An Apology

The bride and I have decided to play this morning, after yesterday's weather interruption.  I'd have preferred to spend more time with my readers, but then she started with the smack talk....

Just a couple of quick, frivolous items then I'll allow you to get on with your weekend.

The Showdown - News broke yesterday morning, post-publication, that we have a date:

GOLF.com first reported on plans for the $10 million winner take all Tiger vs. Phil match in early July. The match is likely to take place at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas. At

the British Open, Woods confirmed that his team was indeed working on making the Tiger vs. Phil match a reality. “We are still working on it,” Woods said. “It’s not there yet, but certainly we are working on it and trying to make it happen.” 

Though this is the first we’ve heard of a solid date for the match, you can already bet on everything from the winner to what color shirt Phil will wear to which network will broadcast the event. Eager fans need only pay attention to the famous pair’s behavior on the course for a glimpse of what could be to come: Just this week, Mickelson and Woods played what looked like a friendly but fairly competitive practice round together at Firestone Country Club ahead of the WGC Bridgestone Invitational.

What's wrong with these guys?  You don't diminish the SHOW by giving it away for free.... 

Now, though, comes the hard part....  We all remember the series of prime-time matches Tiger promoted back in the day, which ultimately proved unsustainable because the golf itself was so dreary.  Thanksgiving provides a fairly uncluttered TV dial, at least as relates to sports, but they'll be a couple of months past their last competitive rounds.

The Entertainer - Have you seen it?  My guess is the match couldn't take place before Thanksgiving because of the long recovery time from this:

Here's Shack's take:

Phil Mickelson's surprising choice to unveil a Mizzen+Main long sleeve at The Masters may have turned a few heads and earned a "really" from Tiger Woods, but now that he's all-in as a part owner he is, well, in. All in. And it's spectacular. 

Sporting the Manhattan shirt he's worn a few times--minus his logo-clad tour golf version--Mickelson breaks out his best dance moves in a, uh, more focused effort to show off how these performance fabric shirts work. It's set to Ghostland Observatory's "Viberate," and I only know that because of Shazam. 

Phil makes a convincing case for the mobility and style factor of the shirt maligned after his Masters moment. He also makes a case for the most fluid hamstrings in golf. 

The fashion-friendliness of the shirt is greatly enhanced--actually, night and day--when not paired with golf slacks and without his corporate partner logos screaming 1960s gas station attendant.

Even more solid? This lands in a Ryder Cup year! Oh to hear the team room comments about The Phil...

I haven't got anything better than his gas station attendant jibe, and I do agree the shirt looks far better without the over-sized logos, though it's just a normal, button-down dress shirt.  I suspect they're going with the "If the shirt looks passable over Phil's man-boobs, think how good you'll look in it" strategy.  All good, except for the minor detail of having no business on the golf course...

This is a happening of such great social import that Alan Bastable landed the plum assignment of writing the behind the scenes docudrama of how it came to be:

A few months ago Kevin Lavelle showed up at Phil Mickelson’s Rancho Sante Fe, Calif., home with an idea. 

An outrageous, wonderful, potentially horrible idea. 

He wanted Phil to dance.

Which I suspect was meant to evoke this timeless classic:

Narrator: Then he got an idea. An awful idea. The Grinch got a wonderful, *awful* idea! ...  

Here's the wonderful awful idea in its original concept:

Lavelle is the founder and CEO of the apparel company Mizzen+Main, of which

Mickelson holds an ownership stake. The two were still newbie business partners at that point, but Lavelle and his team were already brainstorming ideas for how to use Mickelson to bring buzz to the brand. 

Lavelle’s creative director, Richard Ross, dreamed up a video concept that all agreed would rip through social channels like a Kim K selfie. To show off the stretchiness of Mizzen+Main’s dress shirts — the same ones that Mickelson has been wearing at Tour events this year — Ross wanted Mickelson to stand in the line of fire on a driving range, bobbing, weaving and, yes, dancing to avoid the incoming balls. The routine would be choreographed to “Vibrate,” an electro-funk tune by the Austin-based band, Ghostland Observatory. 

Lavelle was charged with bringing the pitch to Mickelson. 

“I’m not going to lie — it was one of the most uncomfortable moments of my life,” he said Thursday from his Dallas office. “He was either going to go, ‘You’re an idiot and I can’t believe I’m working with you,’ or ‘I love it and I think it’s hysterical.’ There’s really no middle ground for this concept.”

I get it, using the driving range, in view of the fact that your celebrity endorser has some ties to that slice of the world.  Curious, though, how we got from that to Saturday Night Fever...  More surprisingly, it turns out to be Amy's fault, giving away the deep dark secrets of their conjugal life:

Also in the room when Lavelle presented the idea were Mickelson’s agent, Steve Loy, and wife, Amy. 

Amy began to laugh. 

“She looked at Phil and looked at me and then looked back at Phil,” Lavelle said. “She said, ‘Should I tell him or should you? He said, ‘Go ahead.’ She looked back at me and said, ‘Phil can do the worm.’” 

“At that moment,” Lavellle said, “it was, ‘Oh my god we’re actually going to make this happen.’

Don't you think we should get the worm's opinion on that?

I'll remain a skeptic on this:

But with each take Mickelson grew looser, literally — grooving and shimming and leg-kicking his way through what would ultimately become a 37-second video that all but melted golf Twitter when it was released Thursday. 

Oh, and that stunning moment where Mickelson swings his leg over his head? No special effects required. “Everything you see Phil doing is exactly what we filmed,” Lavelle said.

Errrt...maybe.  But doesn't it seem more likely that no human being wants to be known as Phil's body double?

Have a great weekend, kids, and we'll catch up on Monday.