With a bunker hole-out, Phil Mickelson had a 'lot of fun' during first round of 2025 Open
Having missed the cut at all three majors so far this year, the captain of LIV Golf's High Flyers was pleased to have beaten most of the rain that began to fall early in the afternoon and to be in the clubhouse in red figures.
'I really enjoy playing these conditions and playing this tournament. It's just a lot of fun,' he said. 'I really hit a lot of good shots today, and it wasn't too stressful.'
Phil Mickelson has struggled at recent Opens
Mickelson, 55, is the 2013 champion at Muirfield, one of his six majors he's won, tabbed winning the Claret Jug as his greatest accomplishment in his career.
'Because I had to learn a style of golf that I didn't grow up playing,' he explained. 'It's kind of the greatest source of pride for me as a player to overcome those obstacles. Now I've come to really love it, enjoy it, and I seem to play well in some of the adverse conditions too.'
But Mickelson, who nearly won a second Open title in 2016 when he lost a duel with Henrik Stenson, has struggled on this side of the pond in recent years. He's missed the cut in five of the last seven years, and finished T-60th at the 2024 Open Championship.
Bunker shot was a highlight for Mickelson
Mickelson did have one truly highlight-reel moment. At the third hole, his approach caught the greenside bunker and he left his first shot in the bunker. In danger of making a big number, Mickelson proved he still is a magician with a wedge in his hand. On his second attempt, he splashed out and holed the shot for another routine par.
'That was a crazy one. It was really one of maybe two poor shots I hit, I felt. That bunker shot buried in the lip, and then to make it, it was obviously a lot of luck. It was crazy,' he said. 'I was just trying to save bogey, and I got lucky and it went in.'
Mickelson tacked on a birdie at the par-5 seventh and toured the first nine in 34. He made his first bogey of the championship at No. 11 and another at No. 14, but added a birdie at 17 to get in at 1 under. Playing in his 31st Open Championship, Mickelson relied on years of knowledge and avoided pressing when the longer birdie putts weren't dropping.
'I made a lot of short ones and a lot of good up-and-downs and lag putting,' he said. 'You find that going back on past experience, you don't have to press it. You don't have to force it.'
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9 hours ago
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The Scheffler paradox: How sportspeople cope when winning is not enough
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Scheffler did acknowledge he was 'pretty excited to celebrate this one', but the week was a rare insight into the mind of a champion athlete that seemed to contradict so much of what is written and spoken about elite sportspeople; that they 'want it' more than their opponents. That they are selfish. That they never switch off. That winning isn't everything to them; it's the only thing. What, then, can we learn from Scheffler? And how did his comments land with contemporaries in other sports who have also reached the pinnacle? Though the timing of his remarks, just before one of his sport's most prestigious tournaments and in the middle of a career-high purple patch, was rare, Scheffler isn't the only athlete to have found more questions than answers in success. 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For someone so young, I would strongly suspect there's an element of religious observance going on.' Scheffler is, indeed, a devout Christian who, after putting on his first champion's green jacket at The Masters in 2022, told reporters that his identity was 'not a golf score. All I'm trying to do is glorify God, and that's why I'm here.' Performance psychologist Jamil Qureshi says that finding the sweet spot where an athlete's sport doesn't define them – where they can also be a partner, parent, sibling, businessperson or something else entirely – can lead to both happiness and success. 'Happiness is when you lose yourself to something which is bigger than you,' says Qureshi. 'This is why those people whose vocation turns into their vacation, who chase their passion more than their pension, are the ones who are happily successful.' Qureshi draws a distinction between having a purpose and having a goal. 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It sounds clichéd, but it's very true; I found you really do have to find satisfaction and real joy in the everyday journey of getting better. 'The vast majority of athletes who are successful at anything start as young kids, doing it for fun — for some kind of intrinsic motivation. But sometimes the reasons why you do it can get lost along the way.' Brownlee's realisation of his 'why' came one morning in the period after London 2012, when he got up one morning and had no real reason to go to training. Regardless, he went along, got into the pool and started swimming up and down. 'After 20 minutes of swimming as hard as I could for no reason at all, it hit me — 'This is just what I do. It's who I am. I'm not here to train for races or for any particular reason, this is just fundamentally who I am'. Even now, I'm out cycling and running pretty much every day. It's very much part of my DNA.' For Qureshi, 'consistency of mind gives consistency of play', and athletes whose mood does not fluctuate wildly depending on their results may get better ones. Former England cricketer Ian Bell identifies with the sentiment. 'I felt that as a young player, sometimes my mood or how I could act would be determined by my outcome, and that shouldn't really be the case,' he tells The Athletic. 