"Is Phil being Phil an acceptable excuse?"

I didn't get the overnight press release as usual, but based on the excerpts in various stories on Phil Mickelson's WD from the BMW Championship (David Krause's Denver Post story here), the inevitable excess of a too-crowded golf calendar is finally coming to a head. Throw in Jason Day's WD from injury and at some point the number of big time events in a tight window was bound to start causing problems. And guess what folks, it only gets worse the next few years!

That said, the early reviews on Mickelson's WD were deservedly rough, maybe too much so since it's not like he pulled a midround Rodney.

John Strege says Phil being Phil is not an excuse and posts some of the less-than-kind reactions from the golf world.

Jason Sobel's says on "the scale of poor form, this ranks somewhere between societal faux pas and unlawful surrender."

And Randall Mell called the overnight WD a PR blunder. It could also be the first time a certain word has been used to decribe such a situation:

All of a sudden, Mickelson isn’t just pooping on the PGA Tour’s doorstep with his message. He’s pooping on Denver’s doorstep with so many fans surely headed out the door this Saturday morning without even knowing Lefty withdrew.

“My primary goal is to rest and prepare for the Ryder Cup,” Mickelson said in a statement released after midnight. “Without a chance to contend at the Tour Championship, the most important thing for me now is to prepare for the Ryder Cup.”