Phil Mickelson, A Winner in Golf and in Life

Here's a wonderful article about the truly great golfers -- and great men of character -- like Palmer, Nicklaus, and Player. I've always said that while people respect Tiger Woods, they have never loved him the way everyone loved Arnold Palmer. And now, the very decent Phil Mickelson has won the Masters, and he deserved to win, and we revere him, too. He won't get the media attention that Tiger always gets, but he has earned our admiration for so many reasons over the years.

(I've always relied on the UK papers for golf news on Tiger Woods, as they report on things our media doesn't. They were talking about his cursing, poor sportsmanship, and selfishness even before the bimbo eruptions took place. This Scotsman columnist echoes my sentiments when he writes, "But there is something not quite right about the idea of him pulling on the green jacket as though nothing had happened. As though the double life that deceived us all – and earned him millions of dollars into the bargain – was just another misfortune that he has somehow found the wherewithal to recover from. If chairman Billy Payne's statement on Wednesday is any indication, Augusta National aren't too excited by the prospect either. This is not an injury he is returning from. It wasn't a car crash in which he tried, like Hogan, to protect his wife. It was one in which it became clear that he had betrayed her, and the children for whom he was supposed to be a role model. While plenty of his peers are guilty of the same marital infidelities, his crime was to trade on the deception. He was a fraud who took golf for a ride. Please, let's not be sorry for him.") Exactly right.