The Loop
Phil Mickelson is relevant again, but ‘can he be more than that?’
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“Periodically, for the aging golfer, a moment arrives when all his work suddenly bears fruit. He's relevant again,” Sun-Sentinel columnist David Hyde writes regarding Phil Mickelson’s recent surge. The question, though is this: “Can he be more than that?”
US PGA TOUR
Kevin Kisner has climbed into the top 20 in the World Ranking, rarefied air in which he is still trying to grow comfortable. “The next seven weeks…will be a very new experience for Kisner,” Scott Michaux of the Augusta Chronicle writes. “He’ll be playing in a pair of World Golf Championship events for the first time before making his debut at the Masters Tournament in April. The stakes are higher in this world class. ‘You kind of feel like a rookie all over again,’ Kisner said. ‘It’s different thresholds or levels – whatever you want to call them – on the tour and when you get into this level you’ve got to get comfortable.’”
Mike Flemming was an old-school coach, a classmate of Raymond Floyd’s at Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville, Ga., and the Jacksonville University coach. Russell Knox was a modestly talented Scot looking for an American college in the sun belt. They found each other and formed a bond that helped Knox become an elite player who won the WGC-HSBC Champions in November, 19 months after Flemming had died from lung failure. “I was so lucky to have him,” Knox said in this story by PGATour.com’s Sean Martin on their special relationship.