'As you mature and come through things, you realise that, actually, even though in sport we live in an outcome-focused world, as a person and as an athlete you can't live in that.' Advertisement Bell, who played in 118 Test matches between 2004 and 2015, says that as he went through his career, becoming a husband and father, he came to understand the importance of consistent behaviour and understanding that having a good day on the field 'doesn't necessarily mean you're the best guy in the world. It's trying to stay in that level emotional state where you're consistent in how you are with people around you and how you train.' When he heard Scheffler's comments before The Open, Bell says they resonated with the part of him that remembers how quickly life moves on. He looks back on multiple victories — particularly those against Australia, the arch-enemy for an English cricketer — as amazing experiences he would love to re-live but also recalls how 'everyone talks about it for 48 hours, then life carries on. All that work you put in as a young sportsperson to get there and you have this feeling that life will be so different or a certain way, and sometimes it doesn't feel like that.' For Bell, it means Scheffler has the perfect mindset to succeed. 'He wasn't putting any pressure on himself or on an outcome, even though he still got that outcome,' he says. 'It's a nice place to be as an athlete when you're not living or dying on your results and realise there's a bigger picture.' It all seems so contradictory to the rhetoric we often hear about success requiring an 'all-in' attitude. In reality, says Qureshi, 'it's about finding the right state. Some people (in professional golf) perform much better when they have an intensity which goes from Tuesday (when they arrive for a tournament) to Sunday (the final round). Others perform better when they do a small amount on the range, then come back and play with their kids. You find what works for you. 'Intensity really is in the impact moment; when you find yourself in the rough, when you're deciding on your course management, that's when we need to react with intensity, commitment and execution.' Advertisement Glover had success with both approaches during her rowing career. In her twenties, the sport was her everything. Later, after getting married and starting a family, that changed. While she maintained her aggression in her racing and training, she also came to realise 'there are aspects of life which I would drop rowing for in a heartbeat'. She would look at her team-mates, who were largely still in their twenties, and recognise that they felt differently. 'And that was cool, because it had been the same for me,' Glover says. 'Our definition of success will change. It's exciting that you'll find different things in your life that give you a massive sense of satisfaction. It doesn't always have to be finishing first.' Even taking this individual approach into account, Scheffler's closing sentiment in his pre-Open press conference was perhaps the one that raised most eyebrows: 'I love to put in the work. I love getting to practice. I love getting to live out my dreams. But at the end of the day, sometimes I just don't understand the point.' This sentiment is all about perspective, says Qureshi, and recognising that where you are in your life will create a new way of seeing what you do, how you do it and why. And the impact of that is hard to predict. 'If Scheffler is now seeing golf in a different manner to 10 years ago, he might be questioning it in a way that takes him away from performance or towards better performance,' says Qureshi. 'Would you be surprised if, in the next few years, he says, 'I'm giving up the game, I've achieved what I want to'? Or would you be surprised if he goes on and does even more and plays longer because he's found a state of mind and compartmentalised it in regard to the other elements of his life?'. It could be either. For Qureshi, what's most important is to understand that for athletes who do reach the very top of their sport, the outcome is often not the only thing that matters. He was working with another golfer, Paul McGinley, in 2005 when the Irishman was in contention to win the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational tournament in the United States going into its fourth and final day. 'Tiger Woods had barely hit a fairway for three days but ended up winning,' recalls Qureshi. 'In his interview afterwards, you could see that his excitement and exhilaration had come from the manner in which he'd played golf, not necessarily from the outcome. Advertisement 'He was pleased with how he responded and reacted to the mistakes he made. He was robust, resilient, committed. Players at this level get a lot out of understanding how they're playing the game as much as what they're achieving.' Ultimately, Scheffler is showing that there is more than one route to success. And his words have clearly resonated with athletes from a variety of sports. Before Formula One's Belgian Grand Prix last weekend, McLaren driver Lando Norris — a huge golf fan who plays off an eight handicap — said he related to the American's words. But his main takeaway is a pertinent one: 'Just let the person be whatever they want to be. They don't have to live the exact life that you think they should, or say what you think they should. 'He lives very much his own way, and I think it's quite cool to see someone like that achieving what he is. You have to respect that.' Additional reporting: Luke Smith
Washington Post
10 hours ago
- Washington Post
Tom Brady has a lesson on priorities for family-minded Scottie Scheffler
