Raise your hand if you recall the hoopla surrounding Phil Mickelson in the 1999 U.S. Open at Pinehurst, and the beeper he carried around with him in his golf bag.

The beeper was in Lefty’s bag that week so that his wife, Amy, could contact him if he went into labor with their first child (daughter Sophia).

According to a CNN/SI report at the time, “Mickelson wouldn’t think twice about leaving early.

“‘It’s not worth the tournament,’ he said. ‘As important as the U.S. Open is to me and every other player in the field, this is the birth of my first child. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. This is an exciting time for me.’”

Did Tiger have a beeper at the Open this year? If so, he did a superb job of keeping mum about it. As one of our astute readers pointed out on Ron Mon’s blog, it is possible that Tiger’s apparent two-shot loss of concentration resulting in his fatal final round double-bogey could have resulted from nerves upon hearing that Elin had gone into labor.

Maybe the conversation between Steve Williams and soon-to-be daddy Woods went something like this:

Steve: Wow–tough break on that approach. I think it rolled all the way to the bottom of the chipping area.

Tiger: @(#*$*$%*!

Steve: And to make matters worse, your beeper just went off. Elin’s in labor.

Tiger: #&$^%*@*+@&$!!

Steve: Just calm down, stud. She says the doc tells her it’ll take a good 12 hours for the baby to come. Cocentrate! See how Bads bumped his ball into the hill and got it close? Show him how the best in the world does it. Do it for the baby!

Tiger: $&%*#&@#^@*$!!!

Steve: Um, ok. Everyone blades a pitch now and then. No problem, though. The lie isn’t great, but chipping a ball out of the rough isn’t as hard pushing a baby out of your hoo-hah, right?…Oops…

Tiger: #&@^%!(*&^#!!!!

Steve: Maybe I’ll just keep my bleeding mouth shut…

Tiger: $#%@#&@%$&*#^!!!!!

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