Mickelsons ex-Team USA teammate lifts lid on his | Golf News

Phil Mickelson is nothing if not eccentric, from the best way he performs golf to the best way he views the world.

And Kevin Kisner skilled that first hand after they had been paired together at the 2017 Presidents Cup. The duo was shaped by Mickelson’s fascination with astrology, and Kisner was nothing short of baffled when he was requested to stick his stomach out in his enjoying associate’s direction to share his “A-plus energy.”

But captain Steve Stricker’s determination to trust Mickelson’s quirks paid off. The duo went unbeaten in their three matches en route to a dominant victory over the International workforce. These days, Mickelson has drifted into the shadows, enjoying just one LIV Golf event this season due to a household health matter.

But the 55-year-old left a lasting impression on Kisner when they represented Team USA 9 years in the past.

He explained on the ‘Fore Play Podcast’: “[In] 2017, we go to the President’s Cup, and they made us fill out surveys before you go, and it’s like, ‘Who would you like to play with on the team? Who would you not?’

“The only person I put I would not like to play with is Phil Mickelson because he drives it erratically and is hyper-emotional, and that’s just not how I play.

“I hit it straight, kind of do my thing. Wednesday, we get the course, and they’re like, ‘Kis, you, Phil, and whoever else are going to go out today.’ And I was like, ‘That’s weird.’

‘So we’re playing this practice round and on the third hole, Strick was our captain. He rides up and says, ‘Kis, you’re going out last tomorrow on alternate shot with Phil. You’re playing Mark Leishman and Jason Day.’

‘And I was like, ‘Dude, what? Literally all we’ve talked about all week is I’m not playing with Phil.’ He goes, ‘Well, he’s the veteran on the team, and he pretty much forced my hand that he was playing with you.’”

Kisner said Stricker told him the choice was based on observations from Mickelson’s astrologist, and the captain told Kisner: “He measures everybody on the team and you’re the only A-plus energy level.”

Kisner continued: “So I’m like, ‘OK?’ Phil doesn’t really say anything about it until we get ready to go. And he’s like, ‘Look, Kis, I can feed off your energy. So you get your energy from your belly. So every time I hit a shot, I want you to face me with your belly.’

“And I’m like, ‘What, what planet are we on?’ And so we go down there, and he’s like, ‘When I hit, I want you to stand on the other side of the ball and face me with your belly,’ so like I was moving people on tee boxes.

“I would have to go stand by this tee marker. And he’s like, ‘It even helps if you stick your belly out,’ so I’m sticking my belly out at Phil Mickelson, and man, he played unbelievable, so maybe there’s something to it.

“Shout out to his astrologist. So that’s where that celebration came from. The three Amigos where we had to bump bellies or whatever. After he won, he hit it like 20 feet. And as he’s walking up, he goes, when I make this can putt Kis, we’re doing the three Amigos dance, and he buried it right in the middle. And I jumped right in there. I was ready to go.”