What’s it like working on Phil Mickelson’s golf clubs?
Phil Mickelson is an enigma in many ways, but one of the major factors is his equipment.
On this week’s episode of GOLF’s “Fully Equipped,” Callaway Tour content manager Johnny Thompson sat down to tell some stories about his work with Mickelson. Johnny Thompson was Mickelson’s representative on tour when the six-time major champion was sponsored by Callaway.
Thompson said his first interaction with Mickelson was in 2011. In Thompson’s first year as the Callaway Odyssey putter representative at the Masters, Mickelson asked him to adjust the loft and position of his Model 8802 PM putter.
These putters are notoriously difficult to get into lofts and recliners, there aren’t many places to secure the putter, and Thompson accidentally let it slip and scratched it.
“I tried to put this thing into the fixture and apply enough pressure, but it slipped out of my fixture and scratched it,” Thompson said. “I mean, I was mortified.”
When he showed Mickelson the putter, Mickelson thankfully wasn’t bothered by the mistake.
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“He looked at it and said, ‘I didn’t even see it, anyway,'” Thompson recalled. “He was happy with it. So I thought, thank God.”
But Thompson’s favorite Mickelson story occurred later at the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston.
As Thompson describes it, after a fun, long night the day before the tournament, Thompson got a call the next morning from Mickelson’s caddy, Jim “Bones” McKay, a personal friend who had been his childhood nanny.
“He said, ‘Hey, can you see Phil on the green?’ and I thought, yeah, no problem,” Thompson said. “Walk over. He had a custom left-handed sabertooth belly putter in his bag. He was trying to figure out how to use the belly putter.
“He asked me all these questions about how to use the belly putter. I mean, I was in the deepest mental fog after a night out. I had to suck it up and try to answer all those questions.
“Finally we were like done and I was like, ‘Oh my God, what, what just happened? Like, I can’t believe I had to go through this and everything was going 100 percent.’
“But yeah, I watched him try it and I thought that’s how he used it, and he put it really bad.”
Fortunately, Mickelson didn’t blame Thompson for his performance on the greens, but Thompson said it was one of the most in-depth conversations he’s had with Thompson to date.
“That was the first time he ever asked me, like, what I thought about these things. It was the longest night I spent that year,” he said.
For more from Thompson and Everything Equipped co-hosts Johnny Wunder and Jake Morrow, listen to the full episode of GOLF’s Everything Equipped here or watch below.
Want to find the best putter for your game? Find a club fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.
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