Phil and Tiger could have been Arnold and Jack. They chose different paths

When Johnny Miller started winning as a young champion in the early 1970s and saw Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus around him, he discovered something interesting about their lives: The King and Big Jack both had big ambitions. Their cravings are real, for super-sized steaks and ice cream bowls and more. But Miller could see their hungry nature in other ways, too — in their willingness to fly anywhere in pursuit of golf or trade or both. No one knew that Arnold Palmer confused him with Mr. Rogers, another son of Latrobe. Arnold loved the ladies and the ladies loved him. Nevertheless, he went to his maker as the most famous and kind American golfer. As for Nicklaus, well into his 80s, he remains golf's most beloved figure, leading an exemplary life of doing the right thing, in all its seasons.

In recent years, and in this new and connected century, the closest thing golf has had to Arnold and Jack has been Phil and Tiger, or Tiger and Phil. In fact, however, in the name of succession, they have shown that they are not close at all. After Woods won the 2019 Masters, I wrote a book called “The Second Life of Tiger Woods.” What do we do now, his third life? For the fourth time?

Tiger was back in the public eye late last month, fresh from rehab after another fortunately fatal roadside accident. This was at the PGA Tour show-me-the-future press conference near Hartford, Conn. Woods wore a dark suit and tie and looked dapper as he introduced the Tour's new CEO, Brian Rolapp. Spontaneously and with incredible speed, the age-old athlete and rising sports executive are all bro-ey, smiling, hugging each other. You can probably smell all that new VC money on your favorite screen and platform. Woods and Rolapp are both in line to get a good chunk of all that new money. It's our money, at the end of the day.

Maybe there's some sort of Phil Mickelson playbook in all of this, looking at Woods and his rise and fall and rise and fall and rise. It is true that he is the greatest golf talent that ever lived. Even Jack Nicklaus admits that. Woods' next court date is August 4. So there's that, too.

In late 2009, one night, Woods ran over a fire hydrant near her driveway, passed out, was the subject of a frantic 911 call from her distraught mother and was rushed to the hospital. Almost overnight Woods' private life became a public joke. It should be obvious to all that Woods is a reckless and dangerous driver and it seems clear to me that he has abused his body with his great desire to lift weights and exercise but (to borrow a phrase) . . . his body, his choice.

Mickelson won a major at age 50, the oldest man ever to do so. For us who were watching from afar, his future was bright with a hint of shadows already present. It wasn't hard to imagine Phil in the CBS swivel chair in the terms he could say; Ryder Cup captain and possibly second; Phil's wife, Amy, to be, in her own way, a leader in various public works in the manner of Barbara Nicklaus and Winnie Palmer; $30 million a year for her husband's salary; grown up while still in a state to play in them; the first tee at Augusta as long as he can backswing; all that praise. Phil Mickelson had the ability to make people feel good. He really did. That gift can come with a big payday. Taylor Swift, Jerry Seinfeld and Tom Hanks know all about that.

We knew a lot about Mickelson's dangerous golf and something about his penchant for gambling, edged stock trading, fine dining and expensive wine. We did not know its extent. Golf Digest is not in the business of debunking myths, but it was, last month, publishing a carefully written story about Mickelson leaving one of his golf clubs in San Diego after being charged by a club employee with “inappropriate and inappropriate physical contact.”

Kind of a follow up story, published by a golf website Skratchincludes lurid, profanity (and now disputed by Mickelson) details about Mickelson's unwanted personal allegations against Ashley Perez, the ex-wife of professional golfer Pat Perez. I Skratch The story also said that Mickelson had to leave not one but three private clubs in California. In a recent public statement, Mickelson's representatives disputed that claim. “Mr Mickelson has never been expelled from the golf club,” the statement said. Okay – explain being fired.

Alan Shipnuck, author of Mickelson's 2022 best-selling biography celebrating and criticizing the lefty's life and unsavory moments, wrote Skratch piece. Yes, the PGA Tour owns the episode Skratch, and Phil Mickelson invalid person at the Tour offices, when he opened the door for other players to leave the LIV Golf Tour after tying for first. Is it Skratch Are you willing to publish such an interesting piece about Tiger Woods, the chairman of the Future of Tourism Competition Committee? Your educated guess in the real world is probably good. Of course, Shipnuck and Mickelson have a strained relationship. If you know Mickelson's famous “scary motherf-ckers” quote about LIV's Saudi supporters, on Shipnuck and used by Shipnuck, you know that. But those aspects, to say nothing of the scandal of it all, do not detract from the report or diminish its newsworthiness.

