Anonymous: Pro-Phil, No Tiger at U.S. Open

Golf.com published a piece today written by an "anonymous Tour player,"  one who is in the field at the U.S. Open. Mr. Anonymous starts off with Tiger Woods:

For a change, we're not talking about how much he's going to win by — we're talking about what's up with his left knee.

The vibe on Tour is that his knee isn't as far along as he's been letting on. He's Tiger Woods and he can surprise everybody, but this time it's different. When he bagged the Memorial, his agent told Jack Nicklaus that Tiger couldn't put as much weight on his knee as he wanted when he swung. That can't be good. He'll have been out for almost eight weeks. I don't see him being Tiger sharp.

Mr. Anonymous even says there's speculation Woods might pull out before Thursday if he doesn't feel he can win. Huh.

Then he moves on to Phil Mickelson, whom our anonymous author likes as the winner given Tiger's knee worries. But as often happens when other players discuss Phil, Mr. Anonymous can't resist getting in a few digs, too:

Plus, now that Phil is an inch taller, he's even more formidable. Yeah, the other players were laughing last month when Phil said he went to a longer putter because all the stretching and workouts he's been doing caused him to grow an inch. That's Phil being Phil. First of all, who's even measuring himself at age 37? Are his pants suddenly an inch short?

Nobody has a problem with him, but other players simply can't relate. He's eccentric and plays the game a different way. He had five wedges in his bag when he won at Colonial. Five wedges? Good Lord. I guess that's why he didn't play safe and hit three-wood on 18, where he lost another drive to the left on the final hole (a trend I've noticed with him). With all those wedges taking up space in his bag, he didn't have a three-wood to hit.