Jim Mackay on Phil Mickelson, his vetoes and Seve’s dog
Jim Mackay – known lovingly to the world as “Bones” – has seen it all in golf. From years looping for Fred Couples and Phil Mickelson to his new role in commentary for NBC and Golf Channel, he recently shared some stories on Phil, how he used his precious vetoes, and a classic from Seve.
Jim Mackay, who got the nickname “Bones” from Fred Couples because Couples couldn’t remember his name, has moved on from the life of a PGA Tour caddie to the life of a roving NBC and Golf Channel reporter. As with all caddies, Bones has some stories he will tell and some he won’t. At the Arnold Palmer Invitational, he talked about Mickelson, his vetoes, and he told a surprise story about Seve Ballesteros.
For sure, Jim Mackay and his 25-year working relationship with Phil Mickelson will go down in golf history as one of the great player/caddie partnerships. Many marriages have not lasted that long. But they had time apart, too.
He summed it up this way: “The thing about caddieing is, you would see these guys from Tuesday to Sunday and then you go two, three weeks and not see them at all, and you don’t know what they’re up to when they’re home.”
So while Bones knows a lot about Mickelson on the golf course, he is not an expert on Lefty’s off course activities. But on course, nobody knows more. He likes Mickelson’s chances at Pebble Beach in this year’s U.S. Open, even though Lefty is deflecting his possibilities by saying it’s a completely different course that week.
“You know, the guy grew up on poa annua greens,” Bones explained. “When I caddied for him he almost never brought you in for a read on poa annua because he knows them so well. Phil’s got to be licking his chops.”
When it comes to talking about the length of time it took for Mickelson to win his first major, he also recalled something Tiger Woods had said about winning them.
"“Tiger had said in an interview — Phil used to talk about it a lot — that to win a major, two things have to happen. You have to play really well and you have to get lucky”"
In 2004 at the Masters, Mickelson finally did get a lucky break.
“He was playing the 13th hole on either Friday or Saturday there that week in 2004, and he hit a 4-iron into the green that over hooked and drifted down into Rae’s Creek,” Bones recalled.
Well, as Bones described it, there was an island of grass in the creek about two feet in diameter. Mickelson’s ball was sitting on it.
“He could hit a driver out of this lie it was so good,” Bones added. “He almost chipped it in for eagle. He made four, and we walked off there, and we were like, it’s our lucky break. And he went on to win.”
As most avid golf fans know, Jim Mackay always got one “veto” a year, which meant that he could stop Mickelson from hitting what Bones deemed a terrible percentage shot. At the 2002 British Open at Muirfield, Lefty landed in a bunker.
“We got down there and he had nothing because he was left-handed,” Bones explained. “And he takes out 6-iron and says, I’m going to hit it off my knees.”
That’s when Mackay tried to exercise his veto. He said they went back and forth about it for quite some time right there by the bunker.
Mickelson told him that the vetoes were only domestic and didn’t count overseas.
Bones said he filed a grievance, but since Mickelson was the veto commissioner, it fell on deaf ears.
What happened with the shot was that Mickelson hit it two fairways away and ended up taking a seven on the hole by making a 20-foot putt.
One very sentimental off course story happened after Mickelson won the 2010 Masters. The crucial shot that week came at the 13th, and it was the famous shot hit out of the pine straw.
“Seve was home watching on TV,” Bones said. “He had a new dog, and we were told this a few weeks later, that he was so blown away by that shot that Phil hit that he named his dog Phil after that shot.”
Ballesteros had brain cancer and died the following spring. It’s a sad story, but
Next. Phil Mickelson was in pure "Lefty" form early at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. dark
Jim Mackay has many more stories to tell, and if we are lucky, in the upcoming months and years, we’ll be treated to them.