Mickelson's Leave of Absence Casts Pall Over Eventful Week

Some weeks in sports, you aren't sure which way to turn your head because so many different things are going on. The past week was one of those: reality invading jock world while all sorts of intriguing stories unfolded on basketball courts, hockey rinks, baseball fields, golf courses and on the one race track that even non-racing fans care about.

The reality story is frightening: Last Tuesday, Phil Mickelson announced he would be taking an indefinite break from the PGA Tour to be with his wife Amy, who has been diagnosed with breast cancer. While cancer is no longer the death sentence it once was, anyone who has been touched by it in any way -- and that would be almost all of us -- knows it is a horrific thing to go through, regardless of the treatment regimen. But people do come out at the other end of the tunnel and go on to live complete and productive lives. The hope, of course, is that Amy Mickelson's cancer was found early, and she will be back following her husband on golf courses for years to come.

Phil Mickelson has always had an Eddie Haskell quality that occasionally makes his fellow pros cringe. He's image-conscious to the max and often seems to be answering questions as if he's Nuke LaLoosh under the tutelage of Crash Davis.

But there are two areas in which Mickelson's sincerity can't be questioned: his affinity for fans and his devotion to his family. Every day Mickelson is on site at a PGA Tour event, he carves out time to sign autographs -- not five minutes walking to or from the range, but a solid 45 minutes. Often when he finished a round, his conversation with caddie Jim McKay goes like this: "I need 30 minutes to eat and 45 minutes to sign. I'll meet you at the range in an hour and 15."

He's just as genuine about his family. While other players talk about how much they love being with their wife and kids, they jump at the chance to play overseas for appearance fees and in the off-season events with guaranteed money. Mickelson has rarely done either. He's left millions on the table to be at home with Amy and their three kids.

That's why you can bet he isn't going to be back on tour until he's absolutely certain that Amy is 100-percent healthy. In fact, he might not be back on tour until she's well enough to travel with him.

What is remarkable in all this are the number of people who have raised the question, "What will this do to the tour?" Here's the answer: Who cares?

The tour will still be there whenever Mickelson gets back, and the only concern anyone should have right now is for a young mother dealing with breast cancer. The rest is irrelevant.

There was a different kind of reality check on the women's tour last week. After 31 years, the Corning Classic, one of the LPGA's traditional stops, has gone away after too many sponsors pulled out this spring.

This is yet another reminder that the fallout from the economic crash is probably going to affect golf -- and other sports -- for years to come. Already, the PGA Tour has seen three title sponsors go away: Chrysler, FBR and Gin Sur Mer (which always sponsored a Champions Tour event). Wells Fargo took its name off the tournament in Charlotte while continuing to sponsor it after seeing the hammering that Northern Trust took during the tournament in Los Angeles in February. Buick has stopped paying Tiger Woods $7 million a year, and there are questions about the future of the Buick Open, which like the Corning event takes place in a relatively small town (Grand Blanc, Mich.) and has relied on the kindness of the community and local sponsors for years.

The LPGA is going to take hits too, and the loss of the event in upstate New York is a tough because the area supported the tournament remarkably well for so many years.

Of course, the tours go on. Rory Sabbatini, perhaps best known for getting fed up with Ben Crane's slow play when they were paired together four years ago and for declaring Tiger Woods vulnerable a couple years ago in Charlotte, won at the Byron Nelson Classic.