Video: Phil's (Bank?) Putt On Way To Winning Waste Management

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On a shot you'd normally expect him to hit the flop shot only Phil can pull off, he putts it, maybe gets a slight graze off the intermediate cut, and it goes in.

Q.  We know you're a magician on the greens, but on No. 7, was it really your intention to bank the putt off the collar of the fringe and into the hole?
   
PHIL MICKELSON:  Yes.  (Laughter.)

I had to putt 20 feet through the fringe.  That was    the challenge of that was to judge the speed where half the putt is through fringe and half is on the green.

I got lucky to have made it, obviously.  I was just trying to 2 putt it.  It was doing fairly quickly when it got to the hole, probably would have been six, eight feet by.  I was very fortunate to make a 2 there.  With Brandt in there close, that was a big momentum change for us.

With the win--his 41st and one that tied for the second lowest score in PGA Tour history Mickelson helped move the news cycle away from Vijay's deer antler spray and back to golf, says John Strege.

Mickelson also moves to No. 10 in the world and Brandt Snedeker, runner-up, moves to No. 6, wrties Jason Sobel.

Make sure to watch to see the aerial view from NBC:

Video: Phil Fires 60 With Power Lipout On Last Hole

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Fighting through the painful emotions of seeing old sparring partner Vijay Singh overcome some seriously bad press, Phil Mickelson fired an 11-under 60 in the opening round of 2013 Waste Management Open play.

As of now, the PGA Tour's YouTube page has posted Phil's birdie putt on the 8th hole, his 17th, which he left short. Why, I have no idea.

Thankfully, the putt we actually want to see was posted by a fan is now posted by the tour. Note the multiple cameras and great work by NBC's crew to capture the moment.

SI Writer On Morning Drive: “I’m guessing that Vijay Singh doesn’t know the product has been called out by the PGA Tour specifically.”

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I was a tad skeptical of Vijay Singh's admission to using deer antler spray from his friends at S.W.A.T.S.  But after listening to SI's very credible and thorough David Epstein on Morning Drive for ten minutes, it's going to be very hard for Singh to claim a context issue. Especially when the writer has seen the big check Singh wrote for the products! (Uh Veej, pay cash next time big guy, you have plenty of it.)

Ryan Lavner summarized the Espstein interview and noted this:

Asked if he thought Singh knew he was taking a banned substance because of how forthcoming he was in discussing the products, Epstein said, “It makes me think that he probably didn’t know that. It would be a little strange because the guys in the company are usually very upfront that their products are banned by major sports organizations, but they can be a little equivocal about why it’s banned sometimes. But a quick Google (search) would tell anyone it’s banned.

“I’m guessing that Vijay Singh doesn’t know the product has been called out by the PGA Tour specifically.”

Check out the Epstein interview with Morning Drive here:

Rex Hoggard contacted the PGA Tour for comment.

“We were just made aware of the report and are looking into it,” said Ty Votaw, the Tour’s vice president of communication and international affairs.

Votaw declined to comment on whether Tour officials had spoken with the Fijian, who is in the field at this week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open

Tim Clark, Lead Anchoring Ban Victim Advocate

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Doug Ferguson tells the tale of Tim Clark's apparently impressive appearance at the PGA Tour non-mandatory mandatory player meeting held at Torrey Pines last week.

Geoff Ogilvy had this to say about Clark's questions and comments of USGA officials Mike Davis and Glenn Nager, comments which players generally refused to elaborate to Ferguson about:

"He's been researching this the whole offseason," Ogilvy said. "He basically put his position out there, and probably positions that Mike hadn't thought about or didn't acknowledge as importantly as Tim saw them.

"What Tim did achieve ... whether he had any effect on the USGA position, a big portion of the ambivalent people were on Tim's side when they walked out of the room."

Flashback: CBS President Doesn't Mind Slow Play

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Just in case you were shedding a tear for CBS, who mandated a late re-start Monday and then saw a glacial pace send the Farmers Insurance Open more than 30 minutes past the planned conclusion, remember what CBS Sports President Sean McManus told Ed Sherman last August:

I’m not terribly concerned about it. Having watched a lot of golf this year, I know (slow play) has been a topic of discussion. But I haven’t seen it affect too many of the broadcasts. If they play slow because of the course conditions being tough at Kiawah, it adds to the drama.

And as many of you noted yesterday, when they play slow because they are slow, it drains drama right out of the telecast.

Farmers Final Round Pace Of Play

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Tiger Woods, after winning his 75th PGA Tour event and 7th tour event at Torrey Pines in the Farmers Insurance Open, on the pace of play Monday:

TIGER WOODS:  Well, the group ahead of us was a hole behind most of the entire back nine.  I don't know if they were warned or not or they were timed.  But we were just playing slow.  We were just having to wait on every shot, so it got a little slow.

The three of us were losing our patience a little bit out there.  I certainly was.  Unfortunately, it affected my play a little bit.

Here's a fun and useless fact that I put in my Golf World game story from Torrey: it took the Woods threesome 3 hours and 45 minutes to complete their final 11 holes playing behind Erik Compton, Brad Fritsch and Steve Marino who were more than a hole behind by the end.

The 2008 U.S. Open playoff between Woods and Rocco Mediate was 19 holes and took 4 hours and 33 minutes. And they took their sweet time that day!