For years Phil Mickelson has been known as a regular guy and a great family man — aside from being one of the world’s best professional golfers.
Now, he is likely giving up a chance to make his mark at the 2017 U.S. Open — a tournament he’s wanted “to win the most” — in favor of attending the high school graduation of his daughter, Amanda.
His daughter is about to turn 18, and the ceremony is in California. The U.S. Open this year is at Erin Hills, Wisconsin. His daughter also happens to be the valedictorian of her class and will be delivering a commencement speech. Mickelson and his wife, Amy, have three children.
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“This is one of those moments where you look back on life, and you just don’t want to miss it,” Mickelson said Saturday after playing his third round at the Memorial Tournament, according to ESPN. “I’ll be really glad that I was there and present.”
Mickelson gave the United States Golf Association a heads-up about his intentions — he hasn’t yet officially withdrawn, in the hope that somehow the weather might change some things. But Mickelson told the organization in advance so that perhaps it can give another golfer “some extra preparation time.”
“It doesn’t look good for me playing,” Mickelson also said. “But I’m really excited about this moment in our family’s life.”
This is the same father who, back in 2013, made sure he attended his daughter’s eighth-grade graduation ceremony.
It’s the same dad who, when his daughter, Amanda, was about to be born, had a beeper inserted into his caddie’s pocket on the golf course to potentially alert him to the impending arrival. He famously flew home in time to witness his little girl’s birth.
Here is how Mickelson also explained his decision: “The only way to win [the Open] is if you play and have a chance. But I’ll be able to play the next two years solidly before Sofia [his other daughter] gets to graduate. Hopefully that won’t conflict.”
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Mickelson has played in 26 U.S. Opens. He missed the cut just three times and told ESPN that he “often thinks back to that 1999 tournament at Pinehurst, the close call on the course and then the exhilarating flight back across the country” — so that he could be there with his wife when his daughter was born.
“I’m really excited about this moment in our family’s life.”
“I think about Payne Stewart [who died in a plane crash], and I can’t believe how quickly time has gone by,” Mickelson said. “Here she is turning 18 and moving off to college and I’m so proud of her. And she’s a special person. I’m excited to see what she has to say at her commencement.”
His daughter arrived just one day after Mickelson played a compelling final-round duel with Stewart, who “celebrated his win by holding Mickelson’s face and saying, ‘Good luck with the baby. There’s nothing greater than being a father,'” as The New York Times recounted in a Saturday piece.
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As the golf world knows too well, Stewart died in an airplane accident just four months after that — “and his words have lived on in Mickelson’s mind as he and Amy raised their three children,” The Times noted.
Mickelson’s daughter was captain of her tennis, basketball and lacrosse teams and was her class’s student-body president. “She’ll be the one speaking about all the kids in her class, many of whom we’ve known since preschool,” Amy Mickelson told The Times. “We’re very close to a lot of the families, so it’s going to be really special.”
Amanda Mickelson will be attending Brown University in the fall. Said her proud dad, “It feels like time’s gone by so fast.”
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