Scottie Scheffler gained plenty of notice this month for the soul-baring comments he delivered shortly before competing in the British Open. The top golfer in the world told reporters that pursuing his profession was 'not a fulfilling life' and that he would quit competitive play if it 'started affecting my home life.' Among those who took an interest in Scheffler's comments was Tom Brady. While the seven-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback could understand Scheffler's apparent lack of personal fulfillment from attaining huge success, Brady wrote in an essay, he took issue with Scheffler's prioritization of family over golf. 'My dedication to the sport,' Brady said Monday in his weekly 199 newsletter, 'the hours of practice, the moments when I was laser focused — those were times when I believe I was doing the best possible thing for my family and my kids, by prioritizing my profession and teaching, by example, what it takes to be really good at your job, what it takes to follow through on commitments, what it takes to be a great teammate; and showing them, also by example, that work is a big part of all of our lives.' Brady, 47, was reacting to remarks Scheffler made at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland. Scheffler would go on to earn his first British Open title, but he was already on a massively successful run, including two Masters green jackets, a third major win at the PGA Championship, an Olympic gold medal, a FedEx Cup conquest and a lengthy grip on the No. 1 ranking. Having indicated in the past, though, that he saw more to life than victory on the links, Scheffler was asked at Royal Portrush about the longest he had 'ever celebrated something.' Scheffler began his expansive response by recalling his dominant win in May at his hometown tournament, the Dallas-area Byron Nelson. 'I literally worked my entire life to become good at golf to have an opportunity to win that tournament,' said the former Texas Longhorn, now 29, who spent his early childhood in New Jersey. 'You win it, you celebrate, get to hug my family, my sister's there — it's such an amazing moment. Then it's like, 'Okay, what are we going to eat for dinner?' Life goes on. 'Is it great to be able to win tournaments and to accomplish the things I have in the game of golf?' Scheffler continued. 'Yeah, it brings tears to my eyes just to think about it … but at the end of the day, it's like, I'm not out here to inspire the next generation of golfers. I'm not out here to inspire someone to be the best player in the world, because what's the point? This is not a fulfilling life.' That part of Scheffler's answer 'resonated' with Brady, the latter wrote Monday, because the ex-quarterback 'had a similar experience around his age.' Brady touched on a 2005 interview he gave to '60 Minutes' in which, having won three Super Bowls by age 27, he wondered aloud, 'There's got to be more than this. … What else is there for me?' To that point, Brady had yet to have his first child. Scheffler's comments, on the other hand, could have been informed by welcoming a son last year with his wife, Meredith. Brady wrote that the golfer's remarks reflected 'a young athlete trying to make sense of success without the benefit of the perspective that comes with years of experience.' Now, with three children and myriad accomplishments in the football and business worlds, Brady felt ready to impart the principal lesson of his experience. 'We all have different parts of our lives. You can think of them like a pyramid,' Brady wrote. 'At the top is yourself, and your physical, mental, and emotional health. Then there's the relationship with your significant other or partner. Then you have your children, then your work, then your extended family, your friends, your hobbies, and finally your greater community.' Scheffler's comments in Northern Ireland suggested that he might not be putting himself, let alone his golfing exploits, at the top of his priorities. 'Every day when I wake up early to go put in the work, my wife thanks me for going out and working so hard,' he said. 'When I get home, I try and thank her every day for taking care of our son. That's why I talk about family being my priority, because it really is. I'm blessed to be able to come out here and play golf, but if my golf ever started affecting my home life or it ever affected the relationship I have with my wife or my son, that's going to be the last day that I play out here for a living. … 'This is not the be all, end all. This is not the most important thing in my life,' Scheffler added. 'That's why I wrestle with, 'Why is this so important to me?' Because I'd much rather be a great father than I would be a great golfer.' Brady wrote, 'And my question is: why are those mutually exclusive? Sure, they're different blocks on the pyramid, but they're part of the same pyramid. They're connected! 'For instance,' Brady continued, 'I think part of being a great father is being a great example of doing what it takes to take care of your family. I chose to do it by playing football.' Brady's 13-year marriage to Gisele Bündchen ended in a 2022 divorce. At times, she declared a strong preference that he retire from football for the sake of his physical well-being. Brady took Scheffler's comments as an opportunity to remind his readership that 'your children are watching everything,' including how hard parents work to perfect their respective crafts. 'They see what you do in every aspect of your life and how you do it. Reading bedtime stories and helping them with homework are not the only ways to be a great parent,' Brady wrote. 'And neither is winning Super Bowls or MVPs. Being a great football player didn't make me a great dad, but how I became a great player certainly had an impact — from showing up day in and day out, to doing whatever it took to get better, be successful, be a role model, and to provide.'
