The Loop
Keith Mitchell isn't going to be thrilled about this brutal newspaper headline for his Honda Classic win
Just a guess, but nothing could bring Keith Mitchell down on Monday morning after picking up his first PGA Tour title at the Honda Classic the previous evening. Moms, however, are a different story. And we're assuming Mrs. Mitchell, who was on hand for her son's breakthrough win on Sunday, wasn't thrilled with how it was treated by the local Palm Beach Post.
Check out the main headline on the front page of Monday's sports section:
Ouch. It doesn't get much more disrespectful than that. Except, that it kind of did. Here's the opening to the story, written by Brian Biggane:
The PGA Tour and Honda Classic officials had the makings of several great finishes Sunday.
-- A playoff between local residents Brooks Koepka and Rickie Fowler.
-- Vijay Singh becoming the oldest winner in Tour history.
-- Even Ryan Palmer posting a 63 to come out of nowhere with the best round of the day.
Then along came Keith Mitchell.
Look, no one is arguing that Mitchell winning at PGA National was the sexiest possible outcome to an exciting final round for casual golf fans. The 27-year-old even had his first name mixed up by Dan Hicks during NBC's broadcast and his victory isn't going to sell a lot of extra newspapers. But this treatment—especially the headline—is a bit much. Then again, Mitchell seems to thrive on these type of slights. Here's what he told reporters following his maiden win:
"I feel like I play better when I try to come from behind or when people don't expect you to win, and a friend of mine sent me a newspaper article and it says 'no-name is leading Honda after Friday,' and I don't expect to have any great stuff to be written about me because I've only been out here for a year, so I'm not saying that in a negative light," Mitchell said. "I just used that as a little kind of emotion that everyone gets their start somewhere, everyone gets their first win somewhere, and I wanted this to be mine, and I was able to do it."
Good for you, Keith. Just don't show that stuff to your mom.