Mickelson vs Palmer’s Final U.S. Open Rounds

Phil Mickelson and Arnold Palmer—two legends of the game, both masters of drama, charisma, and major championships. But the U.S. Open? It’s the one that always slipped away. In this video, we dive into the striking parallels between their careers: how the U.S. Open was the final piece missing from their career grand slam, how heartbreak followed them at this tournament year after year, and how—fittingly or cruelly—their final U.S. Open appearances both came at Oakmont. This is the story of two icons and the major that got away.
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and all that oh yeah [Music] [Music] welcome Bill Nicholson [Applause] well folks it’s Friday afternoon at the US Open which means it’s either the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning for Phil Mickelson he is playing in his last US Open right now unless he receives some sort of exemption from the USJ or qualifies in himself next year of course the US Open remains the final leg of the Grand Slam for young Phil before achieving the career Grand Slam um he entered this week at Oakmont a long shot his play uh has put him right on the cusp of the cut line heading into Friday um he’s got 18 holes left here and we are going to be paying a ton of attention to this this guy is an all-time great but he’s got a weird relationship not just with this event but with all of golf over these last few years and so we’ll be watching to see if we get two more days of Lefty uh in a US Open environment cuz who knows this could be the last we see of him [Music] [Music] describe for me your thoughts walking up that last 150 yards to the 18th green the interview that Arnold Palmer gave after his final US Open round was meaningful and emotional it was also never supposed to happen june 17th 1994 was arguably the craziest day in sports history game five of Knicks Rockets the Rangers Stanley Cup Parade day one of the US World Cup and it was the day of OJ Simpson’s Bronco car chase it was also Friday at the US Open at Oakmont the big story that afternoon was Arnold Palmer’s final US Open round this was the American golf hero man of the people playing in America’s National Championship for the final time in the same part of Pennsylvania where he’d grown up arie teed off at 9:07 a.m and the ABC broadcast had a plan for Mark Ralphing to interview him post round i talked to Mark recently and 31 years later he still remembers everything the round got really really slow i’m not sure if that was just Oakmont playing so hard or if even the players were distracted by the OJ car chase but they had a hard out at 3 p.m that’s when they were going off air and sending it to the soccer game where Bill Clinton and Oprah were kicking off Bolivia vers Germany arie was expected to finish at 2:30 but the minutes just kept ticking away by the time he’d walked off the 18th green it was 257 and the producers had officially cancelled the interview chris Berman was on the call he was supposed to send it to the soccer game but instead he saw on a monitor that Arie had signed his card and was headed for Ralph so he sent it down to Mark instead producers were yelling they busted through their broadcast window this broke all kinds of rules but it was Arie and he got choked up and delivered an incredibly powerful moment well Mark it’s uh you know it’s been 40 years and uh when you walk up the 18th and uh you get an ovation like that [Applause] mark said it was chaos after the interview but the emotion of the moment hit him so hard that he took off his headset found a tree behind the 18th green and just started crying he’s still on the call this week and says he can’t believe how many people still bring up that interview which is a reminder of how much Arie meant to so many people i guess that uh says it all for every golfer in the entire world Arnold I want to thank you [Applause] [Music] [Music] anyway and what happened on the 48 it’s so uncharacteristic you picked the ball up without marking yeah probably one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done uh I just I picked the ball up had the ball in my hand turned around to Darren and he basically said to me “What what you doing?” And uh yeah I put it back down and marked it and played on and I knew it was going to get me i didn’t know it was going to be one or two but uh yeah like yeah by then maybe I was just my mind was somewhere else thank you i guess I would have expected to be in this position if you said even path through two rounds it’s just hard out there it’s hard to keep it going when guys have got on a run it seems like they’ve come back a bit so I’m playing old man parolf at the moment i’d be pretty proud of winning this thing on the weekend you know that’s right right now that’s really what I’m here to do and I feel like there’s probably not been many signs to anyone else but me the last month or six weeks that my game’s looking better but I I definitely feel more confident than I have been this year adam was saying you asked to him to give you a little pep talk earlier this week a little halts pep talk just wondering what he said to you how that and how’d that get you fired up yeah I mean he he knows I’m a pretty I wouldn’t say like feisty but I I get agitated pretty easily so um he told me that things aren’t going to go my way um it’s the US Open and you it’s more about how you respond than react and so uh I did a really good job of that the last two days and that that was kind of a nice little mantra to go by to kind of keep things in front of me and and not let let things unravel when when things didn’t go my way thanks JJ yep no problem what happened all right are we Are we going uh well it’s it’s Friday night in uh in Pittsburgh friday night at Oakmont and things have taken a turn for the worse um there’s I think five groups left on the golf course that still have to finish their second round so they’re going to have to come back first thing in the morning but there’s three guys under par this US Open is everything everyone hoped except for a few guys that missed the cut uh we’re talking the defending champ James Bryson Dashambo Neman who came in redot missed the cut by a bunch one guy who didn’t miss the cut Rory Mroy made it on basically by the skin of his teeth man he was in a bit of a mood skipped media again i think I’m a sick guy because I just can’t stop smiling and all I just watched for the last you know 12 hours were 5 and 1/2 hour rounds guys chopping it out of rough into bunkers making double bogeies the guys one guy’s 35 over par for two rounds i mean this was just carnage at Oakmont today uh can’t wait for two more days we said even par would be pretty good score at the start of the week still feels that way james I was talking to Andrew Novak a few minutes ago he played all right over the first couple days here he said “This is the hardest golf course I’ve ever played in my life.” He said “The scoring conditions today were perfect absolutely perfect.” And there are three guys in the field under par in the entire field like that is what this golf course is and even if it’s soft even if it’s a little soggy tomorrow it’s going to be really freaking good i was there as Phil finished up on 18 he had just doubled 17 chopped one from the rough into the bunker ended up three putting from 25 ft as first of all Brian Harmon slowplayed him for the record on 18 and uh as Phil was waiting to hit his birdie putt to make the cut there was literal thunder and lightning in the background we thought they were going to blow the horn right then and there they didn’t he just barely missed in some ways sort of a a tragic but fitting end to Phil Mickelson’s career potentially at the US Open so Phil Mickelson’s US Open exemptions ended today um he was given a few runway after winning the PGA Championship he earned a special exemption a few years ago um but now as far as things stand Phil is no more at the only major that he has not won um and yeah he left in like the most biblical fashion possible yeah it’s funny because Phil for a lot of his career has been compared to Arnold Palmer i mean the a golfer of the people it’s safe to say that his relationship with some golf fans has definitely changed in the last few years um but it really was a contrast we worked on this piece uh to come out earlier in the day that was about Arnold Palmer’s final US Open round ever uh the emotional interview he gave right afterwards then he went to the press tent he got a round of applause from the media which I’ve literally I’ve never seen happen um that’s a real contrast from Phil who yeah stumbled to the finish to miss the cut skipped media and you know was off in the parking lot and uh and out of here just a few minutes after after that last putt for park thank you Phil yeah I still love you i still love you Phil