Stick around long enough and you will hear me, as some point, blast Phil Mickelson. Why? I have never met him. I have never even met anyone who has met him. Why my distaste for a man I don’t even know? Why would I choose to dislike any player I watch on TV?

I can only say that I get a strong sense that his demeanor is all for show. I liken him to the character David Simms in “Tin Cup.” Smiles for the camera but once the cameras power down he “hates old people, children, and dogs.” I just get the sense that Phil is a showman.

In this day and age, I guess, you have to be, to an extent, a performer. If every celebrity or athlete were “themselves” then we would end up with a bunch of young starlets drunk in public or a bunch of professional athletes taking performance enhancing substances to find an edge.

Phil is not filmed intoxicated in public and I would guess that NOBODY would accuse him of using steroids or anything of that nature. Why do I feel this way? I have no real response for why, it is just a feeling I get in my guts that he is not as nice off camera as he is on it. No disrespect to him, as I am sure that there are MANY who are of that ilk, but he rubs me the wrong way more so than others.

The other thing that gets me with him is the manner in which he loses big golf tournaments. I will only pick on one, probably his most famous collapse, the US Open in 2006 at Winged Foot. I will spare you the gory details as they have been poured over more times than anyone cares to see.

I am the first to feel bad for a player succumbing to the pressure of a golf tournament, let alone a major. But Phil is a different story for me. He was not in the sunset of his career like Monty, he was not an up and comer like Ogilvy, this was Phil Mickelson, still in the prime of his career, and a top 5 player in the world. He had been here before and the results were somewhat similar.

He plays tournaments like no other man in the world. When a lay up par is sufficient, he blasts driver off the deck to see if he can get home. When a bogey can take him to a playoff, he will try to make birdie at the risk of double and a second place. The mentality he has seems to be that of a guy who is playing a “career tournament” where every stroke over his life is counted at the end for some kind of lifelong trophy.

Maybe the “Tin Cup” reference is not that far off…maybe he is both David Simms and Roy “Tin Cup” MacAvoy all in one. A guy that has to “go for it” every shot and a guy that seems to be something he is not depending on the situation.

Either way, I respect his game immensely, but I am not a fan. I am trying to like him, but I have a tough time cheering for him over some of my other favorites. His win this last week at Riveria was a step in the right direction. I like the tenacity that he showed. Perhaps that was a look into things to come from an obviously fantastic player.

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