Phil Mickelson is walking down this chute, lined with well marinated Australian fans clamouring on LIV Adelaide’s party hole, and Eminem’s Lose Yourself is blaring out of the speakers.
He chose it himself, irony in itself given most of the golfing world doesn’t really understand where he’s been for the past 12 months.
“I’ve liked his stuff for a long time, and it just was fitting,” Mickelson says of Eminem. “There were some lines in there that just worked well.”
We’ll take a guess.
Look
If you had one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted
One moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?
Fans cheer on LIV Golf’s party hole at Adelaide.Credit: Getty
Sounds about right.
He’s so mad, but he won’t give up that easy, no
He won’t have it, he knows his whole back’s to these ropes
Now, we get his drift.
It don’t matter, he’s dope
He knows that but he’s broke
C’mon, Phil. You had us all believing. Broke? They couldn’t have taken that line out?
Say we just put that aside for a moment, everything Mickelson has been saying about Greg Norman’s new concept might finally be materialising half-a-world away from Mickelson’s home. And there was Eminem to remind us what ‘Lefty’ has put himself through.
The party hole won’t be for everyone. Big screens have decibel meters begging the crowds to get louder, and a dozen cleaners intermittently scurry across the ground when fans launch beer cans – most empty, some not – onto the tee box just so the next group can play.
But it’s got people in Australia going to the golf, and is that a bad thing?
“We want golf, but louder,” says Mickelson (-9), who shot a seven-under 65 on Saturday to move into a tie for eighth heading into the final round on Sunday.
Phil Mickelson tees off on the party hole.Credit: Getty
“We want a different environment. We want a not-stuffy environment, and that’s what we’re trying to create, and that’s what people here in Australia have kind of embraced.”
Nothing Mickelson does is ever without meaning, and for almost 10 minutes after each round he sits by himself in the scoring hut going over a laptop. On Saturday, he also made a phone call. He says he’s just composing himself, so “he doesn’t say anything stupid” among other things.
In the chaos of LIV’s shotgun starts and finishes when 48 golfers converge on a small, central area to file their scores almost at once, Mickelson might finally be turning a few people on the merit of the league, notwithstanding the contentious backing of Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund.
Destiny’s Child also got a run, too, on the party hole. Talor Gooch walked out to Say My Name, which was kind of fitting too because few in Australia really knew who he was before this week, despite climbing to as high as 31st in the world rankings before joining LIV.
Cameron Smith tees off in front of a raucous crowd on the party hole on Saturday.Credit: Getty
“You don’t want to look like an idiot in front of a bunch of people, plain and simple,” he says.
After his second consecutive 10-under 62, Gooch is looking anything but an idiot at Grange Golf Club. His caddie, Mal Baker, is an Australian and has been talking to Gooch about coming to Adelaide for months. Shortly after winning his first PGA Tour event in late 2021, he jumped with Mickelson et al to LIV.
“I’m sure anyone in his place, it would have weighed heavily on them,” Baker says. “But he’s a really smart young man in charge of his career and his business. He would have taken in all the information and made the choice that was best for him and his family.”
By the end of the weekend he’ll be at least $6 million richer as winner of the individual standings, and now tasked with leading the Range Goats home in the team division. He has a 10-shot lead from six chasers, including Masters runner-up Brooks Koepka.
Harold Varner III dances on the party hole.Credit: Getty
“You just play good and see what happens, but I don’t think anyone is catching him,” Koepka says.
And neither will anyone catch a crazier Australian golf experience than the par-three 12th, which roared for Cameron Smith (-9), as he flew the Australian flag as his team, Ripper GC, floundered in last spot. Harold Varner teed off and then danced for a few seconds.
Paul Casey walked out to the backing of Blur’s Song 2 on the party hole. He wanted to wind the crowd up towards a climax. The song is the one which ends with the big, “Woo-hoo”. On Saturday, his ball lipped out for a hole-in-one.
“I found myself [on Friday and Saturday] hitting on one of the ‘Woo-hoos’,” Casey says. “The crowd goes bananas. It’s a tricky one to be totally dialled in, I’ll be honest. But I wouldn’t change it any other way.”
Neither would Phil, who might have just found himself again.
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