Mickelson is now where Woods was at the start of 2010. What follows next. It will be something, as nothing is not an option. Social demands are ultimately insatiable, too. Woods wrote a biography that has never been published. Someday in the next half century or so, some form of it will become public, if the lives and times of Ty Cobb and JFK are any example here.

Shipnuck and I have been colleagues for a long time. About 15 years ago, after Tiger Woods and his sex life appeared on the front page of the club. The New York Post 20 days in a row, we wrote a satire called Swinger. Tree Tremont, the pitcher in question, is known to be lousy and his serial infidelity is, in his view of his life, a kind of hobby.

This book, in my view, tries to make the case that the rich and famous have a basic right to a private life but that society as a whole, which is always bleeding from the water, has lost patience with that worldview. I know that my thinking has been created by Nicklaus. After Woods' sex life became a little SNL and everyone else, Nicklaus maintained that Tiger's private life was none of his business. That carried me for the day, although my late wise friend, Fay Vincent, the former commissioner of baseball, had another idea. Vincent felt once you used your good standing to sell Buicks and the like, you lost your broad privacy rights. In SwingerShipnuck and I founded a newspaper editor who says, “It's always the same. [People] i want to know who you are, quote, you really like it, of course. ” Our established reporter, in the end, can't give the editor what he wants. It's not up to him. Mickelson gave me a brief review of the book without reading it: “It's not good.”

Amy Mickelson and Mickelson's three grown children are innocent of all this. Tiger and Elin's children — Sam Woods, now at Stanford, and Charlie Woods, headed to Florida State — are experts at navigating the same landscape. There is no map, not theirs, not anyone's. Arnold's way was not Jack's and Jack's was not Arnold's. We all make decisions about what we do and how we treat people, every day. From such decisions the character is filled and your life continues. It's not complicated. AI can't help here. AI can't work at the edges, get high and low if you're surrounded by gray.

Woods' greatness as a golfer has given him his current chapter, his next chapter, the chapter after that. You could say the same for Mickelson. We don't know what will happen next because we don't know. Mickelson has a 56. If his parents and grandparents are any example, 66 and 76 and 86 are coming. Life is strangely long and famously short.

Nicklaus has said more than once that only a fool would bet against Tiger Woods. He was talking about Tiger Woods the golfer. Will there be another scary roadside event with Woods at the wheel? Will you ever tell us? . . What's it like to be Tiger Woods? Was this latest act of rehabilitation mainly to appease the judge who would have wanted it anyway? Has Woods found new and better ways to deal with the pain in his life, both physical and mental? I really don't have any answers here. I doubt Woods does, either. Because the questions are difficult.

Of Golf Digest report, in Skratch reports, Phil Mickelson seems disgusted. Are there other characteristics to him? Yes they are, and we've all seen Phil at the top, either live or via the Golf Channel and YouTube highlights. Phil The Thrill. Eating is hard to control, for any of us. Desires are in our DNA, too then your life takes over.

Prominence comes with privilege. Not always, but often, and most of the time. He is a politician, a movie star, an athlete of the pantheon. Bill Murray used to say that after someone has done it there will be a period of public and private ridicule, although he was very colorful. It's a given. Then there is the calculation, or not. This is where you find out who you really are.

We wanted Tiger and Phil to be Jack and Arnold. That never happened. Not even close. Not even Tiger and Phil, not like they used to be. This year, no one played the Masters or the US Senior Open, which takes place this week in Ohio. No one is wearing a Ryder Cup or President's Cup captain's uniform.

Still, Woods found his way to the podium a week or two ago, a route filled with bags of legitimate tenders. The other kind of everyone likes a winner. Some would say he played his cards well but I won't. Can Tiger's method teach Phil? That's from Phil. It's hard to imagine him backing down. The buffet table of life has been heaped upon him. After a while, it will seem irresistible. The colors, the smells, the melting snow below. More it is the life force of some people, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson among them. It is what it is. The desire for more is one thing. You can control your appetite. With its cousin, greed, whatever you have is not enough.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at [email protected].