Charles Barkley thinks conditioning could decide whether Phil Mickelson is able to maintain his current lead and go on to capture the 87th PGA Championship.
“It’ll be interesting to see how [Mickelson] holds up this weekend as hot as it is out there,” Barkley said yesterday during an impromptu interview session in the media center at Baltusrol Golf Club. “That’s going to be very interesting.”
Mickelson, who takes a three-shot lead into today’s third round, has never been known as a workout fanatic, while the work ethic of Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh rivals someone preparing for a prize fight.
“If Phil worked as hard as Vijay and Tiger, it would be a flip-flop all the time,” said Barkley, a basketball analyst for TNT. “That’s how talented I think Phil is. If Phil wants to compete with Vijay and Tiger, he’s going to have to pick it up a level workout-wise. If he worked as hard as Vijay and Tiger, they’d all be right there together.”
Barkley has played plenty of golf with both and said Mickelson was “the most talented golfer I’ve every played with. But I’ve never seen anyone in sports work harder than Tiger.
“It’s no coincidence how well Vijay and Tiger are doing because they’re workout addicts. I’ve tried to work out with Tiger a couple of times and I personally think he’s crazy. He’ll hit balls for six or seven hours straight and that’s after running and lifting. There’s a reason Vijay and Tiger are [winning].”