Mickelson Likely Missing U.S. Open For Daughter's Graduation

I can't help but wonder if Phil will be rooting for a dreadful Thursday forecast at Erin Hills, but otherwise it sounds like he is missing the 2017 U.S. Open to hear his daughter speak at her high school graduation.

Karen Crouse with the exclusive for the New York Times:

He said he had informed Mike Davis, the United States Golf Association’s executive director, on Saturday morning of his plan to withdraw so that alternates in the field can prepare accordingly.

Mickelson said he would hold off on officially withdrawing until a day or two before the tournament started, in case a weather delay or change in the morning commencement ceremony time made it possible for him to be at both.

"Barring something unforeseen, I won’t be there,” he said after shooting an even-par 72 Saturday in the third round of the Memorial tournament, where he is tied for 19th.

If you want to feel really, really old, check out Bob Harig's ESPN.com story reminding us that it was Amanda, now a class valedictorian soon headed to Brown, who was about to be delivered during the 1999 U.S. Open at Pinehurst. That was yesterday, practically, no?

Mickelson's caddie, Jim Mackay, carried a beeper in his golf bag, and he pledged he would take off regardless of his situation in the tournament.

Mickelson finished second to Payne Stewart when the late golfer holed a 12-foot par putt on the final hole to edge him by a stroke; had Stewart missed, he and Mickelson would have had an 18-hole playoff to decide the tournament -- on the day Amanda ended up being born. That was the first of his record six runner-up finishes at the U.S. Open.

"Yeah, I go back and, every year at the U.S. Open, I think back about that '99 Open,'' Mickelson said. "The birth of your child, any child, but especially your first child is the most emotional event you can ever experience and share together with your wife."