April 10, 2006

I don't know that much about golf, but I do know a lot about personalities. Phil Mickelson has a laid-back personality and he doesn't get rattled. A lot of times fans want to see athletes react to situations. They want to see people moaning and groaning, crying when they make mistakes.

Mickelson is above that. That is why he has developed that winner's mentality, capturing three major tournaments over the last three years. People want to call you a failure if you don't win it all, come through in the big events and for a long time that monkey was on Mickelson's back. How sad is that, and that mentality exists now in the NCAA basketball tournament if you don't make the Final Four, or another example if a team fails to make the World Series. Many people acted like the Yankees had a horrible season because they didn't win the World Series in 2005.

You used to hear it with Bud Grant and the Vikings all the time when they fell short of the Super Bowl championship. The bottom line is not everyone is going to be number one, but how would you like to be the second or third best at what you do in life? How about being one of the top 10 doctors in America, that would be a pretty good feeling. The mentality is different in sports and I feel it is pathetic and sad that if you don't finish first you are often looked at like a failure.

I think athletes competing for championships, when they finish second or third, still have great work ethic. You don't just wake up one day and ask to be a great golfer and it happens. You have to go out and work at it and perspire. I know the phrase that genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. The more you work, the better you get. These competitors scrap and claw and they show emotions in different ways. There is nobody happy getting second when you want to finish first, but you sit back and realize that on a given day, someone was slightly better. When looking at the total picture, being second best in the world is still pretty good. Nobody is content with that but realistically it happens.

Mickelson never had to make excuses to anyone. He has been one of the elite golfers for a long time now, and never had to validate himself by winning a major. Now that he has gone on a roll winning three majors, he is in a different class in the way people look at him.

I feel there will be a rivalry between Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods as we move ahead. These two guys are winners.

I recently told a friend that Tiger is one of the classiest athletes I have ever met. I look at three athletes that I've met as being the total package: Peyton Manning, Derek Jeter and Tiger. Every student-athlete should have the attitude Manning has. They communicate well, live life to its fullest, are good, caring, compassionate people who don't forget where they came from.

A lot of guys forget where they came from.

For now, Mickelson is on top of the golf world as Masters champion, where he belongs. He has earned all the positives over the last few years, and he deserved a lot when he didn't get the green jacket. He has a great family and success in the sports world.

Dick Vitale coached the Pistons and the University of Detroit before broadcasting ESPN's first college basketball game in 1979. Send a question for Vitale for possible use on ESPNEWS.