One For the Ages

 This was a prime weekend for the sports watching fans in the Heinisch family.  There were NBA play-in  games Friday night and play off games Saturday and Sunday.  Albert Pujols had hit his first home run after being picked up by the Dodgers and the PGA golf tournament was on the air.   At any given time there was a sporting event on our television to enjoy.  With so much to watch, it was difficult sometimes deciding which game or tournament to follow.  By Sunday afternoon, however, it became clear that the PGA Championship was going to dominate our television.  

Cal had texted us on Friday morning to let us know that Phil Mickelson was leading the second Major golf tournament of the year.  My immediate response was "I'm not getting sucked in."  I had spent too many golf tournaments watching the "feel good story leader" blow it on Sunday.  There was no way that I was going to let that happen this time.  Phil was fifty years old and hadn't won a major championship in eight years.  None of thought that he really had any chance of winning, no matter how big of a lead he had going into the last day.  

Phil continued to play well on Friday and Saturday and sure enough had a one stroke lead to start the final round.  He was playing with Brooks Koepka and Doug had said all along that he thought that Koepka would win.  After the first hole on Sunday, we assumed that Doug was correct.  Phil bogeyed it while Brooks birdied the par four.  I texted Cal right away to let him know that I was glad that Mickelson was putting us out of our misery early in the day.  

After Phil's rough start, Doug and I decided to take a walk.  It was a hot afternoon, so we were thankful for the breeze and shade.  Neither of us thought that it would be much of a match when we got back and therefore were pleasantly surprised to see that Phil had actually made a rally and was back in the lead.  After eleven holes it looked as though he would actually run away with it.  With Phil's history of blowing leads, we knew that it wouldn't be quite that easy.  He bogeyed two holes in a hole and Koepka and Louis Oosthuizen both made a run at the leader pulling within two.  The last hole was nerve wracking especially once the spectators surrounded the final pairing.  For awhile I wasn't sure if Koepka or Mickelson would made it through the mob scene around the 18th green.  They did, however, and in the end both two putted giving Phil the championship as the oldest player to ever win a Major.  There wasn't a dry eye in the house.