Phil Mickelson and the Unmasking of America
What video and images from Sunday's major golf tournament reveal about the country's raging mask debate
(Photo Credit: CBS Sports)
There is a reason golf is on television every Sunday afternoon.
The serene, almost listless pace of the sport mirrors the physical and mental state of many of us at the tail end of busy spring weekends.
All I want to do is sink down in the La-Z-Boy, a glass of sustenance near by, slip into a half conscious state and listen to Jim Nantz whisper, “Dustin Johnson…this putt for a birdie and share of the lead…”
Perfectly pastoral.
But this past Sunday, at a South Carolina golf course by the banks of the Atlantic Ocean, the scene was anything but peaceful.
Phil Mickelson’s shocking victory in the PGA Championship had everything hard core golf fans could want—a popular yet aging legend discovering the fountain of youth for four days and winning one of golf’s four majors at the grand old age of 50 (“old”is a relative term but as it pertains to golf history…Mickelson is the first to win a major at after reaching the age of 50.) For casual and non-golf fans (I consider myself in the “casual” category along with most Americans) Sunday afternoon was must-see television, the images so riveting, plans for a short nap on the recliner scrapped as to not miss a single second.
What we saw live on our screens was a return to pre-Covid behavior—a massive, hysterical crowd, the thousands of fans at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort all going ape shit over the historical events unfolding in front of them.
And none of them wearing masks.
Thank you Phil Mickelson. He did more in one afternoon to move the mask debate forward than any policymaker has in months.
Mickelson’s dramatic victory, and the frenzied atmosphere surrounding it, became one of those rare touchstone moments that transcends sports.
Early Sunday evening, we had on our hands a purely cultural moment, refreshingly without judgment from the coronabro mainstream media cabal.
No admonishments on Twitter about the lack of “health and safety” concerns or sanctimonious, good-goody columns scolding the maskless folks down south for putting their lives and others as risk.
No rather, we were met with streams of streams of gratitude for the joyful noise coming through our television screens a few minutes after 6 p.m. (CDT) Sunday night.
Of all the dramatic images from Sunday, the masklessness, and the symbolism of it all, stood out above all else as we sit here in May of 2021.
Beginning next week and through the summer months of June and July, youth sports and outdoor camps take center stage across America.
This happens as Covid Hysteria, while waning slightly, remains firmly intact.
The mainstream media won’t let it go. Government agencies won’t let it go. Politicians won’t let it go. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer continues to embarrass herself, not by acting like a normal person and having drinks with girlfriends, but having to apologize for doing so because it violated her own draconian indoor dining rule.
(Upon hearing the news, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker was rumored to belch a muffled guffaw while sipping on mint juleps on the 10,000 square foot deck of his Florida estate.)
John Ziegler, a columnist for Medite, wrote this about the the state of Covid and masking:
Much of American life has not come close to returning to where it was in early 2020 (when, we now know Covid was already in the U.S., especially here in California, and hardly anyone noticed). Even the CDC’s rather tepid and, in my view, overdue loosening of masking requirements has seemingly been met with more criticism than praise, at least from the frighteningly large portion of the nation which seems to view their magical mask mandates as a child might feel about a security blanket being taken away.
If this ever really was about “science,” it very obviously no longer is. This bizarre “limbo” period we are now entering, where our deeply divided nation lives it two totally separate worlds, based on fundamentally different views of reality, with one’s position on mask-wearing symbolizing whether you think we are living in 2019, or in 2020, and if you are even aware that the Texas Rangers baseball team has been playing in front of regular home crowds with no known issues dictating your view of whether we grossly overreacted to all of this.
Ziegler is right about how the science “no longer is” a factor in behavior. We have enough data over a long enough time horizon to conclude how the states that locked down businesses, the districts that kept students away of in-person learning grossly miscalculated. The report card is clear. But we won’t get consensus because politicians, media members and regular citizens are holding onto Covid Hysteria for reasons other than science or facts.
That’s why Sunday’s golf tournament was so significant. Because the fan-generated viral videos were real. The images from South Carolina happened, not fake news edited to fit an anecdote-driven narrative. And no one gave a rip about Covid.
Not a peep from Mickelson or runner up Brooks Koepka, who whined about the crowd dinging up his balky knee, but not about the masklessness or vaccination status of the fans.
Most discussion of Covid around the PGA Championship on social media involved humorous punchlines:
I wrote last week about the insanity around masks in Illinois and the confusion about just whom, or what agency is in charge. I included how the May/June graduation season presents an opportunity for symbolic (and scientifically sound) action rejecting mask mandates.
Sunday’s PGA Championship, with millions watching, exhibits the power sports still holds in our culture. But a massive audience is not a prerequisite.
A local soccer camp. A small basketball league or tournament, a few dozen at a football clinic.
How gestures of solidarity, captured on video or in a still image, can sway public opinion far more than conjectural words buried in a policy pamphlet.
And while the politicization of Covid and mask wearing is not going away, sports can be an outlet to seize back the national conversation around the vitality of cheerful hysteria, of visceral human response to excellence.
Thank you again Phil Mickelson.
100% spot on. Sunday was one of those “moments” that crystallized where the public is on an issue. It lifted the veil to what’s really going on in the rest of the country - people are, by and large, living their lives. It should have been a moment that the media celebrates but it won’t because it doesn’t serve their brand of fear driven politics and it largely involved a demographic that they loathe - southern white males that play golf. It was a statement sports moment that seemed to represent the vast majority of the population a bit like Bush’s first pitch at Yankee Stadium during the 01 World Series.
BTW - if Whitmer was going to violate her Covid orders you would think she would pick someplace a bit nicer than the Landshark. Maybe she wanted to take advantage of the 2 for 1 body shot special.