The Los Angeles Times Sports Page Review: LAT Sports Review

Bill Plaschke continues to write about Phil Mickelson winning The Masters, and it is quite good if not slightly maudlin material. You can almost see the stains from Plaschke’s tears as he tiptoes through the story of how Mickelson focused on winning while being distracted by the dark clouds of cancer hovering over his family. I have always criticized Plaschke for his fawning prose and I will again, on another day, but today he is the right person with the right emotional disposition to tell this story. I really liked how he hinted that this tournament benefited greatly by the heartwarming victory of Mickelson and how that is a much better ending than if the surly Tiger Woods would have won his first tournament back.

I have never liked Woods. Long before the embarrassing revelations of his extramarital activities came to light, he was a humorless egomaniac that made professional golf endure the tantrums and intimidation of its best player, a corporate endorsement-fed asshole who offered no respect to the game or its fans that have rewarded him with their loyalty for so long. That’s why it was so strangely satisfying for some of us when the lurid details of his sex scandal came to light. We enjoy watching sports because it offers us an escape from the mundane realities of certain aspects in our lives. So, when a super athlete behaves like a cantankerous rich kid while playing a gentleman’s sport, it makes some of us dislike him and pull for all of the underdogs to win and remind the champion that he is not entitled. We hoped this would humble him. Woods treated his marriage vows with the same disregard that he has always had for those of us that wish the greatest golfer in the world was also a likable guy. He loves winning. He loves being paid. He loves to be loved, but he never has offered much gratitude in return.

So, Plaschke was right, and he wrote it all very nicely. He is a writer known for behaving like a cheerleader for jocks like Woods, so I wonder if he would have been tooting the horn of Woods if he had been victorious rather than calling him out for his loutish behavior, but that is something that will reveal itself when Woods finally wins again. Today, Mickelson is the Masters champion and Plaschke did a nice job writing about it.