Too Much Build Up

It’s rare that a professional athlete (one of the most traveled individuals in the world) is able to show up at his/her home town and perform in front of family and friends at the same level that they are accustomed to on the road. It’s a totally different ball game. I mean the pressure is simply insurmountable in most cases. That’s why it comes as no surprise to me that going into the final round at Torrey Pines, Phil Mickelson finds himself sitting at +8, 11 shots back from Tiger Woods and the lead.

SportsCenter was running the same special on Lefty over and over again. A five minute segment by Tom Rinaldi, about how Phil grew up with a golf club in his hand from the age of three. The story chronicled how his father, Phil Sr., would continuously attempt to put the club in his son’s right hand, but Jr. would always place it back in his left. The piece was well drawn out, and was a solid look into Mickelson’s growth as a player.

I bore you with all this back knowledge on the story, to make you realize the kind of pressure that the media puts on player’s when they return home. Torrey Pines is Phil’s home course. It’s an emotional roller coaster for him as a player and as a man to competing for the game’s most prized trophy. It is known that the Open is perennially the hardest course of the year, and for Phil to walk away with a win this weekend would’ve been monumental for him in his never ending chase of Tiger. It’s not surprising though that Phil is sitting so far back of Woods and the lead. The pressure was just too much.

Think about Paul Pierce. Born in Englewood, CA, The Truth came into Game 3 of the NBA Finals with a full head. After demolishing the Lakers in the first two games at the Garden, Pierce arrived home hoping to put away the series in front of his hometown crowd. What ensued? 6 points on 2-14 shooting. I’m not saying it’s impossible. There are some simply immune to the spell. Then again there are only so many Michael Jordan’s of the world.