are in touch with today’s players been doing? If there is such a thing as karma for not fulfilling a promise, the PGA of America and U.S. Ryder Cup team are feeling it.