THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE is an extract from ‘Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar.’

So, what’s your best Phil Mickelson story?

“A year or two after I retired,” says Tom Candiotti, a big-league pitcher, “I played Whisper Rock [Golf Club] with Phil and Jason Kidd. Afterward, we were sitting around the clubhouse, talking shit. Phil went on this whole riff about how if he hadn’t been a golfer he could have played Major League Baseball. Oh boy, okay. I just rolled my eyes, because I’ve heard that so many times; every professional athlete thinks they could have been great in another sport, even though it’s never really true. But Phil wouldn’t shut up about it. He kept saying, ‘I could have been a really special player.’

Finally, I said, ‘Okay, let’s see it.’ So we drive to my house and get all this gear and then go to the baseball field at Horizon High School. I start throwing batting practice and Jason pops a few home runs right away. 

Now it’s Phil’s turn. Imagine driving by and seeing a Hall of Fame basketball player shagging fly balls and a Hall of Fame golfer at the plate . . . wearing golf spikes, a Titleist glove, and a right-handed batting helmet, with the flap on the wrong side. I’m just throwing easy fastballs and Phil is swinging out of his shoes. He’s so determined to hit one over the fence, but he can’t even get it to the warning track. He’s getting more and more pissed off and me and Jason are trying really, really hard not to laugh. Eventually, Jason got so bored he just laid down in the grass in centerfield. Phil never did hit a home run.”

“There was a period in 1989 and 1990 when Phil and I played a lot of golf together because we were on Walker Cup and World Amateur teams together,” says David Eger. “At the 1990 US Amateur, we faced each other in the semi-finals and he beat me pretty good [5 & 3]. We were always friendly, but over time we just kind of lost touch, which happens.

Fast-forward to 2017, when the PGA Championship was at Quail Hollow, where I’m a member. Phil came out early for a practice round and I heard about it. It’d been at least 10 years since we had last seen each other, so I grabbed my wife and we jumped in a cart so we could go say hello. We found him putting on the fifth hole. We walked up onto the green and I introduced him to Trish, and literally the first thing Phil said was ‘Did David tell you what an ass-whooping I put on him at the Amateur in 1990?’ It had been 27 years.”

“When my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer in ’16, I caught Phil outside the scoring tent in Baltusrol,” says Ryan Palmer. “I took him aside and told him about Jennifer, and before I said anything else he just pulled me in for a hug. It lasted a really long time. Then he said, ‘Here’s what’s going to happen—I’m going to put you in touch with Dr. Tom Buchholz of MD Anderson, he’s gonna get you the best doctors and surgeons in the world. They’re gonna take care of you guys and Jennifer is going to be okay.’ That night I was on the phone with Dr. Buchholz, and everything Phil said came true. I’ve never stopped being grateful for what he did for me and my family.”

“The last time the Open Championship was at Royal Birkdale,” says Johnny Miller, “there was a 60th birthday party for Nick Faldo. It was thrown by his lady friend at the time, in a really nice house on the 18th hole. There were TV people there and some players and past Open champions. Nice crowd. Faldo is sitting at the head of this big table and just loving all the attention. He’s having a great time. Then Phil sits down next to him and starts talking, and he literally doesn’t stop. He starts saying some kind of outrageous things: ‘Nobody can hit the shots I can hit.’ I’m thinking, Yeah, buddy, because they end up in the wrong fairway. He just keeps going like that, saying a lot of things you shouldn’t really say in front of players of a similar stature, but Phil was doing that Phil thing. At some point, [my wife] Linda leans over and says, ‘Is this guy ever going to stop talking?’ Poor Nick Faldo is just sinking deeper and deeper into his chair. He looks miserable, like all his thunder had been stolen. It was a total alpha move by Phil and undeniably entertaining. Shows how confident he is, how much he believes he is the best to ever do it. The record doesn’t reflect that, but don’t tell Phil.”

‘Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar by Alan Shipnuck is published by Simon and Schuster. More info here.