"I have come to understand and appreciate writers much more recently since I started working on a book last fall. Before that, I thought golf writers got up every morning, played a round of golf, had lunch, showed up for our last three holes and then went to dinner"
About this Quote
Phil Mickelson’s joke lands because it’s a confession disguised as a roast. He’s poking fun at golf writers, but the real target is his own old, cozy fantasy: that the people who narrate his sport are basically on a perpetual country-club day pass. The punchline works on misdirection - you expect a complaint about media, and you get a surprisingly human admission of ignorance, delivered with the timing of someone who’s spent decades understanding how stories are built around him.
The context matters: Mickelson is an athlete whose public life has been curated, scrutinized, and frequently mythologized. When he says he started appreciating writers only after working on a book, he’s acknowledging a power shift. Athletes often assume the narrative is theirs by default; the writing process reveals the unglamorous part - structure, revision, fact-checking, and the quiet labor of making a compelling arc out of scattered moments. It’s the same work sports fans rarely see, because the finished product reads like it was effortless.
Subtextually, he’s also signaling a desire to be taken seriously as an author, or at least as a collaborator in his own mythology. The line about “our last three holes” is telling: he imagined writers parachuting in for the climactic moments, not the long stretches of waiting, travel, and observation that actually produce insight. In an era where athletes increasingly bypass journalists with podcasts and social media, Mickelson’s quip feels almost old-fashioned - a grudging respect for the craft of interpretation.
The context matters: Mickelson is an athlete whose public life has been curated, scrutinized, and frequently mythologized. When he says he started appreciating writers only after working on a book, he’s acknowledging a power shift. Athletes often assume the narrative is theirs by default; the writing process reveals the unglamorous part - structure, revision, fact-checking, and the quiet labor of making a compelling arc out of scattered moments. It’s the same work sports fans rarely see, because the finished product reads like it was effortless.
Subtextually, he’s also signaling a desire to be taken seriously as an author, or at least as a collaborator in his own mythology. The line about “our last three holes” is telling: he imagined writers parachuting in for the climactic moments, not the long stretches of waiting, travel, and observation that actually produce insight. In an era where athletes increasingly bypass journalists with podcasts and social media, Mickelson’s quip feels almost old-fashioned - a grudging respect for the craft of interpretation.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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