The Match III: Phil Mickelson Did A Number On Manning, Curry

Thank goodness that turkey of a match is done, thank goodness it’s over — let Phil Mickelson and Charles Barkley get their gloat on!

There were a lot of lessons learned from the commercial-laden “Match III” the day after Thanksgiving and best of them is that Phil Mickelson is one really good on-course coach.

Mickelson did an incredible job with hackster Chuck.  No commentary needed, no analysis needed.  It was the ever-talking Mickelson who got the most out of Barkley, and in the process, got in the collective heads of Peyton Manning and Steph Curry.  Manning and Curry were so distracted by Phil’s constant chatter with Chuck that they didn’t focus on their task at hand and it showed.

After Sir Charles couldn’t make a five-footer for par at the first hole, the Manning-Curry team got an easy win but it would be their last for a long while.  Mickelson coached Barkley well enough for them to win the next four holes.  They were three-up through five and would never look back.

Here are a few observations from the four hours of Manning-Curry futility at Stone Canyon.

First, Stone Canyon is a remarkable course.  It cost more than $30 million to build it back in the late 80s.  The developer built an upscale community surrounding it where only residents could be members and they had to fork over $75,000 to join.  Fast forward about three decades and Mickelson was savvy enough to buy the place out of bankruptcy.  It was the second time the course went bust.  Now it’s a desert gem and Mickelson had superior course knowledge.

Second, Manning and Curry were vastly under-prepared to take on one of professional golf’s iconic players.  Doesn’t matter who you saddle Mickelson with, he’s so competitive he wasn’t about to lose to a couple of slappers like Manning and Curry.  When it was revealed that Manning and Curry played a practice round in 50 minutes — well, that’s not a practice round, that’s a golf cart race.  No plan, no strategy, no nothing from those guys.

Third, speaking of Manning and Curry, it was evident that Tiger Woods made Manning look a lot better than he really is.  Manning is supposed to be a five-handicap but he’s a one-trick pony.  Only shot he can hit is a draw and those draws became big hooks when Mickelson turned up the heat in the match.  As for Curry, well, no way he’s a plus-one.  His short game was totally abysmal.  He looked like a 14-handicapper around the greens.  His short game technique was short and quick and the results were ugly.  Curry must never hit shots into the sand because he didn’t know how to play a simple bunker shot.  He wasn’t much of a putter either.  He missed two, non-difficult six-footers at the wrong time.

Fourth, Mickelson had an honest-to-goodness game plan.  You wouldn’t expect anything less from a major champion of his caliber.  One thing we didn’t know ahead of time was how much of an advantage they gave Barkley, allowing him to play from the equivalent of ladies tees on a lot of holes.  One some holes, he was hitting from tees 100 yards in front of the rest.  As a result, Barkley could hit six and seven-iron shots into very wide fairways.  It was something even a hack like Chuck could handle.  One thing he couldn’t handle was a putt outside four feet.  Phil made sure to limit those.

It didn’t take long for Phil and Chuck to close out Manning and Curry.

“Tell your bosses to get some of those old Law and Order reruns ready,” Barkley quipped to the TNT people.

And speaking of people — this one was totally over-staffed, over-analyzed and over-produced.

How did they come up with Cheyenne Woods as an on-course interviewer?

How come Gary McCord was rarely heard from — perhaps two of three times the entire match?

Did we really need to hear from Trevor Immelman?  They even had Michelle Wie for a sentence or two.

In the end, it was Mickelson and Barkely winning 4-and-3 and the match wasn’t as close as the score indicated.

The good news is that it raised a lot of money for Historic Black Colleges and Universities and it raised meals to feed the needy.

Thank-you.