Exclamation point
Mickelson, crowds make FESJC a winner
Phil Mickelson smacked the ball straight at the pin and the thousands ringing the 18th fairway and green watched it soar.
It dropped, two feet from the hole. The thousands joined in a happy roar.
No, it wasn’t enough to win the FedEx St. Jude Classic. Mickelson would finish tied for second to Harris English, a second-year pro who went to high school at Chattanooga’s Baylor School.
But it was the moment of the tournament. It was a final exclamation point on a nearly perfect celebration of Memphis and golf.
“This had to be the zenith as far as attendance, weather and just plain great golf,” said Jack Sammons, the general chair- man of the tournament. “It was a real boon.”
Sammons will be the first to tell you he needed a tournament like this one, after the week he endured in his other role as chairman of the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority.
“We kind of took it on the chin with the news from Delta,” he said, referring to the decision by Delta Air Lines to pull out of its Memphis hub. “But that’s the
beauty of Memphis. Something bad happens, and then along comes something good.”
Sammons wasn’t suggesting an exciting golf tournament makes up for the loss of flights at the airport. Don’t misunderstand. But remember the mood in 2009, when Stanford Financial was revealed to be a giant scam? Remember how people fretted about the future of the golf tournament in the wake of that dismal turn of events?
Well, here we are, just four years later, and the tournament is as vibrant as ever.
“The city of Memphis is a 12-round fighter,” said Sammons. “We get knocked down, but we get back up.”
FedEx was critical to the tournament’s getting back on its feet, of course. This week, Mickelson helped, too.
The gallery was massive, joyous, as it moved from hole to hole.
Reed Snyder, 19, followed Mickelson on his crutches. Derrick Cullison, 46, stopped on a hillside to take a photo of the crowds.
“It’s amazing,” said Cullison, who drives from Fort Smith, Ark., to volunteer at the tournament. “I’ve been volunteering for five years and this is the best I’ve ever seen.”
The throng wasn’t lost on Mickelson, either. He seemed to feed off it.
“I can’t tell you how many people came up to me this week and thanked me for being here,” he said. “It feels so good to be appreciated.”
Mickelson brief ly drew within a shot of the lead when he birdied 16. Scott Stallings, his playing partner, then birdied 16 to go two strokes up.
Indeed, for the longest time it appeared that Stallings — who spent his first five years in Bolivar and went to college at Tennessee Tech — would hang on and win the thing. But Stallings got a double bogey on 15 and a bogey on 18, opening the door for English to get his first tournament win.
It all made for a thrilling finish, and a memorable day. Mickelson was thrilled with the way he played in advance of this week’s U.S. Open. As for English, he said, “I’m still in shock right now.”
Not a bad week, for a tournament that seemed in peril not long ago. And to listen to Mickelson’s comments after his round, next year should be fun, too.
“The grass here is very similar to Pinehurst,” said Mickelson, referring to the site of next year’s U.S. Open. “So it will be a good spot to get ready for next year’s U.S. Open as well.”