Phil

April 18, 2022
Sports Illustrated writer Shipnuck (Bud, Sweat, and Tees) delivers a rollicking look at the career of legendary golfer Phil Mickelson, a “subject of much fascination and more than a little scorn.” Drawing on years of insider access, Shipnuck provides readers unfettered access to the larger-than-life sports figure, from his beginnings in the 1980s as a plucky underdog who could never quite win a Major tournament to becoming one of golf’s all-time greats. Moving at a breezy pace, Shipnuck entertains with cryptic stories about Mickelson’s possibly murderous grandfather, from whom Mickelson inherited his “ferocious killer instinct”; recounts the golfer’s decades-long antipathy with his “nemesis” Tiger Woods; and highlights Mickelson’s rise to success, starting with the consequential birdie putt that led to his 2004 Masters win and capping with 2021’s historic PGA Championship, where, at 50 years old, he became the oldest golfer to secure a Major. However, in spite of the “perma-grin and goofy thumbs-up,” Shipnuck lucidly points out that Mickelson’s appearances could be incredibly deceiving, and it’s his particularly eye-opening treatment of the golfer’s less savory side—namely his recent involvement with a Saudi-backed golf league (in one startling conversation with Shipnuck, Mickelson admits “we know they killed... Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights”)—that give this account remarkable depth. Fans shouldn’t miss this.