Mickelson is good, but he's no Tiger

During a busy winter, the story goes, Phil Mickelson was practicing at a club that attracts many tour pros. One day, said Tim Rosaforte of GolfWorld and Golf Channel, veteran pro Peter Jacobsen alluded to Tiger Woods' absence from the PGA Tour and said very jovially to Mickelson, "Now you're The Man."

Mickelson replied, "I'm not The Man."

That was very true. He is no replacement for Woods, who is on leave, trying to get his life back into some sort of order, because there is no one like Woods.

Nor is Mickelson the new Arnold Palmer, as many commentators and observers like to say. Phil's golf world is vastly different from Arnie's, and his impact and personality are nowhere near The King's.

Yet, Mickelson is the best thing the Tour has going for it right now. He is a Hall of Fame-bound golfer, a multiple major champion and an interesting guy. He is nothing if not compelling, sometimes making his fellow pros feel compelled to bash him.

It happened again this week, Mickelson's first tournament of the season, at Torrey Pines, in his Southern California backyard. By being called a cheater by Scott McCarron, Mickelson upstaged everyone, including John Daly, who announced his retirement (yeah, right), and Ben Crane, who won.

Lefty isn't The Man, but he sure is the man to watch, and talk about.

There was no surprise that there was some raw electricity at Torrey Pines, given that Mickelson does not mind being a lightning rod. He showed up with an old Ping Eye2 lob wedge, a technically legal but controversial club that has square grooves on the club face. Square grooves have been banned by the U.S. Golf Association on the grounds that they make it too easy for a golfer to hit out of the rough, thus making it less important for a golfer to hit shots accurately enough to keep them in the fairway. Old Ping irons have been given an exemption -- grandfathered in, if you will -- because of a court settlement.

Mickleson was lambasted by McCarron, who also was in the field at the Farmers Insurance Open, for having violated the spirit of the rule. And in a sport that requires players to call penalties on themselves, the spirit of the rule counts. As Brandel Chamblee said on Golf Channel, maybe it was a tad ironic that the outspoken one was McCarron, who uses a long putter that allows the golfer to balance the butt of the club against his belly. Doesn't that bend the spirit of some rule?

In any case, Tour regulars at golf.com believe Mickelson was making a statement, maybe picking a fight. The company he now represents, Callaway, had produced a wedge that didn't have square grooves but was nonetheless rejected by the USGA (the PGA Tour abides by USGA regulations). The speculation was that Mickelson wanted to call attention to a policy he considers hypocritical.

Attention, he did get. McCarron's comment, Mickelson's reply (claiming he had been "publicly slandered") and the fallout eclipsed everyone's play all weekend, including Mickelson's own lackluster 73 Sunday that dropped him from contention. It was another measure of Lefty's pull. Other golfers had used the same wedge during the previous two tournaments, but no one put up a fuss.

There is just something about Mickelson. It is hard to imagine a peer blasting Woods, or Jack Nicklaus or Palmer. McCarron wasn't the first to take on Mickelson, either. Vijay Singh once got right in his face in the hallowed champions locker room at Augusta National over the big footprints Mickelson was leaving on the greens at the Masters. Around the locker room, Mickelson is facetiously called "Genius." On the other hand, fellow golfers reduced Mickelson to tears by the volume of pink ribbons they wore last year in support of his wife Amy, who was diagnosed with breast cancer (she is reportedly recovering nicely).

Good for golf that it has such a character. Golf, however, isn't kidding itself into thinking that Mickelson has Woods' star power. Only Woods makes the TV ratings go off the charts. Only Woods makes golf viewers out of non-golfers, as Palmer once did.

Pundits often see Mickelson as the new Arnie. He smiles a lot, like Arnie. He signs tons of autographs, like Arnie; in fact, he was inspired to do that by Arnie. Most of all, he is second banana to the greatest player of his time, as was Arnie. The parallels stop there.

Restaurants won't be serving a drink called The Phil Mickelson for the next 50 years. Palmer wasn't the No. 1 golfer for long, but to this day he remains its greatest all-time ambassador. He transcended fairways and greens. He made golf a TV sport. I don't have hard data on this, but I believe he inspired many people to begin playing golf --- something that has not been done even by Woods, let alone Mickelson.

Mickelson is in his own category, which is just fine. He is not the best, but he is very good and never boring. He is worth watching, no matter who else is or isn't playing.