Mickelson Can Be “Annoying Friend” Per Barkley

Noted hacker Charles Barkley teed off on friend Phil Mickelson at the American Century Championship’s media day. Barkley joked about his relationship with Lefty, per msn.com:  “Phil Mickelson is a great friend of mine. I've known him a long time, him and (his wife) Amy. They're awesome. But Phil is that annoying friend. When you ask him a question, instead of answering your question ‑‑ like, if you said, hey, what's the weather like, he says, you want the humidity, the barometric pressure, the high and low for the day. No, man, I just want the damn weather. Tell me what the temperature is right now.” Said Barkley.

Sir Charles continued discussing Phil’s propensity to analyze everything: “So, even though as great a guy he is when you ask him a question, it's like, yo, what do you think of this putt? Well, it's down grain, it's into the grain, it's going to pull towards the valley. Yo, man, just tell me where to hit the putt. I ain't got time to be analyzing down grain, up grain. It's pulling toward the valley."

The always jovial Barkley, who retired from the NBA after the 2000 season, was thrilled to see his good friend win last month’s PGA Championship at age 50: “I was so happy for him. Nobody saw that coming," Barkley said. "There was a reason nobody has ever won a major. He hadn't won in a bunch of years. And it was incredible, especially to go head‑to‑head with Brooks (Koepka). People were concentrating so much on Phil being 50, they're like, yo, man, he stood on the first tee with Brooks Koepka, who is probably the most intimidating player out there right now. And for him to hold his own against Brooks, you've got to be, like, not only was he 50, he stood up to Brooks. So that was pretty impressive."

Last November, the good friends defeated Peyton Manning and Steph Curry in The Match III. Mickelson will again take part in the latest installment of The Match when he teams with Tom Brady. The pair will face off against Aaron Rodgers and Bryson DeChambeau on July 6th. This time around, Barkley will have to watch his annoying friend from home.