Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Lefty treats ‘em right

Phil Mickelson began the homestretch of his career year Thursday afternoon with what looked like a stroll over a familiar golf course with three longtime pals.

After Mickelson sank a birdie putt on a par 3 of the group's back nine at Bear's Best, he immediately helped Sam Azzarelli read his own challenging putt for birdie. Azzarelli drained it.

A few holes earlier, after everyone had teed off, Mickelson and Mike Ferry walked side-by-side up the fairway.

" ... yeah, we drove up last night, me and my wife," Mickelson said.

"Kids?" Ferry said.

"Three," Mickelson said.

A few holes later, Jim Snook looked cock-eyed at a second shot that rested just off the fringe of a green and very close to what appeared to be a sprinkler hole.

"Phil, any chance I can get a ruling to move that (ball)?" Snook said with some hesitation.

"No," Mickelson said quickly. "It has to impede your stance or swing."

"I was kind of looking for a 'yes,' " Snook said.

"Anywhere but the U.S.," Mickelson said.

Mickelson had first met all three only hours earlier.

Unfortunately for the amateur trio that had the good fortune to get picked to play with Mickelson on the first day of the Michelin Championship at Las Vegas, the round had to end.

Azzarelli, an 82-year-old retiree from Kankakee, Ill., whose family sold its construction company three years ago, nearly came to tears in the Bear's Best pro shop after the round.

"What a super guy," Azzarelli said of Mickelson. "He treats you like you're somebody. If you asked him anything, Oh god, he'd come in and talk to you, tell you how great you are. But he wouldn't bother you if you didn't ask.

"If you asked his help, boy, he'd come over. When I saw the pairings, I got shook up. What a draw."

Snook, 50, runs an excavation company in Wichita, Kan., and he had a similar reaction when he discovered Wednesday who he'd be playing with Thursday.

"I was as happy as a hog in a fresh pile of poop," Snook said.

For $10,000, amateurs receive a practice round and three days of golf in a foursome with a professional. Each carries Thursday's net team score over to today and Saturday, so Azzarelli, Ferry and Snook begin today's round with 10-under 62s.

That, they all learned at dusk Thursday, placed them in the middle of the amateur pack.

Mickelson ended the first day of the Michelin with a four-under 68, four shots behind seven pros knotted atop the leader board.

After playing with Mickelson, however, Azzarelli, Ferry and Snook each said they had already felt like the big winners, regardless of what happens the rest of the tournament.

"I have five great kids and he has three, and we talked about kids a lot," said Ferry, a 59-year-old resident of Palm Desert, Calif., who runs a real estate-selling business and shared many Thursday fairway walks with Mickelson.

"We also talked about all of the great golf courses we've been able to play. He couldn't have made it any more fun for me, so this was perfect."

Which is an impressive statement from someone who estimates that he has played rounds with about 100 pros, including Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods.

"I said this earlier, that Phil is probably one of the most enjoyable pros to be with," Ferry said. "Nothing against the rest of them, but he just makes it fun."

Mickelson, 34, is third on the PGA's career money list at $29.4 million, and the $5.7 million he's made in 2004 trails only Vijay Singh, who has blistered the field this season. In April, at the Masters in Augusta, Ga., Mickelson won his first major championship in his 43rd attempt as a professional.

He used a pair of professional-amateur events in his first three tournaments of 2004 as a springboard to the season, so far, of his life.

At the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in late January, Mickelson shot 30-under over five rounds to get to a playoff, where his birdie beat Skip Kendall on the first hole for the $810,000 winner's check.

Two weeks later, at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Mickelson took third, good for $360,000, with a 12-under 276.

"I've played in the AT&T and Bob Hope, and I've never had any problems ... the amateurs have been great," Mickelson said. "Most every (amateur) I've ever played with have been great partners. They know etiquette. They always pick up if they can't better par, so it goes by very quickly.

"My partners today played some pretty good golf. Sam had a 'net' hole in one, Mike had a couple of birdies on his own ball and so did Jim, so it was a fun day."

After Snook had torched a drive, he picked up a beer he had set on the ground, walked beside a fan and asked, "Havin' fun?" He, and two fellow amateurs, had plenty of that with Mickelson on Thursday.

Walking up the final fairway of the day, Snook spoke with more fans.

"I was just shooting the bull with them, and they said Mickelson had already talked more to us from the last green than another one of the pros had said to his group the whole day," Snook said. "You get a good guy like that, it just makes you more proud to be involved in something like this."

archive